It might finally be time...

[Meanie]

Power supplies are a tricky item. They are the one thing I don't go cheap on. If you go with something too cheap you get dirty shitty power to the board. But I also don't spend more then $100 on power supplies. Usually my PS runs around $65 or $70, but if you can find a good one that has an instant discount or mail in rebate you can get them sub $50. I had an Ultra power supply that I had no issues with, worked great for about 5 years. Now I have a 600W OCZ Fatality. It's modular and I've had it for about 3 years with no problems. It's also 80 Plus Certified to save on some electricity.

[cg2112]

Check your CPU fan. I had the exact same issue, and my CPU fan was loose, so it was overheating and shutting down. Might save you some cash.

[Moto-Brian]

Buy a MAC.

I had to say it...someone was going to anyways.

I got two PCs I had built and they were freakin awesome for a while. Until now at this point, I have a damn virus that doesn't allo Google and Yahoo to work and the other has a Trojan.

Macs are looking damn good and from the prices, they aren't far off anymore...

Anyone know the best place for Mac deals - if there are such places...?

[jporter12]

I got two PCs I had built and they were freakin awesome for a while. Until now at this point, I have a damn virus that doesn't allo Google and Yahoo to work and the other has a Trojan.

There's a thread for that!

Someone else here had that problem, I think they ended up formatting the drive and re-installing Windoze, but it IS fixable, if you have the time/patience.

Macs are looking damn good and from the prices, they aren't far off anymore...

Anyone know the best place for Mac deals - if there are such places...?

They are getting a little closer in price now that they're basically PC's with Mac OS on them! I'd still like to try one on for a while, but I have my doubts that I would ever change over completely.

[jporter12]

Power supplies are a tricky item. They are the one thing I don't go cheap on. If you go with something too cheap you get dirty shitty power to the board. But I also don't spend more then $100 on power supplies. Usually my PS runs around $65 or $70, but if you can find a good one that has an instant discount or mail in rebate you can get them sub $50. I had an Ultra power supply that I had no issues with, worked great for about 5 years. Now I have a 600W OCZ Fatality. It's modular and I've had it for about 3 years with no problems. It's also 80 Plus Certified to save on some electricity.

I WAS using Antec Earthwatt power supplies, the older one's that were made by Seasonic (I think) until one died on me recently. I'm not thinking that I'll br getting another, unless I find out that they're improved. I do like the 80 Plus part, not only more efficient, but they need less airflow, which makes them quieter!

[Strictly Street]

I got two PCs I had built and they were freakin awesome for a while. Until now at this point, I have a damn virus that doesn't allo Google and Yahoo to work and the other has a Trojan.

http://download.cnet.com/Hitman-Pro-3-32-bit/3000-2239_4-10895604.html

end of google virus.

Sheep pron will get you every time.

[Carwhore]

Cases - Ultra or Antec

Power Supplies - OCZ or Ultra

Processors - AMD and AMD only

Hard Drives - Western Digital or Seagate

Memory - OCZ or Crucial

Optical Drives - Sony or LG

Motherboards - ASUS

Video Cards - BFG Tech or XFX

Sound Cards - Sound Blaster only

Anyone else use any other brands they really like?

I just built this

Cases - coolmaster

Power Supplies - OCZ or Ultra

Processors - AMD and AMD only

Hard Drives - Western Digital or Seagate

Memory - OCZ or Crucial

Optical Drives - Sony or LG

Motherboards - ASUS----msi

Video Cards - BFG Tech or XFX

Sound Cards - Sound Blaster only

[Strictly Street]

Good point Street. That's pretty much all that's left to replace! Microcenter usually has some good deals on motherboard CPU combos. I would probably go a bit more than the cheapest they have, but for under $200 you could have something that kicks! They have a 500 GB hard drive for $39, which wouldn't be a bad idea to replace, and under $50 for a power supply.

http://www.pricewatch.com/motherboard_combos/

Pick a price you like...

[InyaAzz]

I wouldn't pay full retail for a Mac unless I had $$ to burn. You can usually find good deals on refurbs.

Whoever said to spend good money on the power supply...listen to him.

eMachines=Acer ?? I believe?? I bought a laptop from Wally World for my niece, and it was the exact same as the Acer model minus the webcam. Last I checked, Acer had pretty good reviews as far as laptops went.

[jporter12]

I wouldn't pay full retail for a Mac unless I had $$ to burn. You can usually find good deals on refurbs.

Whoever said to spend good money on the power supply...listen to him.

eMachines=Acer ?? I believe?? I bought a laptop from Wally World for my niece, and it was the exact same as the Acer model minus the webcam. Last I checked, Acer had pretty good reviews as far as laptops went.

eMachines=Acer=Gateway. I think Gateway bought them both.

[SWing'R]

Since posting this thread the thing hasn't crapped out once, sooo, guess I'll let it ride and do daily backups of my email,

thats about the only thing that actually resides on the local harddrive, I store everything else on my external.

[turboglock]

I just did this with the new macbook air love it.

[jporter12]

Since posting this thread the thing hasn't crapped out once' date=' sooo, guess I'll let it ride and do daily backups of my email,

thats about the only thing that actually resides on the local harddrive, I store everything else on my external.[/quote']

I would have stuff duplicated on both! In fact, I have all the photos I've taken in 3 places, and have been thinking about making a dvd backup to keep off-site.

[jblosser]

eMachines=Acer=Gateway. I think Gateway bought them both.

Close: Gateway bought eMachines, then Acer bought Gateway.

@David - keep backing it up like you're doing, it won't die. Don't back it up, it's dead tomorrow. Murhpy @ work.

[jporter12]

Close: Gateway bought eMachines, then Acer bought Gateway.

Ah, that sounds right! Yeah, they're all under the same company now, anyway!

[SWing'R]

Since posting this thread the thing hasn't crapped out once' date=' sooo, guess I'll let it ride and do daily backups of my email,

thats about the only thing that actually resides on the local harddrive, I store everything else on my external.[/quote']

So I guess I spoke to soon. It shut down on me about 5minutes ago but instead of staying off it started back up a few seconds later,

kinda like a delayed reboot.

@David - keep backing it up like you're doing, it won't die. Don't back it up, it's dead tomorrow. Murhpy @ work.

Well I think I'm going to switch to the portable version of firefox installed on and ran from my external drive.

Trying out the portable version of thunderbird for my email, again installed and ran on the external, that way if and

when this thing takes the big dump I won't actually lose anything.

I shut it down a few minutes ago and cleaned out the power supply and cpu fan and cpu heatsink slots with some canned air,

a lot of crap flew out of the power supply and the cpu slots had quite a bit of caked on dirt, I couldn't actually see down thru many of the slots.

Maybe thats all she needed

[Strictly Street]

So I guess I spoke to soon. It shut down on me about 5minutes ago but instead of staying off it started back up a few seconds later' date='

kinda like a delayed reboot.

I shut it down a few minutes ago and cleaned out the power supply and cpu fan and cpu heatsink slots with some canned air,

a lot of crap flew out of the power supply and the cpu slots had quite a bit of caked on dirt, I couldn't actually see down thru many of the slots.

Maybe thats all she needed [/quote']

Bet your right. Vacuuming them out every six month or so is a real good idea.

[Moto-Brian]

So, who's got som resources for best prices on Macs?

[jporter12]

I shut it down a few minutes ago and cleaned out the power supply and cpu fan and cpu heatsink slots with some canned air' date='

a lot of crap flew out of the power supply and the cpu slots had quite a bit of caked on dirt, I couldn't actually see down thru many of the slots.

Maybe thats all she needed [/quote']

Surprisingly, that does it many times! I'm too cheap to buy the canned air these days, so I take the PC's down to work and use the compressed air. I'm overdue to do this on one of them, so I have the side cover off of it from when I swapped the power supply.

[Meanie]

So, who's got som resources for best prices on Macs?

Use the internet, we don't post deals anymore, people tend to get upset thinking they may be losing business if the price is better then a sponsors.

I mean I got nothing.

[jporter12]

So, who's got som resources for best prices on Macs?

www.slickdeals.net

[jagr]

Use the internet, we don't post deals anymore, people tend to get upset thinking they may be losing business if the price is better then a sponsors.

I mean I got nothing.

[Moto-Brian]

Use the internet, we don't post deals anymore, people tend to get upset thinking they may be losing business if the price is better then a sponsors.

I mean I got nothing.

Touche.

[ReconRat]

So I guess I spoke to soon. It shut down on me about 5minutes ago but instead of staying off it started back up a few seconds later' date='

kinda like a delayed reboot. [/quote']

That's sounds like a thermal overload in the power supply. It will shut down, cool off and restart by itself. Either the power supply is weak, or there's too much heat. But even then, it's doing it wrong. It should time out for 5 minutes or more. If you've added any options that would draw more power, the power supply might be under rated for the load. But usually it's all those other items that create heat or carry it away. Check all fans and heat sinks. Look for items that are too hot. Usually the video on the system board runs hot. But also the cpu and even the hard drive sometimes, depending on what type. I've even gone into BIOS and simply switched the fan regulation to a more maximum settings. The default is usually a quiet mode.

Computers as assembled and sold are price competitive, and the cooling and power supply are almost always marginal on a basic machine. Within a few years, it's no longer capable of cooling correctly anymore. Especially if optional parts are added, or higher level video applications are running.

[Cypress]