PSU's burning out :(

[Thundersmash]

In last week or so ive had 2 psu burn out one was 400watt other was 450watt.

when first one burned out i figured that it was comming (the psu fan had been maken some noise)

but only day or so later 2nd one fryed, when i poped the cases on both of them the larger coils had fryed and blackend.

been chatting with som mates and no one seems to have good idea whats causing it, i checked my house power seemed fine.

system specs
P4 3.2ghz
2gig kingston ram 512x4
ATI x800 256 pci express
Asus P5DGC
200 gig westdigi sata HDD

Let me know anything else might need to know, kinda outta my legue on this one.
Thanks

 

[fishmahn]

What were the brands of the 2 PSUs that blew? Also the voltage rails on the side - specifically the 12v, but give 5 & 3.3 too since you're doing it.

Cheap PSUs can be easily overwhelmed by newer systems.

Mike.

 

[Thundersmash]

first PSU was Thermaltake that came in the TT case
400w, peak load 500w,
+5v 28A
+3.3v 20A
+12v 17A

2nd one was generic from my local store PLE
ATX-450w
+5v 20A
+3.3C 20A
+12v 10A

They both blew while i was playen eq2, but not sure if that matters, the thermal take had been in for almost 12months before it blew then the next one only like day i installed it.

 

[fishmahn]

The generic one is a "no wonder it blew". Those have to be some of the worst stats I've ever seen on a 450w PSU. A current P4 system needs at least 16-18A on the 12v line, and that would be stressing it. For a while, Intel had specced 2 12v lines, each with 15A+ for their CPUs (turned out 2 12v's didn't do anything for stability, so their next spec said 1 12v line was ok, but amperage needed to be higher).

Don't know about the TT except that your system does put a big load on the 12v line, and the fact that it lasted a year means it probably was a bit overloaded and the PSU finally gave up.

Get a real PSU - Antec (TruePower is best, though other lines are ok), Fortron Source, Enermax, OCZ, a few others. Make sure you have at least 400W or so, and minimum 18A on the 12v, over 20 may be better (or 2 12v lines > 16A each). Should cost $50 or so (450w Fortron is 49.99@newegg).

Mike.

 

[Rugger]

Do you have a link to that article/post about dual 12V lines? I thought i saved it, but couldn't find it...

 

[fishmahn]

I did a quick search and came up empty too - I'll look harder... I'm sure I saw that somewhere... just can't remember where

Mike.

 

[Rugger]

I think I saved it at the house....will look there and post it if i can find it....

 

[Thundersmash]

Thanks for the info guys ill have a look at getting better psu and see where that takes me. Though its been working for sometime with the gear in it.
nly major change in 12 months was when i chucked the new vid card in, and ive been playen 3d games most of the times. i know eq2 is a hog when comes to system resources but could system really be tryin to draw more power to supply the vid card than the psu's could handle?

 

[Rugger]

Yes.

 

[Rugger]

Found it

 

[fishmahn]

Thanks. That was it.

Mike.

 

[Crashman]

Your first power supply may have overheated. Your second one was trash.

Even if your second power supply would have been rated at 600W, it might have still blown. You can't put any faith in a company without a reputation to stand behind.

I'd go with a Fortron Source 500W power supply, FSP power supplies generally tend to last around 10 years, although someone will remember a bad batch of 300W units they produced once a while back (might have been 350W).