seasonic Archives - The Silicon Underground

Reliable power supply brands

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 11:00:28 +0000

If you’ve built a few PCs, or repaired a few PCs, you have some idea how important the power supply is. If you buy any old tin box that fits, you can probably expect to run into some problems. Here’s

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Are 80plus power supplies worth it?

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 11:11:20 +0000

Are 80plus power supplies worth it? Extremetech just that question recently. Based on their conclusion, not usually, at least not solely for power savings. But it’s an easy way to get a box built to stricter tolerances with higher-quality electronics. I

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Message says Firefox is already running when it isn’t

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:11:05 +0000

Earlier this week, when doing an emergency computer upgrade, Firefox gave me a weird problem. I installed Firefox, then when I tried to launch it, I got the popup dialog box stating that Firefox is already running. When, of course,

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Who made that power supply?

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 20:22:30 +0000

I found a cross-reference for power supply brands and OEM manufacturers. It’s a couple of years old, but still useful. Way back when, I knew that Sparkle Power actually made PC Power & Cooling Silencer power supplies. Since Sparkle units

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It’s been 15 years, and computer stores haven’t changed much

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:20:48 +0000

In the early 1990s, I learned how to fix computers because I got tired of long waits and shoddy repairs from computer stores. Last month I took a friend to go buy a computer. I didn’t want her to get

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New life for a Compaq Presario S5140WM

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:34:27 +0000

I'm fixing up my mother in law's Compaq Presario S5140WM. She bought it about five years ago, a few weeks after her daughter and I started dating. It's been a pretty good computer for her, but lately it's been showing signs it might be overheating.

I took the shotgun approach, replacing pretty much everything that I would expect to be at or near the end of its life at five years.

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