the PSU is the most important part in a computer and using a crappy generic PSU that usually come free with computer case (not always, thank god) but i personally have heard that some crappy branded PSU's rated at 500W can easily be beaten (power more stuff) a decent branded 350W PSU other things to conciser: how clean is your electricity supply ? this fact is usually always overlooked, a simple anti-spike strip is NOT always enough, although spike strips are essential, in fact probably more than 80% of unexplained glishes or errors can be usually be traced back to a poor quality supply of power & most of us blame Microsoft (myself included) other devices other devices like refrigerators are also very likely to interfere with sensitive computer equipment (i would have thought you've all seen the light go dim for no apparent reason) because fridges start and stop using electricity regularly, to keep things cool, actually most appliances can disrupt or "dirty" an electricity supply the only way to protect yourself is with a power regulator BTW: be very careful as some less reliable manufacturers mislabel stuff accidentally to sell more (accidentally on purpose) e.g power regulator not that i'm perfect, i only have a crappy spike strip potential differences of the electricity even within the same room i've read something on the net about someone frying a sound card he was trying to connect to a friend’s stereo even though both the computer and the stereo were in the same room, more than 6 volts of difference was measured between the ground conductors (earth) of the two power outlets they were plugged into! The wire between the stereo and the sound card (in the computer) provided a path that the voltage eagerly followed and fried the sound card that was not designed to handle that much current on its signal leads, connecting both the PC and the stereo to the same outlet fixed the problem this is similar to the effect of not having equipotential bonding done and even installing a grounding rod may help if you are having problems, a simple test with a cheapo crappy multimeter will eliminate or rule out most if not all potential problems with the electricity you are using see B's excellent PSU Sticky please contact me regarding any updates or additions
Good post Donkey... While there are some things you have said...that I am not prepared to take the risk of accepting...A good UPS battery back up takes care of the clean power issue. Mine cost me $89.00, and has a connection for the internet cable that provided a noticeable improvement in performance when I hooked it up.
thankyou a good UPS system should take care of cleaning of the power & net connection, after all, they do cost enough & doesn't do much else but provide battery backup in the event of a power failure, so, a clean supply of electricity is the least they should do BTW: i'll have to get a decent UPS one day
Also, these products tend to require a grounded receptacle to properly operate. (Which I'm gonna have to ground a lot of stuff to the box at home one of these days *sigh*). Of course, you'll need to have the electrical box grounded in the first place, or the grounding wire is just looking pretty.
