Can excessive power draw blow up a PSU?

Hey. I've been having a LOT of problems with my PSUs right now. I have 2 HDDs, a new Radeon 9800Pro video card, DVD writer and CD writer. Also, a 15" monitor and an SBLive soundcard. In the last 5 days, 4 PSUs have blown up! The power supply was a no-name Taiwanese 300W unit. I noticed that the blow-up used to occur only when some particularly stressful activity was taking place.. playing NFS:U, running 3DMark2001SE.

I purchased a 400W unit today, and I'm pretty sure that the power line is alright, as a big-screen TV, AC, DVD player and music system are also on the same phase and are not exhibiting any problems. This new unit is working properly so far (fingers crossed!).

What else should I check up? Can the motherboard (Asus A7N8X-X) be causing the problem?

Get a reputable power supply. Yes, a crap powersupply will go poof, and take more expensive parts with it,

Honestly if you've blown 3 or 4 lately I'm surprised you haven't damaged things already.

Get a Reputable PSU

Well, i'v changed my PSU on old computer 2 times i think. But a reputable PSU costs alot. So using the one with the case atm. Since i have no money for things like that.

reputable PSU cheaper than replacing burnt parts

andrewmoquin said:

Hey. I've been having a LOT of problems with my PSUs right now. I have 2 HDDs, a new Radeon 9800Pro video card, DVD writer and CD writer. Also, a 15" monitor and an SBLive soundcard. In the last 5 days, 4 PSUs have blown up! The power supply was a no-name Taiwanese 300W unit. I noticed that the blow-up used to occur only when some particularly stressful activity was taking place.. playing NFS:U, running 3DMark2001SE.

I purchased a 400W unit today, and I'm pretty sure that the power line is alright, as a big-screen TV, AC, DVD player and music system are also on the same phase and are not exhibiting any problems. This new unit is working properly so far (fingers crossed!).

What else should I check up? Can the motherboard (Asus A7N8X-X) be causing the problem?

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I would be careful about these no name underrated psu's, my hec crapola psu blew up and took my 790fx and 6400 windsor with it.

newn said:

Well, i'v changed my PSU on old computer 2 times i think. But a reputable PSU costs alot. So using the one with the case atm. Since i have no money for things like that.

Click to expand...

You may end up spending a lot more on a whole new setup if it fries, then just copping good psu, but i know how a budget can be

Well, okay. So now i'm thinking about saving money (few dollars a month probally) for a new i7 cpu, new motherboard (a good one), new ram stics and a new video card. So now i need to save more 200 dollars for a new PSU. :/ Well, a good PSU costs around that price i think. Didn't knew that can happen.

newn said:

Well, okay. So now i'm thinking about saving money (few dollars a month probally) for a new i7 cpu, new motherboard (a good one), new ram stics and a new video card. So now i need to save more 200 dollars for a new PSU. :/ Well, a good PSU costs around that price i think. Didn't knew that can happen.

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200 is a little high here look at these corsair units this one is 850 watt, and 139$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009

unless you are running a lot of peripherals with multiple graphics cards that would be fine

Yea, looks a nice power supply unit. Well, things changes same as computer parts 'till i got the money. Maybe the i7 will be crap by the time i collect them same as GTX 275 and 1600mhz rams. So let's not choose right now.