What are the chances of a PSU destroying computer parts?

[Matteo De Vellis]

If I had a somewhat bad power supply like a corsair cx series and something bad were to happen to it would it destory one of the parts it's powering? And can the motherboard detect and prevent this?

 

[smorizio]

the cx line does have some safty in it. not like a cheaper unit if it pops it can take out a mb. on the cx line most time one of the rails fails and your pc just wont boot. most times it the 12v cpu and gpu rail. if you have a power good led on the mb you see this by a blinking led.

 

[rolli59]

There are PSU's out there with no protection at all, at least the Corsair CX does have protection and is unlikely to kill components just die itself. It is getting a lot of bad rep but is an OK PSU when not stressed in a high end gaming system or with massive overclocks.

 

[Matteo De Vellis]

the cx line does have some safty in it. not like a cheaper unit if it pops it can take out a mb. on the cx line most time one of the rails fails and your pc just wont boot. most times it the 12v cpu and gpu rail. if you have a power good led on the mb you see this by a blinking led.

so, if the psu were to die while the system was on, the system would just turn off and nothing else would happen?

 

[rolli59]

That is the most likely scenario but you never know since protection can fail as well.