19 Apr
2002
19 Apr
'02
7:38 p.m.
Absolutely. Plus, IMHO, 2 other major players in PC
instability.
Fully half the constant-crash problems I see on home-built or local-shop
PCs are due to improper cooling and/or a cheap low-Watt PSU.
I worked on an E-Machine a couple of weeks ago that was delivered with
a K6/2 450 CPU and a $10 HS/fan combo, with no thermal paste at all. A
7200rpm ATA100 drive, CD-RW, Jazz drive, and 90W PSU. The owner told
me "It crashes a lot." Duh....
I run at least a 300W PSU and lots o' fans on anything I want stable.
It's louder, more expensive, and probably excessive. It gives me warm &
fuzzies.
Doc
Now that you mention it I don't think my XP system has crashed once since I
got the cooling under control, it has only crashed twice. The amazing thing
is that the i850GB motherboard is supposed to require a minimum of 250W PS,
and I've got a 240W PS with a Pentium IV, and 512MB RDRAM, as well as other
bells and whistles.
Up until I added a couple fans and those cool round cables you can buy now,
it was having real heat problems. That's one advantage of a lot of the
classic hardware, less heat problems (unless it's something like a Q-Bus or
Unibus system, my PDP-11/44 can really kick out the heat).
Zane