Something in my pc exploded

[lemoyer]

Hello,
As you can see by the title something in my pc exploded or rather I saw sparks coming out of my pc following with smoke. I immediately turned off the pc and removed every component. Everything looks fine, I tested my mobo with a different psu and Its working but the psu doesn't have the gpu power cables. I disassembled the gpu to find any burns but it seems ok. I tested it without the power cables and only the Sapphire Logo rgb is turning on. I've been using a chinese brand 550w psu for over a year now with no issue but today I think it died. I'm not sure which component is damaged since all of the pc looks fine.

Specifications -
Processor - Intel Core i3-9100
Ram - 2x 8 gigs 2666mhz DDR4
Motherboard - Gigabyte H310m D2vx Si 2.0
Gpu - Sapphire Nitro+ Rx 580 8gb
Psu - Chinese Brand Aatigers 550W 80+ Bronze

 

[dgianstefani]

Don't use Chinese noname brand PSUs. Skimping on the most important part of your system is unwise.

Get one from our reviews or a decent one from the linus forums PSU tier list, preferably ATX 3.0/3.1.

You're lucky the rest of your parts weren't destroyed and the failure didn't start a fire when you weren't around to notice.

 

[SalemTheKit]

Don't use Chinese noname brand PSUs. Skimping on the most important part of your system is unwise.

Get one from our reviews or a decent one from the linus forums PSU tier list, preferably ATX 3.0/3.1.

You're lucky the rest of your parts weren't destroyed and the failure didn't start a fire when you weren't around to notice.

The linus forums are a bit outdated because the original guys launched their own website. The most frequently updated list can be found here: https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/

 

[kurosagi01]

Forget about tier list, there is only one definitive PSU company you can trust 95% of the time and that is Seasonic.
If I had to rank "brands" without going on a whim to look at reviews.
Seasonic
Be Quiet
Corsair
Rest don't bother unless you are doing a research on xyz power supply.

 

[mtosev]

I have had 3 Enermax psus and I can't say a single negative word about them.

 

[Arco]

Damn, you are lucky, do more tests. Get a much much better unit.

 

[Vya Domus]

Rule of thumb, if a PSU is advertised as being "X" amount of watts but then it turns out that is way lower on the 12V rail then it's most certainly of horrible quality. Any half decent PSU would at the very least advertise the real 12V rail wattage.

 

[SalemTheKit]

Forget about tier list, there is only one definitive PSU company you can trust 95% of the time and that is Seasonic.
If I had to rank "brands" without going on a whim to look at reviews.
Seasonic
Be Quiet
Corsair
Rest don't bother unless you are doing a research on xyz power supply.

Be careful with outright recommending seasonic. Their higher-end models are absolutely fantastic, but if someone reads this and gets a seasonic S12III or one of their other low-end ones then they're gonna end up with a pretty bad one that has inconsistent UVP which gives massive red flags for safety. I honestly would rather someone use the tier list as a basic guide because then at least they're getting some guidance versus just relying on brand.

 

[Arco]

Be careful with outright recommending seasonic. Their higher-end models are absolutely fantastic, but if someone reads this and gets a seasonic S12III or one of their other low-end ones then they're gonna end up with a pretty bad one that has inconsistent UVP which gives massive red flags for safety. I honestly would rather someone use the tier list as a basic guide because then at least they're getting some guidance versus just relying on brand.

Agreed, a quick check on the list or reading through an in-depth review can be priceless. Especially at the lower price brackets.

 

[StefanM]

If sth. actually exploded it might have been an electrolytic capacitor

Electrolytic capacitor - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[kurosagi01]

Be careful with outright recommending seasonic. Their higher-end models are absolutely fantastic, but if someone reads this and gets a seasonic S12III or one of their other low-end ones then they're gonna end up with a pretty bad one that has inconsistent UVP which gives massive red flags for safety. I honestly would rather someone use the tier list as a basic guide because then at least they're getting some guidance versus just relying on brand.

That is true, I guess the other piece of advice on top of what everyone is saying is the cheesy line of to buy the most expensive PSU you can afford and if you can't afford it then to save a bit more for it.
A power supply is single handly the most important hardware in a PC.

 

[Frick]

A power supply is single handly the most important hardware in a PC.

Sure, but that doesn't mean there aren't decent budget units, the problem here is that avaliable brands and how much the cost relative to other units of the same class can vary a great deal from place to place.

Hello,
As you can see by the title something in my pc exploded or rather I saw sparks coming out of my pc following with smoke. I immediately turned off the pc and removed every component. Everything looks fine, I tested my mobo with a different psu and Its working but the psu doesn't have the gpu power cables. I disassembled the gpu to find any burns but it seems ok. I tested it without the power cables and only the Sapphire Logo rgb is turning on. I've been using a chinese brand 550w psu for over a year now with no issue but today I think it died. I'm not sure which component is damaged since all of the pc looks fine.

Specifications -
Processor - Intel Core i3-9100
Ram - 2x 8 gigs 2666mhz DDR4
Motherboard - Gigabyte H310m D2vx Si 2.0
Gpu - Sapphire Nitro+ Rx 580 8gb
Psu - Chinese Brand Aatigers 550W 80+ Bronze

Where do you live and where do you buy computer stuff? It's nigh impossible to give a decent recommendation without knowing that.

 

[lemoyer]

Sure, but that doesn't mean there aren't decent budget units, the problem here is that avaliable brands and how much the cost relative to other units of the same class can vary a great deal from place to place.



Where do you live and where do you buy computer stuff? It's nigh impossible to give a decent recommendation without knowing that.

I'm from Pakistan, I mostly purchase the components from online sellers in our country, not from amazon, ebay etc.

 

[mtosev]

Just give us a link to an online store where you buy pc parts and someone will recommend something to you.

 

[lemoyer]

Just give us a link to an online store where you buy pc parts and someone will recommend something to you.

w11stop.com , eezepc.com mostly from these two. I've found 2 psu which are in my budget, Corsair Cx650f and the Tx550m, I'm not sure which one to buy from the two of these

 

[evanevanevan]

Hello,

One of those components is not like the others.

If you're looking to stay on a budget, EVGA power supplies are pretty good and their prices are likely to fall of the cliff as the company shuts down. Obviously you'll never be able to RMA the thing, but that's kinda the point of buying a good power supply.

My experiences with Cooler Master PSUs vary a lot. On one hand, I've had two MWE Gold 650 PSUs kick the bucket for no good reason. On the other hand, I have a 12 year old 500W unrated non-modular Cooler Master supply that soldiers on to this day, and didn't die when I used it as a temporary substitute for the dead 650W supplies.

Of course, all of this is anecdotal evidence so YMMV. But, I have two EVGA supplies regularly under full load (one with "modern Nvidia" transients to deal with) and they're happy.

One important thing to note: just because a component looks okay, doesn't mean it actually is okay. MOSFETs (like the ones on your GPU and motherboard power circuits) can die without going boom.

 

[evernessince]

The linus forums are a bit outdated because the original guys launched their own website. The most frequently updated list can be found here: https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/

At least one of the footnotes from that PSU tier list is factually incorrect:

"Seasonic PRIME based units experience shutdowns with RTX3080/3090 (and possibly RX6900 XT) GPUs. The cause is not the OCP tripping but a PSU design flaw as evident by the PSU not latching off on shutdown and 1000W+ models being affected too. Doesn’t manifest in 100% cases as it’s also dependent on motherboard model and GPU OC. Seasonic provides a replacement 24-pin ATX cable to fix this via support. Appears to be fixed post 2021 although there’s no official confirmation from Seasonic."

The cause was Nvidia 3000 series cards feeding back noise that caused the PSU's protections to trip. Not a PSU design flaw. The conclusion of the footnote itself doesn't match the content, how in the world does a replacement cable fix a PSU design flaw? Answer: it doesn't. The author is just repeating misinformation that people who don't do their research spread. JohnnyGuru (former PSU reviewer and current Corsair PSU engineer) has commented on this situation affirming that it is in fact the Nvidia 3000 series cards feeding back noise. In regards to the RX 6900 XT causing issues, that was mostly likely from someone who underspeced their PSU, there were / are no confirmed wide-spread reports that the same noise issue exists with that card. Just silly people blaming everything on what at the time was the hot issue. This happens everytime their is an unconfirmed problem with a particular part, it's easier to just blame what everyone else is blaming instead of actualy doing an investigation or waiting for one to happen.

The author also didn't take the time to specify that the above shutdowns only apply to 2016 prime units, anything 2017 and onward was not impacted. I have to question the quality of such a tier list. Something like this would be vastly better done in a community wiki page where the community as a whole can maintain them and not one person who doesn't bother to update information beyond a cursory glance at reviews.

Hello,
As you can see by the title something in my pc exploded or rather I saw sparks coming out of my pc following with smoke. I immediately turned off the pc and removed every component. Everything looks fine, I tested my mobo with a different psu and Its working but the psu doesn't have the gpu power cables. I disassembled the gpu to find any burns but it seems ok. I tested it without the power cables and only the Sapphire Logo rgb is turning on. I've been using a chinese brand 550w psu for over a year now with no issue but today I think it died. I'm not sure which component is damaged since all of the pc looks fine.

Specifications -
Processor - Intel Core i3-9100
Ram - 2x 8 gigs 2666mhz DDR4
Motherboard - Gigabyte H310m D2vx Si 2.0
Gpu - Sapphire Nitro+ Rx 580 8gb
Psu - Chinese Brand Aatigers 550W 80+ Bronze

I assume you saw the sparks coming out of the PSU and thus have identified it as the problem component (which is extremely likely). The only way to know if additional components are damged is to stress / test them.

The correct way to do that would be to run a CPU stress test, a GPU stress test, and MemTest86 one after the other (at least a few hours for each). The motherboard can't really be tested in the same way, the typical processor for isolating a problematic motherboard is to test everything else and then swap motherboards. In otherwords, if you have issues and none of the prior testing helps you try swapping the motherboard.

 

[Vya Domus]

I don't know how useful those tier lists are.

Just buy a PSU that you can find a review for and it's alright.

 

[wNotyarD]

I don't know how useful those tier lists are.

Just buy a PSU that you can find a review for and it's alright.

The PSU Cultists tier list is based on reviews. In the spreadsheet, there are links for the reviews a PSU has for their tiering to be based on.

However, as it is based on reviews, it basically doesn't take updates/revisions into consideration. I don't know of any model they did update their tiering due to a revision.

 

[P4-630]

I preferably buy BeQuiet! or Seasonic PSU's with a 10-year warranty.

 

[Vya Domus]

However, as it is based on reviews, it basically doesn't take updates/revisions into consideration. I don't know of any model they did update their tiering due to a revision.

I'd be amazed if every single PSU on there even has reviews, most PSUs out there don't.

 

[SPDIF]

Corsair or Seasonic are for me the number one brand Power Supply. Never had to send one back AFAIK.

 

[wNotyarD]

I'd be amazed if every single PSU on there even has reviews, most PSUs out there don't.

If I am not mistaken, those not reviewed (or with insufficient reviews) fall under "speculative position" in tiers based on the platform those units are built on and the protections they have.

 

[gwynbleidd997]

Corsair or Seasonic are for me the number one brand Power Supply. Never had to send one back AFAIK.

I had a corsair CX600 fail on me. PC was restarting whenever there was a sudden demand for a lot of power, like getting back into a game from the pause menu: 5% to 100% GPU usage... something like that.
Switched to an EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650w and never had a problem ever since.

I think it depends on the brand but also which tier you're buying into. Cheap is mostly trash, even from reputable names.

 

[QcRMoD]

My best man has been running an i5 3570 on a Corsair CX650 since I gave the system to him. PSU is over 10 years old now. Back then these were the cheap but good line to walk. Among others of course.

Hit TPU review section, refine your filters for Recomended and look at 600-700 W or so. Look at whatever is Gold certified and as cheap as it comes where you are located.