Guess I'm NOT buying a new PC.

[schild]

Like a whole new one.

Because mine smells like smoke.

AWESOME.

Yea, I switched cases to make room for the upcoming ATI cards and that's that.

I no longer have a PC.

Fallen Earth? Borderlands? Yea, those can wait til I make enough money.

I hate my life.

[Trippy]

Which part(s) smells like burnt plastic?

[schild]

You know, I'm not sure. Wish I'd had the side of the case off like I normally do. I'm erring towards the power supply at the moment rather than the Mobo / proc. Which would be awesome, but I really can't tell. I might just plug it back in and hope something DOES catch aflame.

[Sheepherder]

Take the PSU to a tech and see if it's output is normal.  Plastic smells generally mean burnt wiring, which generally means the PSU unless one of your cables is touching a heatsink or other hotspot.  If it wasn't the voltage regulation shit in the PSU that went you may still have a completely fine PC.

[Kitsune]

If you have a technician buddy, just ask him to plug the cables into a power supply tester.  You can also buy your own tester, they aren't particularly expensive.  While you're waiting for your friend or tester to arrive, get a flashlight and look at the capacitors on the circuit boards of everything.  If you see any capacitors bulged out or popped open like an egg from Aliens, you can safely write off the part that they're on.

Also, if you have dustbunnies clogging up any heat sinks, blow them out with canned air for good measure.

Those are the steps that I would undertake if presented with a computer that smelled of smoke, assuming that the customer couldn't pinpoint the smoking component while it was smoking.  Odds are good that it's just the power supply; if anything blows out and starts smoking, it's usually them.  I have seen other components short out and smoke, however, so don't just swap out the power supply and call it a day then have your house burn down if it was the motherboard.

[schild]

I put it all back together and the smell distinctly came from the power supply. I'm gonna hit up Fry's tomorrow and get a new one and some canned air. I'm pretty confident nothing else is damaged. At least, I'm hoping so. Haha.

[Goreschach]

I've blown out a couple shitty psu's. It's never damaged anything else before, so you probably won't have any problems.

[dusematic]

Warrantied?

[ghost]

Sorry about your misfortune.  It does make me happy to have found out there is a Fry's in Austin, however

[schild]

It was a power supply.

Yea, I live about 3 miles from the Frys. Got a 600W Zalman. Works like a charm, silent as a motherfucker.

[jakonovski]

Oh poo, I thought this would be a thread about bragging about our computer purchases. Good thing yours turned out ok, though.

[schild]

Oh poo, I thought this would be a thread about bragging about our computer purchases. Good thing yours turned out ok, though.

I'd have been angry as fuck if it had been the processor. Like, all the way angry. I'm running a Q9450, it's simply NOT worth replacing for another good year or so.

[jakonovski]

I'd have been angry as fuck if it had been the processor. Like, all the way angry. I'm running a Q9450, it's simply NOT worth replacing for another good year or so.

Easily more than that for gaming purposes. I just got AMD's 955BE (what a segue!) and it's pretty much the same in terms of performance. I intend to keep that for at least three years.

[Sky]

Because mine smells like smoke.

You bust people's balls for running an xbox on carpet, and you run an open-top pc. 

Dust that motherfucker, and put the cover on it.

[schild]

Because mine smells like smoke.

You bust people's balls for running an xbox on carpet, and you run an open-top pc. 

Dust that motherfucker, and put the cover on it.

At least mine was on a table. You still have your Xbox on the carpet, don't you?

[Venkman]

Yea, until I get around to dumping this case for the ATX full tower in the basement, I'm running with the side off as well, and this thing blowing on it while gaming, because I had it handy. Tired of screwing around with case fans. The case is too small but I haven't had time to do a complete tear down.

Xbox on the carpet is a different story. That's a design failure. My PC meanwhile is all my fault  

[Kitsune]

The sad thing is that CPUs are cooler than ever now; I remember back in the day when 60+ celsius was a common core temp, and now it's like half that.  Whereas the damn video cards are routinely in the 80s now.  My video card makes my room hot when I'm playing any game with heavy graphics.

The DX11 cards are coming out next month with Windows 7, and it's my sincere hope that they've had a die shrink to make the things cooler.  I don't even care about getting a video card more powerful than my GX260, I just want equivalent performance with lower heat so the thing's fan isn't going at leafblower speed and my room isn't roasting me whenever I play Fallout.

[Trippy]

The upcoming ATI GPUs do in fact use a smaller process (40nm). Dunno if the dies are actually any smalller -- e.g. they could be using the smaller process to pack more transistors on the roughly same sized dies rather than shrinking the dies as well.

[Goreschach]

The upcoming ATI GPUs do in fact use a smaller process (40nm). Dunno if the dies are actually any smalller -- e.g. they could be using the smaller process to pack more transistors on the roughly same sized dies rather than shrinking the dies as well.

Don't count on it. I'm hearing reliable estimates of ~2b transistors on the 5870.

i.e. 2x

[rattran]

Pictures show the new chip as bigger even with the 40nm transition.

That said, my Atomic 4890 runs at 55, idles at 40. With the fan on a near silent 50%. The Sapphire 'vapor-x' cooling works damn well.

[Cyrrex]

I like how jakonovski got his wish and this did manage to turn into a bragging about computers thread.

All reasonable video cards these days are monstrously large.  This is a strange and troublesome trend, and I wish I could see 2 or 3 years into the future to see where it's leading us.

[jakonovski]

I like how jakonovski got his wish and this did manage to turn into a bragging about computers thread.

All reasonable video cards these days are monstrously large.  This is a strange and troublesome trend, and I wish I could see 2 or 3 years into the future to see where it's leading us.

 

I'm in the process of getting a new computer so naturally I'm all braggy about it. What's not so braggy is the POS Acer laptop I bought before it. 

[Signe]

Congrats to Schild on not getting a new computer!  I hate Hate HATE having to replace computers, especially when they come with crappy new operating systems.  No, I can't be arsed to build or even have Righ build my own.  Soon, however, I'm going to have to get a new monitor.  I won't hate that.

[WayAbvPar]

I like how jakonovski got his wish and this did manage to turn into a bragging about computers thread.

All reasonable video cards these days are monstrously large.  This is a strange and troublesome trend, and I wish I could see 2 or 3 years into the future to see where it's leading us.

Yep- my new PC's case is probably 30% bigger than my old one, and I was told it was probably the smallest case my video card would fit in.

[Cyrrex]

I actually had to go out and buy a mid-tower (that looks more like a super-sized tower) to fit my GTX 285 card.  The card would not have even been close to fitting in what I would consider a "normal" sized case.  Whatever that means any more.  I want to say it's around 11 inches or so and fills two slots (insert huge penis joke here).

I think the days of smallish computers are in the past.  For gamers, at least.

[Nonentity]

90% of the time when something smells in your PC, it's the power supply. This is from having many popped capacitors, and that nice funky smell of ozone.

[Teleku]

Yeah, I always think the same thing.  Then I went to help my sister when her computer stopped working and smelled burned.  Turned out one of the capacitors on the motherboard fucking exploded and burned a hole all the way through the board.   

[Rasix]

Yeah, I always think the same thing.  Then I went to help my sister when her computer stopped working and smelled burned.  Turned out one of the capacitors on the motherboard fucking exploded and burned a hole all the way through the board.   

Last time I smelt something burning it was because the fan stopped working on my old video card.  Damaged the motherboard in that exchange also.   

[NiX]

I actually had to go out and buy a mid-tower (that looks more like a super-sized tower) to fit my GTX 285 card.  The card would not have even been close to fitting in what I would consider a "normal" sized case.  Whatever that means any more.  I want to say it's around 11 inches or so and fills two slots (insert huge penis joke here).

I think the days of smallish computers are in the past.  For gamers, at least.

They need Sony to show them how to make Slim versions.

[sidereal]

My power supply just popped last month, too.  Ambient temperature was definitely an issue.  Was motherfucking 100 degrees in Seattle. 

[Sky]

At least mine was on a table. You still have your Xbox on the carpet, don't you?

Now that you mention it, I do think there is carpet in that closet.

[AutomaticZen]

I on the other hand, have started pricing out a new build, now that Intel's Core i5 has dropped.

[Chimpy]

At least mine was on a table. You still have your Xbox on the carpet, don't you?

Now that you mention it, I do think there is carpet in that closet.

I got a good laugh from that one. Thank you, sir.

[Nerf]

So yeah, my power supply fried this weekend too.  Went to fry's tonight and got an Apevia Iceberg 680w unit, which had awesome reviews online and it was only $80.  Plug it in and nothing.  Hit my computer and it comes to life, but hisses loudly.  Looks like its got a blown capacitor. Yay.  Back to fry's tomorrow to get another one, heh.

[caladein]

So yeah, my power supply fried this weekend too.  Went to fry's tonight and got an Apevia Iceberg 680w unit, which had awesome reviews online and it was only $80.  Plug it in and nothing.  Hit my computer and it comes to life, but hisses loudly.  Looks like its got a blown capacitor. Yay.  Back to fry's tomorrow to get another one, heh.

Just the way you phrased that makes me think you should invest in a leather jacket and try again.