Question about psu's of brand name pc's

[blackrain]

I had a compaq that recently died on me.

More info:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1540103&enterthread=y

The power supply and mobo went dead at the same time. It was confirmed by a professional pc shop. I am guessing that the power supply screwed up my mobo.

We all know about the anandtech recommended psu's (fortron, sparkle, antec, etc). My understanding is that one of the reasons we prefer these psu's is because a powmax will fry your mobo and the recommended psu's won't...even if they go bad.

So where do brand name pc (compaq, dell, ibm, etc) psu's fall. Better than powmax? My compaq psu was not one of the recommended psu's on this board. Does that mean that when I bought it, this pc was destined to go bad?

Can someone explain in technical terms why a fortron won't fry your board (if that's the case) and a powmax (or my compaq psu) will?

 

[biostud]

The reason to buy good PSU's is that they're less likely to fry your board because the design and components are usually better. When using low quality parts they're more likely to do things they weren't designed for ie. frying your board. I'm pretty sure even brand name PSU can fry your board, the chances are just smaller than with cheap PSUs.

 

[n yusef]

Most of the PSUs used by OEMs are generic, low power, units. However, they usually use higher quality comonents than Powmax or a company like that. OEMs use units that aren't designed to be able to use much more power than is absolutely needed; like 300 watt units when the system uses 250 watts at max load. The quality of the PSUs that OEMs use are certainly not PCP&C quality, or even Antec grade, but I would say they are like TT units, good enough, but not something you'd want to to use with your high overclocked and/or SLI rig. Any PSU can go, you just may be unlucky as most OEMs do use high(er) quality units.

 

[shoRunner]

most oem's compaqs/hp/emachine/gateways use bestec powersupplies which are much better than powmax. vpr matrix and medion actually use fortron powersupplies which are really decent. it is not very often a oem's psu will go out, looks like you just got unlucky.

one of the possible reasons your psu could have taken out your board would be a surge. but in general it could have been running out of spec, to high or low voltage, which can damage components

 

[blackrain]

Do I understand correctly that you are saying that any psu can blow a motherboard under certain conditions like a surge? Are we paying more money for the anandtech recommended psus because the odds are more favorable that one of the better psus wouldn't do that?