NorthQ what a PSU...
 

Not... :(

Well, we all know (Or many of the informed) that these PSU's are pretty damn good at going "Boom!". And this of all times is the worst time to discover my girlfriends PC is running with one of them, her specs are as follows:

Intel Pentium D 805 2,66Ghzx2
2 x 512Mb Corsair XMS2 PC2-800 and 2 x 512Mb Corsair ValueRAM PC2-533, both running at PC2-540 @ 4-4-4-12 @ 1,9v.
Asus P5ND2-SLI motherboard
Inno3D GeForce 6600 256Mb w/ my custom cooling (Pics on request)
320Gb HDD
NEC ND-3550A DVD burner.
Win XP Pro SP2 "WinBorg" Edition.
Anywho, it was all run with a 400w NorthQ PSU, that apparently was one of the cheapest available at the time.

I told her they went Boom when i discovered this 2 weeks ago, when i spotted it, but a year and a few months it had lasted and we thought no more of it...
Until two days ago.

You remember the game "Trackmania: Nations"? Well, it's not exactly the most taxing of games really, it was set at 1280x1024 at pretty much max settings, ran pretty well.
Ok, i'll gewt to the point, we'd just made a fantastic track to challenge us both (as we had been doing all day) and the PSU went Boom :cry:

Now, she starts the equivalent of college on Monday, with a ton of homework and coursework no doubt, and i don't have the money to replace the PSU i blew up (The GFX card had a modest overclock to 400 on core, and 295(590) on memory. IT had been running fine for the 3 weeks prior to this).
I've now had to get "The Antiquity" up to date for her to use, which is an old machine she had lying around and i feel so guilty at this point.

My warning is this: Stay the F&% away from cheap PSU's if you don't want problems.

At this point we're not sure what has been taken out with it as we have no spare powerful enough to try with. "The Antiquity" has a small 200w PSU with 6A on the main rail... Nowhere near powerful enough.

The Antiquity's Specs:
Intel P3 500Mhz
128Mb PC133 SD-RAM
9Gb HDD
Intel Riva TNT2 Graphics card.
And of course, a CD drive...

I feel bad :( So bad...
Oh, and to make it worse, the PC in my sig will not be with me for at least another 6 - 8 weeks.

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

I used to buy cheap PSU's at one time and learned the hard way processor/memory and board fried and two days after replacing them the dam monitor went down just my luck.

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

Don't beat yourself up - you had spotted the dodgy item and warned her about it. A decent 400W PSU would be more than enough for that system so a good gaming session is not what blew it up - it was NorthQ's cheap components/design/manufacturing that was to blame.

If your budget is limited you could do much worse than get an Antec Earthwatts PSU.

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

Thansk for the advice mate, those PSU's are excellent value for the price, and the 2x 12V lines are actually only one 12v line delivering 34A overall, which is amazing for such a decent price.

We'll be going with the 500W version i think, for future upgrade of graphics etc. (No SLI or CrossFire here, even though we could).

Were you aware that seasonic actually manufacture them? Here's a decent review of it: http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=51

Found it for 631NOK + postage here, which is about £53.50

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

I've a elcheapo 400watt lying about I'm not sure wether it works but im sure you could shove it in and see if it powered yours up.

Pm me if your interested.

Alternatively for a cheap new one
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=123&subcat=

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

Druch, I've got a reasonable trust PSU laying round here...but if my memory serves me correctly you are in Norway nowadays so postage is going to be a bstrd. if you want it drop me a line matey

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

I'm afraid the postage would be a killer on it, but i really do appreciate both your offers :)

Still waiting for my money to be transferred to here, which is annoying, but when it is, i'll see if i can get a local shop to get the Antec in for me since i can't order online here for at least another month or so :(

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

Interesting, I didn't know that but it's not really a surprise: there are very few companies that actually make PSUs and as Antec have always had a good rep it's a fair bet they would be sourcing some of their products from Seasonic. Here's hoping your local shop can get one for a reasonable price :)

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

Still no response from them, but i did email in English, so, maybe if there is no response by tomorrow i'll ask in Norwegian... Through my fantastic translator "The Girlfriend".

Still, it made me smile when i found that review, Seasonic are the 2nd best PSU's i've ever seen, with Zippy coming first :)

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

PC Power & Cooling FTW!!! :)

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

I'd put them a reasonable 3rd.

Anywho, still not got a PSU yet for that machine :(

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

Cheapo PSUs are a false economy, as Druchii's tale of woe proves.

Every review I've read of a PC Power & Cooling PSU rated them as the best. Admittedly, they may be more expensive than most other PSUs, but how many other brands do a comprehensive test of every unit & include a detailed report of the test results with the PSU?

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

PC Power & Cooling FTW!!! :)

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

Ouch! Now that i was not aware of!

Well, all things said and done, there was a sale on a Revoltec PSU locally, should of been 936NOK, got it for 468 :)

It's a Revoltec RPS-450V2 (450w, modular). It's rated like this:
+3.3v - 28A
+5v - 34A
+12v - 27A
-12v - 0.8A
-5v - 0.5A
+5VSB - 2.5A

All in all pretty good, and hopefully it'll stand up to this 3.6Ghz CPU, and the overclocked graphics card.
Oh, and it's very quiet!

Re: NorthQ what a PSU...
 

I read about Single Rail PSU's by accident, being unaware of the spin about Multi Rail PSU's it made me think about my next PSU when I upgraded a couple of months ago, hence the reason I settled for the PC Power & Cooling PSU as it's one of the few Single Rail PSU's around and got good reviews on nearly all the review sites that had reviewed it, "Overall it's a KICK ASS PRODUCT" as one reviewer says, some relation to Delboy I think :)

I did check out the Silverstone Decathlon 750w, again Single Rail, but a few reviews and forums mentioned they whine when under load so didn't fancy that, having a wife or girfriend doing the same whining when they are under load is more than enough!

I just hope your new PSU doesn't give you any more trouble!