From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 7 15:26:20 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 60F9616A41F for ; Mon, 7 Nov 2005 15:26:20 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from internet.potentialtech.com (internet.potentialtech.com [66.167.251.6]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F39FF43D48 for ; Mon, 7 Nov 2005 15:26:19 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from localhost (unknown [24.53.250.148]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by internet.potentialtech.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 02A4B69A4D; Mon, 7 Nov 2005 10:26:18 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2005 10:26:17 -0500 From: Bill Moran To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-Id: <20051107102617.3abfd2c5.wmoran@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <20051107100935.31771357.wmoran@potentialtech.com> References: <436E739E.8020605@ywave.com> <436E7599.9090003@cs.earlham.edu> <436E7D4E.6080707@ywave.com> <436E9DF0.1080408@ywave.com> <436F1779.7090807@u.washington.edu> <436F6B5F.9000304@ywave.com> <20051107100935.31771357.wmoran@potentialtech.com> Organization: Potential Technologies X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 1.0.5 (GTK+ 1.2.10; i386-portbld-freebsd5.4) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: micahjon@ywave.com, youshi10@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Diagnosing reboot under load X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 07 Nov 2005 15:26:20 -0000 Bill Moran wrote: > Micah wrote: > > > I'm running the i386 version of FreeBSD with 1gb ram. Didn't think to > > check this before, but I'm getting ~112-113 volts into the PSU from the > > surge strip. I'm probably going to get a new PSU today. The parts > > store has a couple of 400 watters in the $50 range (a fortron and a > > thermaltake). > > I'm coming to this conversation late, so I apologize if this information > has already been presented. > > Cheap power supplies are a near guarantee that your computer will be > unstable. Unfortunately, $cheap doesn't always == quality cheap. > > This article is the best I've ever seen for describing how important > a PS is to a computer, and how difficult it is to find a reliable one: > http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20040122/index.html My mistake. This isn't the article I thought it was. It turns out that the article I'm thinking of was done in 2002, and it seems as if Tom's Hardware has been doing regular reviews of PS since. The original article was interesting in that it listed several power supplies that burned out well below their advertised voltage: http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20021021/index.html I recommend the more recent one as a guage for what manufacturers you can trust. Frankly, if you're only spending $50 on a 400W, you're probably getting a piece of junk - although Fortron has been rating well in Tom's tests. -- Bill Moran Potential Technologies http://www.potentialtech.com