So, I've had the same computer for about 12 years now. Nothing special. A Dell Inspiron 3847. Bought it in 2014, and it's not a gaming PC by any means. No graphics card, just the onboard chip.
Last week, I had been playing Civ6 on it. It was going fine. Well....my game wasn't going fine. I was getting boxed in by both Germany and America. But the PC performance was going just fine.
I generally leave my PC on at all times, and have for the past 12 years. Well, I also have a second sata drive port that I disconnect and reconnect various drives.
After playing a game of Civ, I saved my game, exited to desktop, and wanted to connect my other hard drive as a second drive. So I turned the PC off, connected the drive, and turned the PC back on.
When I do this, normally I see the dell logo appear on screen almost right away. This time I didn't. The screen stayed black, the orange light on the power button looked like it was struggling to keep itself on, and then the whole thing went dead.
I said "That's weird. Never did that before." And so I pushed the power button again. This time, I hear an audible POP inside my computer, and immediately smell fire. So I INSTANTLY yanked my desktop out of the little wooden stand it sits in. No fire, but the whole thing smells like fire.
I disconnect all the cords, and open the side of my case up. I see no damage. I see no fire. After a while I figured out that something inside my power supply literally exploded. I don't know enough about the terms for what would have exploded, but something exploded. For the next 2-3 days, in that room you could still smell burnt plastic. It's a very distinctive smell. The only time I ever experienced that was 20 years ago when a Windows 98 computer actually DID catch fire. That's what I thought happened here. The motherboard of the Windows 98 computer caught fire, and burned the motherboard.
So flash forward to today, and the only thing I see is that my internals are very very dusty. Other than the dust, everything is in good condition.
So, right off the bat, I KNOW I need a new power supply. But I have questions first.
Was it just the age of the power supply that did it in? Or was it me playing Civ6 for 6 hours straight that overloaded it? Should my power supply be a straight replacement? Should I get a more powerful power supply? I also heard that some graphics cards need power from the power supply. Should I buy one of those, in case I want to upgrade later?
This is the power supply I was looking at
Would this be good?
I've never in my life bought a power supply. Usually when I shop for something, I compare multiple products, and make an informed decision.
In this case, I don't even know what I'm looking for in a "good" power supply. I don't know how to measure what's good and what's trash. Is $35 good on a power supply for a computer this old? Should I look for something else?
I've included a pic of the back of the power supply, just so everyone can see what I was originally using.
Yes, power supplies can absolutely fail due to age. Namely, the electrolytic capacitors that smooth the incoming AC (and in other places smooth the switched secondary voltages) are only rated for a certain number of hours of operation before the electrolyte starts to break down, and when they fail, the electrolyte begins to boil and can build up pressure and then rupture with a bang exactly like you describe.
Temperature and operating time are both factors in how quickly capacitors fail, so the fact that the computer was left on most of the time for 12 years means that the caps were probably running at elevated temperature nearly all the time.
In terms of what makes a "good" power supply, the short answer is that, unless you have an electrical engineering degree, the reputation of the brand and the efficiency rating of the power supply are your best indicators. Big OEMs like Dell are likely trying to cut costs in their desktops, so the power supplies in OEM desktops may actually use cheaper components and worse build quality than the power supplies that enthusiast PC builders use in their rigs.
Many modern power supplies are rated on the "80 plus" rating system-- meaning the power supply is more than 80% efficient, although nowadays many power supplies are more like 90% efficient and may be rated "80+ gold" or "80+ platinum". A more efficient power supply is losing less power as waste heat, so the components run cooler and last longer.
That looks like it is a standard ATX power supply, so almost any power supply on the market should fit. Unfortunately, most 80+ gold PC power supplies would be much more expensive than you probably want, but something like a humble Thermaltake 500W power supply would be 80+ rated, made by a brand people have heard of, and costs around $40. For 5 bucks more, it may be more reliable than some no-name OEM power supply replacement.