Power Supply Units

Originally Posted by Lister of Smeg

Generic PSU's often don't fail safe. That is, when that day arrives (probably sooner than later) when the generic PSU fails/stops working, it will take out the hardware components with it. So again, this is just another reason to purchase a good quality PSU.

again you are totally you talk in absolutes and that is seriously showing you have not got a clue

a psu "might" not "will" take out other componants but in 11 years of building and repairing computers of all the "cheap" blown psus I have seen perhaps 1 or 2 have done other damage. "Most" cheap blown psus do no other damage so please stop talking tosh

I tell ya what I do see a lot of though. Extra damage caused cuz the user listens to people who think they know what they are doing

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by ooogemaflop

again you are totally you talk in absolutes and that is seriously showing you have not got a clue

a psu "might" not "will" take out other componants but in 11 years of building and repairing computers of all the "cheap" blown psus I have seen perhaps 1 or 2 have done other damage. "Most" cheap blown psus do no other damage so please stop talking tosh

I tell ya what I do see a lot of though. Extra damage caused cuz the user listens to people who think they know what they are doing

Wow 2 threads with a similar subject about PSU's but I know who's advice I would go with and it would be yours as you know your stuff.

[ThunderPants73]

Hi again guys,

Looks like I stirred it up quite a bit dunnit? I have eventually plumped for a 430w Corsair from ebuyer. It has all the connectors I need (and a few that I don't, like 4 x SATA, I only have 1 SATA HDD) and the required 24 pin thingymabob, and joy of joys, a 6 pin PCI-E. Looking back now, my mate gave me his old 512mb graphics card and that required me to use 2 x molex connectors 'cos I didn't have a 6 pin jobbydoodoo, so maybe that was sucking a bit more power than the Dead Thing could handle.
Anyway, many many thanks for all the info and advice. You have always been, and shall always be my one-stop help shop.

By the way, I'm a she.

Originally Posted by ThunderPants73

Hi again guys,

Looks like I stirred it up quite a bit dunnit? I have eventually plumped for a 430w Corsair from ebuyer. It has all the connectors I need (and a few that I don't, like 4 x SATA, I only have 1 SATA HDD) and the required 24 pin thingymabob, and joy of joys, a 6 pin PCI-E. Looking back now, my mate gave me his old 512mb graphics card and that required me to use 2 x molex connectors 'cos I didn't have a 6 pin jobbydoodoo, so maybe that was sucking a bit more power than the Dead Thing could handle.
Anyway, many many thanks for all the info and advice. You have always been, and shall always be my one-stop help shop.

By the way, I'm a she.

I knew lol

[Lister of Smeg]

Originally Posted by ooogemaflop

again you are totally you talk in absolutes and that is seriously showing you have not got a clue

a psu "might" not "will" take out other componants but in 11 years of building and repairing computers of all the "cheap" blown psus I have seen perhaps 1 or 2 have done other damage. "Most" cheap blown psus do no other damage so please stop talking tosh

I tell ya what I do see a lot of though. Extra damage caused cuz the user listens to people who think they know what they are doing

What kinda of a joker are you. If a PSU failed without any anti static fail-safe (like most tagan's have) the current runs all through the rest of the bits in your case and can potentially fry your machine. Look it up, am not bullsh*tting you!

your changing tha ball park again. In one post you deal in an absolute saying it will cause damage and then now you say it can potentially fry your machine. Thats 2 different things

I do not agree that a cheap failing psu will harm a system
I will agree with the fact that a failing( cheap or not) psu could potentially. Make your mind up which it is

[Lister of Smeg]

Originally Posted by ooogemaflop

your changing tha ball park again. In one post you deal in an absolute saying it will cause damage and then now you say it can potentially fry your machine. Thats 2 different things

I do not agree that a cheap failing psu will harm a system
I will agree with the fact that a failing( cheap or not) psu could potentially. Make your mind up which it is

The difference between a good PSU and a poor one include the way it protects itself (and the equipment connected to it) in the event of a fault. A good one will monitor the output voltage, and the current drawn, and shut itself down in the event of a fault, hopefully in time to prevent damage to the components it is powering. These fail safe mechanisms require more complex ccts, and testing, which is one reason why they cost a little more.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Lister of Smeg

The difference between a good PSU and a poor one include the way it protects itself (and the equipment connected to it) in the event of a fault. A good one will monitor the output voltage, and the current drawn, and shut itself down in the event of a fault, hopefully in time to prevent damage to the components it is powering. These fail safe mechanisms require more complex ccts, and testing, which is one reason why they cost a little more.

But no one is going to buy a state of the art PSU for an old machine unless they have money to burn as it makes no sense as you could buy a working computer for those kind of prices.

[Halcyon]

Originally Posted by ThunderPants73

By the way, I'm a she.

Ooh, Hello.
How are you?

Originally Posted by Lister of Smeg

What kinda of a joker are you. If a PSU failed without any anti static fail-safe (like most tagan's have) the current runs all through the rest of the bits in your case and can potentially fry your machine. Look it up, am not bullsh*tting you!

PSU's can be a mixed bag. I've used Tagan and had them blow up on me after a year with leaking caps.
And then I've had real rubbish cheap ones go on for a few years.
Currently I am on Seasonic and so far they've been good but if it was for a cheap system then I would go for anything if you arent bothered about the hardware.

[ThunderPants73]

Hehehe, I'm fine Halcyon.

I'm getting a little worried now, with all the talk of frying........ please stop talking about frying....

[qasdfdsaq]

Fried eggs in the morning?

Anyhow, I've got to agree with ooogemaflop. Of all the cheap PSU's I've come across very few have failed and none have caused any damage as a result of failing. Hell, even the cheapest one I have - a £7 I bought 7 years ago is still running fine

[Gavin78]

Just go to pc world they sell you a cheap brand for about £80 and then offer to install it for about £70

Thats engineers for you!!!!

[bonzoe]

Originally Posted by ThunderPants73

Hi again guys,

Looks like I stirred it up quite a bit dunnit? I have eventually plumped for a 430w Corsair from ebuyer. It has all the connectors I need (and a few that I don't, like 4 x SATA, I only have 1 SATA HDD) and the required 24 pin thingymabob, and joy of joys, a 6 pin PCI-E. Looking back now, my mate gave me his old 512mb graphics card and that required me to use 2 x molex connectors 'cos I didn't have a 6 pin jobbydoodoo, so maybe that was sucking a bit more power than the Dead Thing could handle.
Anyway, many many thanks for all the info and advice. You have always been, and shall always be my one-stop help shop.

By the way, I'm a she.

I bought one of those instead of unbranded cheap one as in the past, 1st one lasted 2 weeks...........hoping replacement lasts at least as long as previous cheap unbranded ones. It is very quiet though!

[Matth]

What was the 250W, because if it was an Emachines system with a 250W BestTec, they were notorious for taking out the motherboard when they failed.

The other worry with a 250W - is it standard size, as 300W has been pretty much standard for the "anonymous grey metal box" for as long as I can remember, except for smaller format or those awful BestTecs.

PS. The CX430 seems pretty decent, though criticized as not actually as good as the previous CX400 model.
JG has the specs & test
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...Story&reid=214

Another word of caution when replacing older units with modern, units from the era of "12V main power" will not satisfactorily run systems that had the main load on the 5V, but they are pretty old now.
Also, -5V was deleted from the ATX specification (Optional in ATX1.2, prohibited in 1.3 - 2003) - older boards may require the -5V, though in the main it was to support ISA slots.

[slowcoach]

First off, since a few years ago all psu's available for sale in Europe have had to have circuit protection to protect the other hardware in the event of failure.

I have been using Win Power in my builds for years, I used to buy the best but found them noisy when under stress, the Win Power's are quiet and remain quiet.
I have the 850 watt model in my current rig which has an AMD 6 core, 8Gb Ram and 4 SATA drives, my case has 6 large fans.
The system is running 2 websites 24/7, running Linux for everyday use and Windows 2003 Server under VirtualBox for my software development, this system replaced 2 seperate machines which ran 24/7 for years with Win Power 550 watt psu's.
The main difference I found was that the expensive psu's had slightly longer leads and more connectors.

I bought 2 very expensive Corsair memory sticks with a lifetime warranty, both were slow and failed within 2 years, I replaced them with cheap memory sticks which had much more capacity and ran faster and they are still running 4 years later.
Price is what the seller thinks he can get, most things cost nothing to produce in comparison to the price charged.