PSU Suggestions?

I'm starting to get a little ........ed. When I built my new computer this past christmas, I put a fairly cheap 550W XPower PSU in it. Not surprisingly, it burnt up in about 2 months. So I replaced it with a Thermaltake 480W PSU that appeared to be working great...

So I go on vacation this past weekend, turning my PC off for about 4 days straight. I came home last nite, plugged everything back in, and powered up. It booted into Windows and was up for about 10 seconds when it just shut off for no reason whatsoever. Many attempts after this to power it back up resulted in nothing. The mobo lights were on, it had enough power to show the watt usage on the panel that came with the PSU, and it even spun the fans just slightly whenever I pushed the power button... but alas, it would not come back to life.

So now I'm on my 3rd PSU in less than 6 months. Does anyone have any good suggestions? In the meantime, I'm using an industrial 510W PSU from work (the one that gets all the high marks in all the PC gamer mags). I think I may end up just keeping this one and buying work a replacement. My only beef is that it is loud (I used one before when the first PSU died).

Here's my specs if anyone is curious and can tell me why I might be burning up PSUs:

3.4 GHz P4
1GB PC3200 DDR
2 SATA 120 GB HDs
1 12x CD burner
1 6x DVD player
128mb Geforce 6600 PCIe vid card
SATA Raid card
2 x 120mm fans

Everything else is onboard (sound, network).

:(

I suggest either antec or thermaltake when it comes to PSUs. Don't worry about the wattage as much as finding a PSU with stable rails, especially the 12v.

The the sticker you can find the rails and what they have. Make sure the +3.3, +5, and the +12v have over 30 each, or something around that number. The +12 is the most important, that is what will have the most load on it. A PSU without stable rails is like turning your comp on and off really really fast, it can damage parts in your computer and won't perform nearly as well as a PSU with stable rails. PSUs with good rails can beat PSUs with more watts when it comes to performance, so always check the rails.

And all that should be in the specs?

Not always, you can look at the sticker on the PSU itself, some sites will have this. Newegg most often will either have it in the specs or show you the sticker on the side of the PSU.

I really don't think you should have gone through either of those 2 psu's....and since I'm guessing you don't have any cold cathodes or the like, methinks there's something wrong with your houses wiring (or even a substation, but that's pushing it).

But why wouldn't the wiring eat my wife's PSU or even the PSU from my old PC? I'm personally going to chalk it up to a low amperage 12V rail. The thermaltake I just toasted only had a 18A rail and the one I had before that was just a POS that I only paid 25 bucks for.

Anywho, I'm going with this one: http://www.pcpowercooling.com/produc...hp?show=S47ATX

Looks good to me, company also seems good. I don't see anything wrong with it, heck id buy from them as well.

Why don't ya go for that 850W PSU...cmon man $500 for a PSU!!

>>thermaltake I just toasted only had a 18A rail

my server has a 350w sparkle-power psu with about the same 12v rail running 4 ide hdd's, 2 ide roms, 6 scsi drives, and 2 120mm fans (one of which is 200+cfm)...maybe i'm just 1337 ?

>>maybe i'm just 1337 ?

Apparently ;)

>>Why don't ya go for that 850W PSU...cmon man $500 for a PSU!!

Seriously... that's crazy. And PC Power and Cooling is a great company and they really know their stuff.

I think it's worth it, you just need to find a good molex adapter to plug your fridge into....