Most reliable PSU ?

[Fuzz]

The item that seems to fail most often for me appears to be the PSU's
So rather than just eanie meanie miney mo one from the OcUK stores, I thought I'd ask you lot first.
Past PSU's that I can remember have been

PC Power and Cooling
Antec Blue power
Antec True power
Q-Tec
All have let go at one stage or another.

Now I come home tonight to find my Enermax Liberty has just gone out in a fanfare of sparks and smoke.

Where next people?

 

[Fuzz]

It's not a power hungry machine.
Core2 duo I think (forgotten),X1650 graphics card, couple of HDD's, 2Gbs of Corsair XMS2. all bolted to a Intel D975XBX (badaxe?? i think)

 

[Fuzz]

No matter, I googled seasonic and ended up in the rainforest.

One " 'Seasonic X-460FL 460W ATX Fanless Case' by Seasonic' " ordered

cheers guys..

Edit*
"Dispatch estimate for these items: 10 Oct 2011"
Schweet

 

[Fuzz]

If youve had that many PSUs fail, Id think you have other problems, Ive been running a PC P&C PSU for as long as I can remember, no failiures, so to have 4 failiures is either exceptionally unlucky, youd have more chance winning lottery, or you have some other issue, which Id hazard a guess at being power into the machine, are you running through a decent surge protector as a minimum?

I'm not talking over a five minute period here.
This is throughout the history of my PC building for the last ten years or so.
So it's nowt to do with any particular rig set up.
Some have been servers in the attic, some have been gaming rigs, some have been just to support software for external apparatus.

Yea I do run a surge protector, one of OcUK's Belkin 8 way ones.
I can't even find a receipt for this one so it must be oooold.

 

[Fuzz]

Still, even in ten years, 4 PSUs = 2 1/2 yr life span which is very poor

If you are taking it as one PC being replaced by another, then another etc then yes but I'm talking multiple PC's all on, over the same period.
The attic one for e.g. is my server and it's on 24/7/365.
Used to have a gaming rig in the cinema room and general desktop in the living room, oh and one in the bedroom

 

[Fuzz]

I'm not saying anything was wrong with any of the PSU's I've owned, or the power supply into the PC.
I was enquiring as to which ones people felt were most rock solid so that it would last a long time. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Fuzz]

Hahahaha.

 

[Fuzz]

A cap exploded and shorted out by the looks of it.

The little flat green ceramic one called "THR1" on the board

 

[Fuzz]

If it was a Thermal resistor it would be bolted to a heatsink ala the big black ones behind it.

the main board explosion has occurred at the base of one of those large black thyristors.

Don't know in what order it all went bang, all I know is..

Came home from work to find no power.
Hit the circuit breaker reset on the main house fuseboard
Heard a bang.
went to desk, unplugged everything.
Hit the circuit breaker again - this time it stayed on.
Started to plug things back into the surge protector one by one to find the issue.
Found the issue when I plugged the PC in, as the area to my right eye ball lit up like a firecraker. along with another massive bang, smoke and glowing embers drifting towards the carpet. .

 

[Fuzz]

ach, who cares anyway. NEW PC BITS

 

[Fuzz]

It's six years old judging by the date on the board. I'm not that fussed it has gone pop.
It's done well IMO.
There was no problem, there is no frustration.
I asked for recommendations on the most reliable PSU.
Got an answer that I then began my research on, which led me to a point of sale outside OcUK as they don't sell those PSU.s
Simple, effective resolution to my problem.
Thread purpose served.

 

[Fuzz]

New Seasonic is in and the PC up and running.
Nothing else appears to have been fried in the process.

Currently pulling 173 watts as I type.

Sweet (much better switching / circuitry than the last one)

 

[Fuzz]

FUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuu.

Deja vu this evening!

Wiggled the mouse to wake the PC up... no response.
Power was still on as the network lights were on and a few LED's on the M/board were on..
Oh, must have frozen then.
Hold power button 1...2...3...4..
Lights out.
Press the power button....
FIZZZZZZZZ. POP.



90% sure this isn't PSU related but FFS..

CPU fan starts then powers down almost instantly.
No post, no response, no HDD...

 

[Fuzz]

Correct, completely different scenario. I have power, it just doesn't power up.

I cannot identify a faulty component this time.
I am going to be lobbing it all back in the attic from whence it all came.
I built the thing out of spare bits that are yonks old when I sold my gaming rig so that I could have a desktop pc in the living room. I have neither the time nor patience to shotgun minor issues on such a box of old bits.
The post was more of a FML cry than anything requiring investigative help.
But thanks anyway.

(I've already removed various components in stages and tried to fire it back up.. nowt. )