Power Supply

[Wassup393]

I'd like to direct this tidbit at Martin (paparazi) as he has already helped me with this particular problem. refernce to "thread602-448289 took your advice and attempted to return the supply to the retailer, and he told me that I was very wrong and that even though the mobo manual said that the psu was underrated that it was good and all his machines carried that unit. I would have accepted this until he continued to attempt to explain to me that there were to different ratings of electricity: Amps and something he called "Powers" which really threw me a bit. I think he was trying to say that as the supply is 300W then it'll all be OK. Any advice?

Sam

 

[Win98User]

Hi Wassup393,
As an uninvolved third party I feel I can say paparazi didn't tell you to, "...return the supply to the retailer..." - you didn't give him enough details to tell you that.

paparazi was kind enough to answer the question you asked which was a PSU question related to upgrading a CPU.

Are you now saying that you bought the CPU + PSU at the same time and that the retailer should have known that the PSU wasn't up to the job?

If you bought the upgraded CPU at a later date then the responsibility is on you to upgrade your PSU. It is NOT the retailers responsibility.

Kind regards. I am not a number. I am a free man!
(6)

 

[Snakeyeskm]

Wassup393 It is easy to get confused regarding PSU's. They essentially supply 3 different voltages 3,5 and 12v to your system. These voltage rails can share transistors or can have indivigual transistors. The are different wattage ratings for the + and - value of each rail and for each rail itself.Wattages on the same transistor are additive etc.etc.etc.--
What I think Paparazi was saying was that a PSU that is borderline on anyone of these supplies in terms of their capacity not only will they not last too long but could take down the item or unit being powered by that particular rail. Sometimes just the addition of a PCI card can make a poor PSU go over the hill. Some cheap customizers cut pennies by using borderline PSU's which can barely support the existing system leaving little room for addition of other peripherals and or manufacturing tolerances.
Bottom line- if you cant exchange it, bite the bullet and get a new one.

 

[Wassup393]

I in fact bought an upgrade kit which consisted of:

AMD Athlon 1800+
256MB SDRAM
SiS chipset mobo with Lan, Sound, Modem, Graphics onboard
ATX Case + PSU

So it was the retailers responsibility to make sure the components were all suitable. I'm sorry I must have forgotten to mention it. Anyway, if it fails I'll just claim warranty and compensation on any of my other components damaged.

Sam

 

[TomCologne]

This is not a legal advice or evaluation, just a thought:
The dealer's terms will probably limit the liability to the item sold and exclude "consequential loss or damage". And there's Burden of Proof, a maybe ongoing legal procedure and, if you're successful in court, the collection afterwards. And all this valuable time will come off of the maintenance hours needed to keep the PC running.

As the buyer of an upgrade kit, I believe you are right to expect a certain performance level of the components and your dealer should respond to problems instead of just using "More Than One Billion Served" arguments.

Specs and a list of recommended PSU manufacturers:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/DevelopWithAMD/0,,30_2252_869_4348^4376,00.html

Check it out, if you haven't already done so. And give the dealer another chance to explain the differences between your, his or AMD's point of view, so that we all can learn from your posting before making the next purchase.

You're not alone,

TomCologne