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BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium,MVM
join:2000-01-13
Beaverton, OR
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to RR Conductor
Re: Why you don't use cheap/budget PSU's in your PC
Back in the days of standard 300w, and minimal power requirement it wasn't a huge deal, however with all these powerful video cards these days many people don't realize how important it is. You really don't want to have some faux brown out conditions fry your computer, or have an under performing psu.
I've seen where a psu actually failed in a unit, it seemed like it was completely different problem, simply a computer was just restarting on it's own. We thought it was a software problem at first, but after not one event log/bsod it turned out to be a dying psu with it's fan still working. All of mine always had their fan die before they died, and replacing the fan usually is just a pain in the butt the way they design them, but I always keep one old psu around which likely has no cooling fan for emergencies.
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
 ·Comcast
| What's scary is those sparks could easily start a fire, imagine if you aren't at home and come home to find your home no longer there  That last one in the video sounds like a gunshot, I am surprised those things aren't declared fire hazards and sent back.
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BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium,MVM
join:2000-01-13
Beaverton, OR
·Verizon FIOS
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| True, but those sparks would usually be contained inside the psu itself since it has a metal case. Then all you have are some boards, silicon, metal, and insulated wires which are resistant to fire. It however likely still is possible to set fire to the insulated wires, and through the motherboard to cause components to likely smoke. Unless the psu was really screwed up, it would take quite a bit of current to be ran through those wires to cause them to ignite, and possibly set fire to the components, however brown out conditions don't even approach this scenario. Even then, the psu should be connected to a grounded plug anyway.
I just don't see a fire getting out of the case unless some spark were actually to escape the case, and land on some paper, however even carpeting is partially fire resistant from something as short lived as a spark.
I see the fire hazard minimal, but there is a real possibility of frying your hardware with a bad psu. I've seen a system fried in brown out conditions, the video card still worked luckily, the drives were still accessible, however one or more of the motherboard components no longer functioned so everything on the mobo itself was considered dead, along with that psu was trashed.
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My hourly rates:
$25 per hour.
$35 per hour if you want to watch.
$45 per hour if you want to help.
$75 per hour if you tried to fix it, and failed.
$125 per hour if you called tech support, and didn't fix the issue while making things worse | |
cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
| reply to RR Conductor
said by RR Conductor  :What's scary is those sparks could easily start a fire Not really. They have fuses for overcurrent protection and are usually built in such a way that once the magic smoke is released, they aren't going to continue to spark. They are also inside of a metal box so unless you have something sticking inside of them, a normal spark isn't going to be long enough or hot enough to ignite anything that should be found in the power supply.
Corsair is right in that cheap power supplies often have problems and they won't live up to their listed ratings, but that is the case with just about everything. And just because you buy a "quality name brand" doesn't necessarily mean that you are buying better then what you might get far cheaper with an off brand either. See references to Monster, Bose, etc... | |
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