Chris Bartram wrote:
>
>  In <[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> [snip]
>
> > But returning to the story, a few days ago, the power supply in the e-machine
> > 300k died. I've now come to consider having a PC right next to each of our
> > HP3000s an essential item, and that's what the e-machine was being used for
> > (and also as an auxiliary processor, letting us FTP PostScript files to the
> > PC for distillation and then being re-FTP'ed back into the HP3000).
>
> [snip]
>
> > The only worry is that the new machine has the same power supply in it as did
> > the previous machine. If it doesn't last any longer than did the previous
> > one, it appears I'm going to have to buy a few of those too. I found the
> > wholesale price on the power supply to be $24, so if you had to, you could
> > consider them to be part of the price of doing business (they're only held in
> > with 3 screws and their replacement takes only about 10 minutes), but I'm
> > hoping for the best.
>
> I wonder if alot of them come from the same place(s). I've lost power
> supplies in two separate (recent) PCs in the past 2 months. Also those
> fans they're all using nowadays seem to live about 8-12 months before locking
> up and buzzing.
>
Power supplies (with their fans) are one of the prime weaknesses of
PC's.
Also heir seems to be a trend to buy mother boards, etc. from a vendor
who specializes in that particular part.  So what differentiates one PC
vendor from another, besides price?  One would hope design and QC, but I
am not
sure the results are in on that score.

Nick D.