My Dragon thread- and PSUs; WTF??

[VeeKaChu]

Got this case for Xmas- didn't really know what else to ask for this year, and my son, an avid enthusiast himself, has been bugging me to prettify my rig...

http://www.veekachu.com/images/case01.jpg

The thing that sold me was the removable mobo tray.

http://www.veekachu.com/images/case02.jpg

It built up nice and easy, though the tooless design feature needs some work- it was useless for the adapter installation- any graphics card with a rail, e.g. my GF 6800 needs to be screwed in, and defeats the whole thing.

Now about PSUs- the one in this case blew out on the 3rd day. Not wishing to dissassemble and return the case, I called MGE and verified that I could RMA just the PSU, and then went out and bought a new one. Upon removing it, I discovered that the installed PSU was a 400W, when it should've been 500W (they've assured me they'll ship the correct one).

But my point is this; I've had more PSUs fail than any other component in my PCs. I'm sure that I've replaced at least a half-dozen in the last three years (including in my son's and wife's PCs). Do I just have really bad luck, or do you guys that own/build a lot of PCs have similar problems?

Oh, and right when I put in the new PSU the included front fan failed, and I then had to removed the entire front fairing to get at it. This was a lot easier that I originally anticipated though. The fan was included in the RMA, along with a long letter detailing all my issues, including the faxt that the box was marked as "black" and the case itself is the limited edition Midnight Blue, whch was supposed to be exlusive to NewEgg. I don't mind that, but it is another discrepancy. I'm interested to see if they'll take any extra effort to mollify me...

[thrash_head]

Nice, that's a pretty cool case. Although, I'm not a huge fan of "flashy" cases with all of the lights and such. I like the removable tray, it makes a huge difference when you can work on all of your parts and then just stick the tray back in. About the PSU.. I never trust most PSU's that come with cases unless its antec or thermaltake. I've gone through 3 builds and I've yet to have a problem with any of the "cheep" PSU's that come with them. 2 thermaltake 430w PSU's, and 1 ASPIRE 400w PSU and they still work today. Make sure your behind a power surge, i had a client and his house had shitty electricity and he kept frying PSU's.

[spin]

yeah just make sure you stick to good brands.
antec, ocz, forton, PCP&C are all good brands. i, as well as others, frown upon thermaltake. they have psus that are comparable to aspire, which are generally crap.

[ass*assassin]

But my point is this; I've had more PSUs fail than any other component in my PCs. I'm sure that I've replaced at least a half-dozen in the last three years (including in my son's and wife's PCs). Do I just have really bad luck, or do you guys that own/build a lot of PCs have similar problems?

PSU's are the number one major failure I see too.. The thing is, the ones that don't fail are MINE, cause I put GOOD ones in my systems.. that is why they cost more.. Seriously though, PSU's are a major problem, because many of the major manufacturers put in PSU's that they are gambling are going to make it to the end of their warranty period. Any of the el cheapo systems sold thru major retailers, I can guarantee you that they are severely under-rated for serious gamers or anyone that is going to use them in an office environment, that is 8-10 hours a day/5 days a week type of usage..

Second on my list is Hard Disks.. just because.. they just mechanically fail, and Maxtor has had the biggest rate of failures of any that I see..

third is modems.. (lightning damage)

Fourth, Ethernet connections (lightning again)

[Zogo]

I've never had a PSU die in 10+ years.

do you have bad/instable power at your house? I get a surge every once in a while..that's why I have a batteryback/protector between the power and the PC.

[VeeKaChu]

They're all in surge protectors; I'm leaning more towards it being a procession of cheap parts. Probably all the blown ones were either 'bundled' with cases or legacy items in castoff workstations from work...

[bergenhell]

ban veek!














sounds like chinesey parts got you down homie, splurge for a good psu

[VeeKaChu]

I got one of these, though I was also looking at the Antecs.

http://www.webhelp.org/jonnyguru/PSU/X2-550W/X2-550W.html

The thing that swayed me was the nicer cables on the Ultra- the Antecs *are* modular now, but the included cables are still the typical 'loose-wire' type and don't look any different than the old hard-wired bundles. Apparently Ultra improved the cables from the original "X-connect" series somewhat. However the 24-pin main cable consisted of two flat 12-wire "straps" which were still quite bulky, and I ended up ripping them down and stuffing them into 2 1/2-in split tubes.

[Janus]

I haven't heard much about the new xconnects, but the originals were probably some of the worst modulars. I hope that they improved it for you.