Building computer for first time...

When a power supply dies, does it hurt anything? Or even possibly hurt anything? Thanks!

jr

You'd have to hope not, I had one fail a while ago and everything was fine, but if a PSU dies then depending on the way it fails I guess it's possible. Hopefully there would be a safety guard in place so that it wouldn't fry your bits and bobs.

However, even if it failed safe and just cut power to the PC, that isn't really good for the PC anyway, so things could still go wrong.

I have had a PS died and it took out the cpu, mobo and floppy drive.

I just thanked my lucky Stars that it did not take out anything else.

I've had PSU's take out an entire system and sometimes just itself. I think quality PSU's have protection built in, to not damage any other componets, but I'd rather not take the chance ;)

A good Surge Protector helps.

Well, my son and I got the components in and put them together and turned it on. Amazingly, it recognzied everything. My wife took over and she and my son loaded xp. They had a little trouble formatting the Maxtor drive, but after a couple of tries, they were able to load xp no problem. My son has been gaming almost non-stop all last week. He had to drag himself out of bed this morning to go back to school. The machine is running WOW very well and that is all we are interested in at the moment. He reports it consistently runs at 60 fps at a temp of approximately 40c.

My only concern is the RAM. When it boots, its says it is 333 RAM when we paid for 400 RAM. Next time I crack open the case, I will look at the sticker on it to see if it indicates whether its 333 or 400. The plastic case it came packated in does not indicate if it is 333 or 400. I may need to change a setting on the BIOS. After I check it all out, I may need your guidance, but for now, I just want to thank you for your posts and guidance. Our first attempt at a non-Dell machine is a success!!!

jr

Congrats on the "birth" of your new baby!

Go into the BIOS and see if there is a setting for "optimal defaults." If there is, activate it. Otherwise you can probably set the FSB manually for the RAM. You may not see 333 & 400MHz listed, but 166 & 200; choose the 200 setting in that case. Has to do with DDRAM as opposed to SDRAM. Optimal defaults should also bring the CPU up to full speed if it isn't already (200 x 11 multiplier).

Nice feeling firing your own creation up for the first time, isn't it! :D

I have had them die and take out nothing, I have had them die and take out the video card. Another one died and killed the hard drive. They can take out everything or be selective in what they destroy.