PSU Toast

[Gorrillasnot]

My brother-in-law called me this morning and said when he pressed the power button on his PC it made 2 loud popping sounds and now no lights or fans work. He also said there is a burnt smell coming from the PSU. I told him it sounds to me like the PSU went out.
He said he was going to ship the PC to me and have me replace the PSU.
What would be a decent PSU in the $30-$50 price range?

His PC is not OC'ed and he doesn't game.

Here is the specs of his PC:
Aspire X-Dreamer II Case
Enlight EN-8420934 420W PSU
Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Newcastle 2.2GHz CPU
Patriot Extreme Performance 1x512MB PC3200 2-3-2-5
WD 74GB Raptor
LITE-ON SOHC-5232K DVD/CDRW Combo
Sony 16X DVD Burner
Apollo A5200 Geforce FX5200 128MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card
ALPS 1.44MB Floppy Drive

thanks

 

[darklordbri]

hopefully none of the other components got fried when the PSU went

 

[pkme2]

Good Thermaltake

Better Fortron

 

[Gorrillasnot]

Yea I hope nothing else got fried too. I've got a spare generic 350W PSU that I plan to hook up to test with, before I order anything.

pkme2, I noticed that Fortron has Dual +12V. Doe's that mean I would need to hook half of the peripherals up to 12V1 and the other half up to 12V2? If so are they marked?

thanks

 

[smthmlk]

Originally posted by: pkme2

Better Fortron

For the price range, I would also recommend this Fortron unit. However, if the budget could be upped by about $10 or $15 you could have access to a whole array of better psu's, such as the Seasonic S12-330, $59+$7.64, etc.

 

[raildogg]

Originally posted by: phatTweaker
Yea I hope nothing else got fried too. I've got a spare generic 350W PSU that I plan to hook up to test with, before I order anything.

pkme2, I noticed that Fortron has Dual +12V. Doe's that mean I would need to hook half of the peripherals up to 12V1 and the other half up to 12V2? If so are they marked?

thanks

I believe its just one single 12V rail that is split. There is just one main connector for the motherboard. Both rails come from the same source I believe.

 

[raildogg]

Originally posted by: smthmlk

Originally posted by: pkme2

Better Fortron

For the price range, I would also recommend this Fortron unit. However, if the budget could be upped by about $10 or $15 you could have access to a whole array of better psu's, such as the Seasonic S12-330, $59+$7.64, etc.

Actually, I'm sorry, but why overpay for that Seasonic? For more silence? The Fortron units are not that loud either. It was only recently that everybody here recommended Fotron to every user and now it seems Seasonic has taken the place of Fortron. Seems like most people here believe that Seasonic is best for everybody in every situation. Not all people have the same needs.

I do understand that Seasonic makes good products.

 

[acegazda]

I have heard from many users here that fortron slacked off when they made the "ax" series of psus. I think the better choice perhaps is the seasonic, for it reliability, however I definetly don't think the fortron will die on you, I think the depreciation curve is slightly higher though.

 

[raildogg]

Originally posted by: acegazda
I have heard from many users here that fortron slacked off when they made the "ax" series of psus. I think the better choice perhaps is the seasonic, for it reliability, however I definetly don't think the fortron will die on you, I think the depreciation curve is slightly higher though.

I bet those "many" users heard that same thing from other "users". Again, Seasonic ... oh well.

I guess they should make a sticky where it mentions Seasonic as the standard PSU for everybody, no matter the needs of the user.

 

[acegazda]

Originally posted by: raildogg

Originally posted by: acegazda
I have heard from many users here that fortron slacked off when they made the "ax" series of psus. I think the better choice perhaps is the seasonic, for it reliability, however I definetly don't think the fortron will die on you, I think the depreciation curve is slightly higher though.

I bet those "many" users heard that same thing from other "users". Again, Seasonic ... oh well.

I guess they should make a sticky where it mentions Seasonic as the standard PSU for everybody, no matter the needs of the user.

Yeah, except I actually have a valid response
FSP has many factories, like 3 or 4. The "ax" series happens to be made at a factory where cheaper components are used, the PCB is cheaper, etc. Fortron uses capXcon capacitors in their epsilon series, of very good quality, but they downgrade for most other series.
Personally, I believe there is a "best" psu for every rig, so putting a seasonic sticky would be a bad idea.

 

[Gorrillasnot]

Looking at the reviews on that Thermaltake it seems some have had bad luck with it failing. I'll probably go with that Fortron.
Speaking of the Fortron does anyone know if it will clear the fan in the top of an X-Dreamer II case?
The reason I ask is I had clearance problems on another PC I built using a CoolMax PSU and the X-Dreamer II case.

thanks

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: phatTweaker
Speaking of the Fortron does anyone know if it will clear the fan in the top of an X-Dreamer II case?
The reason I ask is I had clearance problems on another PC I built using a CoolMax PSU and the X-Dreamer II case.

I've got a different Aspire case, the X-Infinity. Common issue for Aspire: you need to remove the top case fan to install or remove the PSU, then screw the fan back in again. I have the Fortron, and the fan needed to be removed, so the answer to your question is probably...yes.

 

[Slugbait]

I mean, the answer is NO. Jeez, two cups of coffee so far, and I'm still not awake...

 

[thescreensavers]

you used a bad psu to begin with. get a forton if you dont got a lot of money and seasonic if u gots some

 

[Jahee]

its probably just the fuse??

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: pkme2
Better Fortron

:thumbsup:

 

[smthmlk]

Originally posted by: raildogg
Actually, I'm sorry, but why overpay for that Seasonic? For more silence? The Fortron units are not that loud either. It was only recently that everybody here recommended Fotron to every user and now it seems Seasonic has taken the place of Fortron. Seems like most people here believe that Seasonic is best for everybody in every situation. Not all people have the same needs.

Originally posted by: raildogg
I bet those "many" users heard that same thing from other "users". Again, Seasonic ... oh well.

I guess they should make a sticky where it mentions Seasonic as the standard PSU for everybody, no matter the needs of the user.

In my first post in this topic I mentioned the seasonic as a specific example of the array of better psu's available if the OP could expand his budget by $10-15. This array includes great models from Enermax, Enhance, and even Fortron themselves with the FSP400-60THN-R. Finding a really great psu in the $30-50 range is somewhat difficult, but if you up the budget a bit more, then your options become plentiful across a variety of proven PSU manufacturers whom I've already mentioned. Just trying to raise awareness of this to the OP.

Maybe go back and re-read my first post again, noting that in the first sentence I specifically recommended the AX400 that was put forth by another member.

Originally posted by: phatTweaker
pkme2, I noticed that Fortron has Dual +12V. Doe's that mean I would need to hook half of the peripherals up to 12V1 and the other half up to 12V2? If so are they marked?

Have a read through jonnyGURU's Power Supply Thread. The 12V1 and 12V2 rails are not marked, and you merely hook everything up as you would normally. See the thread or other sources for more information about how dual 12v rails work.

After re-reading the original post, and seeing that the guy doesn't game or OC with his computer, I would probably recommend the FSP350-60BN-S, $35+$6.83.

 

[Gorrillasnot]

My brother-in-law's PC was delivered today and it looks like when the PSU blew it took out the rest of the system.
I hooked up a known working CoolMax 550W PSU and hit the power button. The power light on the motherboard lit up, all the fans spun, but no beeps, and no POST.
I then reseated the RAM and video card thinking they possibly got jarred loose during shipping, but it didn't help.
The last thing I tried was I unhooked everything from the motherboard then removed it from the case and tried to fire it up on my workbench with just the video card, RAM, CPU, HSF, keyboard, and mouse. The CPU fan would spin, but no POST.
I also tried uninstalling the AGP video card and installing a known working PCI video card and it still would not POST.

I don't have any other socket 754 motherboard or CPU to use to test.

Do you think the motherboard is bad or the CPU?

At this point I guess my only option is to take the CPU, motherboard, and RAM to a PC repair shop and have them test it.

thanks and I appreciate any ideas or advice