hello everyone i got one simple questoin. What happens wen a power supply fials, does it ruin parts, just shut off, of will i see smoke. Main reason im asking is becuase im running ALOT OF STUFF off of a small 400 watt cheapy powr supply, im running 8 fans (not including cpu/videocard) 6 lights. 2 hard drives ,4 sticks 512 mb ram, 8-10 usb ports, ati radeon x850 pro 256 mb, amd athlon 3500+ @ 2.7 ghz.

My voltages jump alot so do my fan rpms. They can go anywer from 2200 to 2380rpm.

SO bassically should i get a new power supply. I have enough money to get good one so if any of u have any suggestions they would be much appreciated thanks.

Im not sure what happens but i would say go with Antec PSU's or with Turbo Cool The 510 Watt Model

YES you should get a new one. Or at least if you value your hardware at all you should. Your power supply should be one of those things you really splurge on (imo) when you upgrade or build a computer.

If your PSU fails, just like any complex machine, it could fail in any number of ways, but probably the most common way you would notice it has failed is that the machine would simply not start up.

As to what PSU to get, what size you need, etc... the fine folks here have come up with a nice calculator feature to help you decide what you need. http://files.pcapex.com/details.php?file=19

Please take a couple of moments and read some of our PSU reviews to help you decide which features are beneficial, which aren't, and who we recommend.

Quote: Originally Posted by bikeboy541 hello everyone i got one simple questoin. What happens wen a power supply fials, does it ruin parts, just shut off, of will i see smoke. Main reason im asking is becuase im running ALOT OF STUFF off of a small 400 watt cheapy powr supply, im running 8 fans (not including cpu/videocard) 6 lights. 2 hard drives ,4 sticks 512 mb ram, 8-10 usb ports, ati radeon x850 pro 256 mb, amd athlon 3500+ @ 2.7 ghz. My voltages jump alot so do my fan rpms. They can go anywer from 2200 to 2380rpm. SO bassically should i get a new power supply. I have enough money to get good one so if any of u have any suggestions they would be much appreciated thanks.

My first question would be - how do you measure your voltages? If you are not using a voltmeter, but rather relying on the motherboard sensors you should be aware of the fact that they are not accurate at all. On my old P3 intel board the sensors reported my 12V as 11.5V.

If you are looking for a new PSU you can use my PSU shopping guide.

that is true, its not very accurate. But who cares about accuracy wen u no that it really just isnt enough. Well you guys have convinced me ill be getting this tommorow. Tell me wat u think.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...Z%20Technology

I lost 3 hard drives due to a bad PSU......

ANYTHING can happen.

I had a system with an underspec PSU, and it would run fine except that it would shut itself off after about 20 minutes of heavy load. I had to downclock the CPU to 50 percent speed to get the power demands low enough for reliable operation.

The ol' random crash is common too, lockup, BSOD, random shutdown or reboot.

Another system, the PSU started "ticking" (while OFF!) and then sparked, taking out my old video card with it.

see thtas my delema, ive never had anything wierd or shut downs ever, All fans are fine i have my cpu overclocked to 2.7ghz from 2.2ghz all fans turn to full rpm from speed fan and fan mates, and even wen i run my logitech g15 keyboard with all the lights and my logitech mx518 mouse, all lights on inside the heat of the power supply isnt that bad even wen playing games, mainly source. So thats y i dont no if i would be throwing money down the drain. I Just dont wnat to buy somthing i dont really need at this point is wat im saying.

i forgot to mention the power supply in ther right now is an icute atx 400w

Here's my thoughts on a PSU...........
I believe it was mentioned in a eariler post............Having a brain fart right now.

The PSU is the heart of the computer and is the most important component of the pc.

There are two catagories when it comes down to psu's......Quality and low cost.

Quality is of course exactly what it means. Your buying a unit that's made with quality components and built-in safety features. Which of course quality parts / features = more cost. With that in mind your buying insurance on reliability. Of course even the top brands do put out a small percentage of lemons. What can you say.....this isnt a perfect world where everything is 100% perfect. So everyone will have a bias'd opinion on what they think is good or bad by their own personal experience.

Low cost is again exactly what it means. Your buying a unit that was made with cheaper lower end components and may not include any failsafe features.

Cheaper cost to produce = overall a cheaper retail cost.

These units have a much higher failure rate as opposed to quality unit. That's not to say that every low cost power supply is going to fail but, your taking a greater risk by using one. As i mentioned eariler reliability and insurance are the key words.

Both quality and low cost units do what their intended to do. Supply power to the pc's components. Keep in mind a quality unit will output better stable voltages than a low cost unit.

Now taking all that's been said into consideration.......

Which power supply would you want to run your pc........Quality or low cost? The choice is yours......
As for power supplies failing........Yes it can damage parts in your pc no matter if its quality or not. It's really dependant on what component failed in the psu. If i had to make a guess you'd have a 50/50 chance the psu will or will not take out other components in the pc.

As for your current psu with all your attached devices. I would recommend going with a power supply that can output more than 400 watts. Considering the majority of low cost power supplies dont output the max of what it says on the sticker. You could be overworking your psu and by doing that will cause it to prematurely fail with your current setup.

It's always good rule of thumb when buying a new psu to have more power than what's needed. The power supply itself will only send the power the pc needs. So if you have a 400 watt and your system requires 300. The psu will only supply 300 watts with 100 watts left to power more devices if needed.

Here's a linky to a psu calculator.....plug in your hardware and it will tell you what you need. You could even plug in future upgrades to see if it can handle it if you wanna upgrade.

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

Also, think of it this way if you go with a higher watt psu. You could re-use it on your next upgrade since it will need more power to run these new components than your old ones.

I do hope this helps and makes sense..........

TC
Rockin'male

LIke they all said, anything goes. It could go quietly in it's sleep like the elderly or take much of your gear down with it.