in high spec pc building....

DONT SKIMP BY BUYING A CHEAPASS POWER SUPPLY..

and dont forget to buy a new one with any major upgrade...

i didnt..

ive been using a 550w one ive had for a couple of years now with my athlon XP. it was a medium range jobbie.. cost more than the cheap ones, but was still cheaper than a decent one.

anyway.. theres a slight possibility that this PSU could have had a part to play with my old atlon XP machine going bang. because it takes some hammering really... 6 hdds, 2 optical devices and the raddy 9700pro at the time.

anyway, since i got my new rig, ive been noticing fluctuations in voltage to the core, and occasionally a hdd not being detected on bootup (it would stall trying to spin up)

came to my pc this eve. to find it was off (i usually leave it on) powered it up.... fans and hdds spun up but nothing.

turns out im 99% sure that one of the rails has blown on my psu.. unfortunately i also think its possibly taken some other components with it... either the CPU or mobo for sure.

ill know more tomorrow... but the lesson is, if your building a powerful PC.. spend AT LEAST

Yes one to note Col, certainly. Sorry to hear that. If it helps, I've had good experiences with the range QuietPC sell, and the Enermax range in general.

It's something DIY builders can easily skimp on, especially if they're buying a £30 case with PSU. It's quite hard convincing someone to chuck something that's included, and pay double what they did for the case, on something they had to start with!!!

I've also found my 300w QuietPC PSU to be far more stable and capable than all the so-called 400-500w ones they seem to chuck into entry to mid cases these days.

Steve

Got a good one with my 3500+ Spec'd by a system builder too.

Sorry to hear of your loss (that sounds so awful) but if its a lesson to others, then there's no greater message than when it happens to someone as evidence.

Got a good one with my 3500+ Spec'd by a system builder too.

Sorry to hear of your loss (that sounds so awful) but if its a lesson to others' date=' then there's no greater message than when it happens to someone as evidence. [/quote']

how do you know its a good one? what make is it?

Yes one to note Col, certainly. Sorry to hear that. If it helps, I've had good experiences with the range QuietPC sell, and the Enermax range in general.

It's something DIY builders can easily skimp on, especially if they're buying a

You sound like you need a case with space for 2 PSUs Col - a bit like the InWin Q500 I'm getting rid of

Enough room for everything in there. Not flash, granted, but solid and dependable.

This reminds me, must get round to posting in 'For Sale' about it, or throwing it to the lions on eBay

Steve

I like the new modular type you can buy - just plug in the bits you need and chuck the rest out - nice and tidy case.

Around

Those do look good Tom, I admit - not used one myself though, so can't comment on the actual quality of the PSU. Good idea though....

Steve

Those do look good Tom' date=' I admit - not used one myself though, so can't comment on the actual quality of the PSU. Good idea though....

Steve[/quote']

I've just finished building my friends PC - he gets a new mobo, processor and graphics card annually. . It is excellent quality, and I was genuinely impressed. Top idea.

I have learned this the hard way too. Now I always use quality PSU's saves a lot of hassle in the lomg run.

For my 64x2 that I've just built I've used a seasonic 600w jobbie -- bloody thing ways a tonne , but would appear to be very high quality and has every connection that's going !!

Fluffmeister himself spec'd my PSU. Plus I'm safe in that I'm not running the earth inside it. Just one HDD, one CD and the system.

The big problem seems to be that the requirements per 'rail' have changed over time. I've got several 300W PSUs that happy drove a P3/P4 system but wouldnt do AMD and vv.

One of my systems had/has a 550W Enermax PSU in it driving a dual AMD K7 board with 2G ECC registered DDR and 4 HDDs in R5 plus optical. It gave up the ghost a few months back - now bought a 600ish W job.

As for the HDDs - the 12V rail will get a right kicking with 6 HDDs, massive peak currents on startup. If you are in any way able to get a staggered startup then go for that - it will save your PSU. It may even be worth just setting the startup delay to a few seconds, so most things can stabilise.

If the core voltage fluctates it's definitely time to upgrade that PSU. From the number of HDDs you're mentioning thoug it may be better to get a second PSU to power those and use a relay system to slave-drive that PSU. That way you get a nice clean feed to mobo + other stuff, and keep both PSUs at a reasonable load level

I once went down the route of big watts = better. Never again. Always go for big names.

I like the new modular type you can buy - just plug in the bits you need and chuck the rest out - nice and tidy case.

Around

Mwahahaha.. back up and running now, luckily the PSU wasnt cheap enough to have no overload protection.. so no other damage.

now got a nice 600w enermax liberty... the modular thing is a godsend and my voltages are holding higher and more stable... am also clocking higher too, now runnning 2.6 at stock voltage:thumbup:

My PSU is Enermax too. Nice to know its a reliable brand.

My PSU is Enermax too. Nice to know its a reliable brand.

Historically... eg before the old athlon 64 came along.. Enermax were the daddys for PSUs.. and such commanded a hefty price..

now theres quite a few contenders.. seasonic, thermaltake, tagan etc.. but a good example of "quality".. this psu cost me best part of