Before Making a Thread About Buying a PSU....

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ickywu said:
I don't think ANY other psu fails as spectacularly as a PowMax. About two months ago, for example, a couple guys I work with turned off their systems in preperation for a big storm. After the storm, when they turned back on, they both lost motherboard, video card and hard disk when their PowMax's failed. One guy needed the data on his disk badly, so we had to hunt down a drive with the same series controller. They sure spent whatever they originally saved on the Powmax a bunch of times over.

Just warning people away from PowMax psu's justifies this whole thread!
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Anyone who trust their PC to a POS PSU is a fool! :p
 
beowulf7 said:
A reputable surge protector (e.g. APC) would've prevented his computer getting fried by the lightning strike.
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All the systems were OFF during the storm. No surge was involved, just PowMax quality.
 
ickywu said:
All the systems were OFF during the storm. No surge was involved, just PowMax quality.
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I agree that a bad PSU sucks. But other than that, even if an electronic equipment was turned off, the very fact that it's connected to an outlet makes it susceptible to an electrical surge. That's where a good surge protector or UPS takes the bullet(s) for the electrical stuff.
 
beowulf7 said:
I agree that a bad PSU sucks. But other than that, even if an electronic equipment was turned off, the very fact that it's connected to an outlet makes it susceptible to an electrical surge. That's where a good surge protector or UPS takes the bullet(s) for the electrical stuff.
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CORRECT!

If not fully protected, always unplugg everything including phone & ethernet cables. ;)
 
beowulf7 said:
I agree that a bad PSU sucks. But other than that, even if an electronic equipment was turned off, the very fact that it's connected to an outlet makes it susceptible to an electrical surge. That's where a good surge protector or UPS takes the bullet(s) for the electrical stuff.
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LOL! I knew someone would feel compelled to make that point. Geez. I was just trying to make a point about how crummy the PowMax psu's are, not write a book.

A total of about 45 systems were involved in these two places. Because the storm was expected over the weeked (and neither place was going to be operating above the "watchman" level) they were all shut down. This means every system was shut down and UNPLUGGED from the wall! Standard procedure. (I'm in south Louisiana, we have an idea how to prepare for storms. Except in N.O., I guess) When operating normally every one of these systrems are protected by Transtector spike choppers and some systems by sine wave type ups's where appropriate. chuckle. Not the little APC switchover type from Office Depot with like 4ms switch time to protect against a spike that looks like a square wave with a ZERO rise time leading edge. We are talking about facilities on acres of flat ground with structural steel.arangements several stories high smack dab in the middle. Make your APC smell like bacon, you know? The normal arrangements are ok to take care of regular ripple in the 4160, but not a lightning storm.

AFTER the storm, all the units were plugged back in. The failures that resulted when they were turned on had NOTHING to do with ups's, surge protectors, lightning strikes or anything else covered in "wireplant 101" Just inrush failure from crummy power supplies.

Now, if you think you can take a PowMax and make it good to go with surge protectors or ups's, well, I wish you the best of luck...
 
ickywu said:
LOL! I knew someone would feel compelled to make that point. Geez. I was just trying to make a point about how crummy the PowMax psu's are, not write a book.

A total of about 45 systems were involved in these two places. Because the storm was expected over the weeked (and neither place was going to be operating above the "watchman" level) they were all shut down. This means every system was shut down and UNPLUGGED from the wall! Standard procedure. (I'm in south Louisiana, we have an idea how to prepare for storms. Except in N.O., I guess) When operating normally every one of these systrems are protected by Transtector spike choppers and some systems by sine wave type ups's where appropriate. chuckle. Not the little APC switchover type from Office Depot with like 4ms switch time to protect against a spike that looks like a square wave with a ZERO rise time leading edge. We are talking about facilities on acres of flat ground with structural steel.arangements several stories high smack dab in the middle. Make your APC smell like bacon, you know? The normal arrangements are ok to take care of regular ripple in the 4160, but not a lightning storm.

AFTER the storm, all the units were plugged back in. The failures that resulted when they were turned on had NOTHING to do with ups's, surge protectors, lightning strikes or anything else covered in "wireplant 101" Just inrush failure from crummy power supplies.

Now, if you think you can take a PowMax and make it good to go with surge protectors or ups's, well, I wish you the best of luck...
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I now see how your PCs are/were set up. What confused me (and others, I'm sure) is you said:
"I don't think ANY other psu fails as spectacularly as a PowMax. About two months ago, for example, a couple guys I work with turned off their systems in preperation for a big storm. After the storm, when they turned back on, they both lost motherboard, video card and hard disk when their PowMax's failed."

That implies you turned off the PCs but not disconnected their respective power cables. I now see that you unplugged the power cables as well. Nowhere did I say to use PowMax or any other cheap PSU for that matter. I'm just saying no matter how good one's PSU is, if it's plugged directly to a wall and the outlet doesn't have proper surge protection, the computer can fry (or certain components of it).
 
will someone please clarify something for me.

evga states that i need a minimum 400watt psu with 12v@26a. now the antec true power II 430 watt has dual 12v@17a. so do i add those 2 amp ratings? will this psu be ok for my sys? thanks.
 
Err I need help. Im going to put a 7800GT and 3700 sandy on a biostar micro board. With a coolermaster 350W PSU that only has 16A on the +12. Think it will hold up or blow up?
 
PhillipC said:
Err I need help. Im going to put a 7800GT and 3700 sandy on a biostar micro board. With a coolermaster 350W PSU that only has 16A on the +12. Think it will hold up or blow up?
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I'd want at least 20A on the +12V rail for your setup.
 
I brought the antec smartpower 2.0 350 watts and I wanted to know if my computer can handle it very well. If not should I upgrade to more watts. Also if the smartpower the best antec powersupply or a different model of the antec is.

Here is my system info
Motherboard - gigabyte 7VRXP
Processor - AMD Athlon 2000
Memory - 512mb 2100 ddr ram
Video Card - 128 Radeon 9700 pro
Sound card - Sound Blaster Gamer
Hard Drive - 80gb Maxtor 7200 rpm
 
while the smartpower is not the top of the line of the antec range, it is more than adequate for your computer.
 
With that I am going to lock this thread. Topics such as this would better be adressed with individual threads.

computerpro3: Any changes you wanto to make to the thread PM me and I will open it up so you can.
 
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