[BrianMat]

I just moved some equipment over to a new case. I liked the design of the Inwin 545. You can see the case here:

http://www.directron.com/l545pcuf.html


Anyway, put my gear into the PC which included the following:


Toshiba DVD

Chaintech 7AIVL Mobo

Athlon 1.4

512MB RAM

WD 30 GB 7200 RPM Drive

Radeon AIW 64

Fortissimo II sound card

I/O Magic capture card


I plugged everything in and was treated to a nice spark from the PS. Dead.


All of the component now work fine in my other case, so it does not appear to be a faulty component. Was this too much for 180W? Even if it was, would you not think that the fuse would just pop rather than have a nice burning smell?


At $43 at Newegg for the case, shipping will be a bear to replace the entire unit since they do not refund shipping costs.


Any ideas? MicroATX power supplies are slim to none locally

 

[boykster]

I would guess a faulty PSU, or a short of some sort.....


I have this case

http://www.directron.com/a102b.html


with only a 200w psu, and I've got a duron 1ghz, radeon agp, accessDTV, zoltrix nightengale, and 2 hd's....no problems at all (on an abit nv7)


Cheers,


Rich

 

[jahesh]

The Athlon 1.4's draw a lot of power, and generate record-setting heat. I'd definitely choose another processor for a small case. Athlon systems don't do well with under 220 watts, and AMD recommends at least 250. If they're kind enough to replace the case under warranty, I'd change the case to suit the configuration or vice-versa.

 

[e vey]

180W? 200W? 250W?

Yowza,

I haven't used those sizes since the Pentium I days.


For stability and longevity, 300W would be the minimum, I would think. And if you go over Athlon XP 1.5 look at this list:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...0_182_869_4348 ^4376|47_ATX_XP,00.html


Where there is only one 250 listed, an AOpen. Most are 350 Watters.


And 1.4 is not far from 1.5.


I have seen an awful lot of PC trouble from power supplies being too small/old/weak.


I can understand noise considerations (so I use Durons), but what good is a quiet PC that hangs all the time or silently corrupts Windows files?