Upgrading my Power Supply Unit
 

I'm upgrading my computer right now and it's currently running the a 200 watt psu that came with the computer. My cousin told me I should run it until it blows out, but I don't know how dangerous that is, especially with 400 dollars in new computer parts inside of the machine. Would it be smart for me to replace my PSU right away or should I wait until I need to replace it? If I don't and the thing overloads and keels over could it feasibly damage my computer?

A failing power supply can cause many mysterious problems with your machine, like program instability, random reboots, lockups, etc. 200 watts is a bit low, especially if you are using higher-end parts. I can't say you're going to damage your parts this way, but its never a good idea to put more draw on your PSU than it can handle.

Try downloading Motherboard Monitor or other monitoring software, and check your voltages. Make sure they are relatively stable (ie: don't fluctuate more than .1 or so away from what they should be, like 3.3, 5.0, and 12.0, on their respective lines).

But if you are not experiencing any problems, then perhaps its handling the load well enough... don't fix what's not broke, I say (unless you don't mind spending the cash on it).

You can get a decent 400+ watt ps on newegg right now for less than $100, good ones too. I would upgrade. Its worth the money spent.

if you spent the money on the new parts, you might as well give them enough juice to operate properly. Otherwise, you wasted your money. If you have a pentium 4, there's no way its running efficiently with a 200 watt ps.

I haven't bought a power supply in years but doesn't it make sense spending the $50 on power supply then risking your whole PC at $400+?? Unless you have only one hard drive and a CD-ROM drive.

This is the power supply that I have: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...153-007&depa=1

I like it a lot and the price was pretty nice.

Waiting till the power supply blows is a very very very bad idea. When/if the power supply does finally blow, any number of Bad Things (tm) can happen to your system. When the PSU blows it can over- or under-power a rail, or can even reverse polarity on rails. A dying power supply can literally destroy all of the components in your computer. I would upgrade to an Antec Tru380 power supply; it's a good mid-range power supply that will deliver solid power for upper-mid-range systems.

I would just like to chime in on the other end of this crowd.

I currently am running a Athlon 64 3400+ with a Geforce 6800 (non-ultra) off of a cheapo 250-watt powersupply from CompUSA. It was the cheapest power supply availible that had the extra four pin 12V connector.

It has been in my system for about a year, and has done great. The voltages are all stable, and after I cut off the back grill fan cover (air blowing accross a flat plane doesn't make it efficient), it has been a quiet, reliable and fairly-cool running power supply.

So basically, what I am saying is that if your power supply is doing well, keep it. Make sure your voltages are all stable, even during load, and if so, you should be great. If you really want to give your powersupply a test, run memtest's bit-fade test, which will detect errors generated in RAM because of electrical interference. An excellent power supply will give you around 4 errors if I recall correctly.