Relative noob with a question..

Ok ok haze me for my first post so we can get that out of the way now... *hides*


Anyways, I had a question regarding power supplies and one manufacturer in particular. Having gone through the forum here for awhile looking for suggestions, ideas and answers to questions I have had, one thing that stands out to me is the absence of Aspire in almost everything on this forum.. Is there a reason for that?

The reason I am asking is due to my having had one of their PSU's in my current case for about a year or so now with absolutely no issues. I picked up a 550w from an online retailer about a year ago and last weekend I decided to rework my entire case, in the process of rerouting cables, cleaning out dust and hacking out portions of the MB tray and case, I noticed something slightly interesting. Evidently the PSU snuck through QA with some hot glue having run down and obstructing the fan from turning. After cleaning out the glue I reassembled the system and once I coaxed the fan into action it worked just fine. My system has run stable (5 Hard drives, 1 CD/DVD burner, 1 5600 ultra all running on a Gigabyte P4 board) for over a year without the PSU being cooled by anything other then the other fans (5 80mm)in the case.

Well thanks for falling asleep I mean reading my post/question, now wake up and go back to browsing the web err I mean working.

Aspire is not what I would consider a high-performance or high-quality brand. That's basically why you don't hear about it on the forum. That's pretty amazing your machine ran with a passive-cooled power supply. You must have some good air flow, most systems would have random lock-ups with the power supply overheating.

You are pretty lucky I can tell you that.

I also did something pretty stupid to my power supply. I was testing out my pump and some fans and I had the PSU out of the case and on the floor. It ran for almost 24 hours with the single 120mm fan facing the floor. I mean it was getting NO airflow at all. But hey, I guess I am lucky, it is still working great to this day.

Was your PSU dual-fan? If not, and if it was single fan... that is pretty cool to be honest! I'm REALLY surprised it lasted without a fan...

By the way,

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!

Odd that they arent considered a very good brand. Personally I have had better performance (life and stability) out of this Aspire then I have out of any Antec that I have ever had.

I originally went at the case last weekend to try to track down and remove a high whine that I assumed was due to restricted airflow (stock punched steel grills) or dust. Come to find out that the two free 40Gb drives I use as my main drives (smaller= less chance of me losing anything important since I have to clean them off routinely) are just overly loud.

Now the system is up to a total of 7 80mm fans with a blower attached directly to my 6600GT that loves to run hot. Instead of screaming it is now just the very audible sound of air being moved around.

gimme a second and I will give a link to a review of the exact model of PSU that I had (no it was a single fan 120mm)

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/aspire_chameleon_psu.php

there is the exact PSU that I have.

I guess the holes for ventilation are what kept it alive. You really are a lucky guy to still have the PSU alive. Maybe you weren't really using too much power, though. What chip do you have (prescott), and was it OCed (what voltage)?

not really OCed (done through BIOS from 2.8 to 3.0) and not positive on type of chip as it came free from when I was doing Tech work for major brand name companies. (have 2 or 3 more of the same board and chips in a box)

If it's a prescott, I'll be REALLY surprised. If it's a northwood, it may make a bit more sense.

well considering that http://www.iocombo.com/product/showproduct.php?productid=07QI
is my heatsink, I may have lucked out by sheer overkill.

Too bad it is probably going to go by the wayside when I finally get into watercooling (BFG 6600GT OC stock Heatsink is horrid)