An interesting note about power supplies

[mahuti]

Hey all, I just thought I'd drop this tidbit by you all.

Since I built my cabinet and got it 'finished' it's been plagued by crashes. I just assumed it was my outrageously bad behavior with the pc I'm using. MANY timew when I would be playing a game, the screen would start rolling really fast so that I couldn't read what was going on, if I hit the escape key It might 'reset' the screen. Often, though, it just locked up completely at the same time.

I just assumed it was a bad combination of video card, bad wiring, etc.

The other day I overloaded & tripped the breaker that runs the section of the house with the cabinet... Killed the power supply. I put a  new one in, and BAM problems solved.

The old power supply was about 7 years old. 250 watts. The new one is over 300 watts, and I haven't had a problem yet.

I've never heard of crashes due to a bad (or underpowered) power supply, but that is the ONLY difference in configuration, and everything's working much better. Come to think of it, I only really noticed the thing crashing a lot after I installed the optipac (1 of 2 USB devices) And I noticed the crashes more on hot days. A power problem had occured to me, but it just seemed rediculous.

I'm sure this type of problem is rare, but it was definitely a problem for me.

[isugoat]

it's not really that rare.  there are good & bad brands of power supplies for a reason...the bad brands don't have as reliable current, more fluxuations.  and sometimes they're even out of spec.  too much or too little power will mess with all your components which = problems.
good brands to look for are ones like antec & sparkle.  deer is a notoriously bad brand.

[SirPeale]

I've never heard of crashes due to a bad (or underpowered) power supply, but that is the ONLY difference in configuration, and everything's working much better. Come to think of it, I only really noticed the thing crashing a lot after I installed the optipac (1 of 2 USB devices) And I noticed the crashes more on hot days. A power problem had occured to me, but it just seemed rediculous.

I'm sure this type of problem is rare, but it was definitely a problem for me.

Not rare @ all.  If fact, you should consider the power supply the most important piece of equipment in your system.  Without it, nothing else will run.

I hope when you got the upgrade it was a decent power supply (something from Antec or PowerMax) and not some cheap POS like Deer.

[Ken Layton]

No matter what brand you have be sure to keep that fan clean.

[Nailz]

I've had problems when using crappy power supplies in the past as well.  You don't need a top of the line, but you shouldn't skimp either.  RAM is another thing to not get cheap on.....

Glad things are working better for you now, the last cheap power supply I had, went bad on me and killed my mobo, RAM, sound card, video card, and cd-rom, no kidding......

[DrewKaree]

To add to this, it's DEFINITELY a common thing.  I'll add another manufacturer I've never had problems with, Enermax.  Definitely true that you don't NEED a top of the line PS, but the quality of the unit will make all the difference in the world when you are troubleshooting a bad pc.

Just as an experiment for yourself, lest a person think everyone saying it DOES make a difference...head down to your local computer shop.  Ask them for their cheapest power supply, and one of the power supplies recommended above.  GENERALLY, the better power supply will be the heavier unit.  Why, you ask?  Better heatsink, beefier coil, name the part, they use a better version which usually has more mass which contributes to the reliability of the unit.  

p.s. Unless you know who makes the power supply that came with your super-hot,phatty phat case, get one of the better ones and swap it out.  If you've done ANY searching and wondered why they sell cases without a power supply.....this thread is why.  Some manufacturers can barely do one thing well, much less two things.  That's why they usually stick to what they know best and leave the "accessories" to someone else.

[paigeoliver]

Actually the best (cleanest power, etc) power supplies are linear ones, and not switched mode ones as universally used on modern pcs.

Too bad I gave away my spare rebuilt Cinematronics one and my spare clean working Midway 8080 class power supply. I would have loved to see if they could have ran a modern PC.

[PaulG]

Absolutely about the replies.  The power supply and the motherboard are the 2 least sexy things in a computer, but they're definety the foundation for everything.  A lousy PS or buggy mobo will make your computer unstable forever.

[paigeoliver]

Amen, and a GOOD motherboard will extend the service life of your computer for years longer than a shoddy one. That is because you can often make up for shortcomings via stuff that plugs into it. Buying top of the line stuff for your motherboard is expensive when it is new, but a few years later buying top of the line "for that motherboard" is really cheap.

Like imagine you bought a new compaq some years back. Congrats, you have a piece of junk with all onboard stuff that won't take a processor faster than 233 and maxes out at 128 MB of 486 style edo ram (I used to have one like that).


Or, imagine that you bought an actual decent super 7 motherboard. That same computer could now be chugging along quite happily with a 500 mhz k6, 512 MB of ram, an awesome video card (well, awesome for the computer, putting a current top of the line model in that computer would be idiocy, but a $10 Voodoo3 in a 500 mhz computer rocks the house), an awesome $10 soundblaster live card (ebay again), and the biggest hard drive you can afford (which can always be transferred to another computer later).

[krick]

I had a system that I swore had a defective hard drive.  It turned out to be a weak power supply that wasn't able to keep proper voltage levels during heavy drive activity.

Fortron FSP power supplies are well made, low priced units.
They are also sold under the Verax name.  Verax is Fortron's distributor.

Check out these articles at Tom's Hardware...
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20021021/index.html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20040122/index.html

I wholeheartedly recommend this model...
Fortron 300W FSP300-60ATV ATX P4
http://store.yahoo.com/directron/fsp30060atv.html
For $27, you can't go wrong.

I have one in each of the three computers in my house.

...
Krick