Power Supplies

[Condor]

Thanks Chalenege, you've given me something more to worry about

The signs of a failing PSU are still the same, audio anomalies, followed by data loss, followed by hardware failures, followed by catastrophic system damage (not always all of them but sometimes all at once). Even a HDD will experience data loss as a PSU begins to fail, however it can mean a total failure of an SSD. By total I mean no recovery is possible, at all. So, if you are aware of the quality of your PSU, then you are in a better position to judge the likelihood of a system loss, or not.

I use Seasonic PSUs, so I think I can get away with it for a few years (up to ten) without worry.

 I install AH2, and AH3 to their own separate HDDs. Each HDD backs up to its own private destination once each week (different days).

I doubt many of us think much about power supplies except wattage and price. In the XP computer I built 8 years ago I used a 750W Silverstone Strider. The reviews seemed good and at $155 I figured I was probably getting a better power supply than the $60 PSUs with simillar wattage. But I know that higher price doesn't always mean better quality. The Widows 7 computer I use now has an FSP 700w Arum series gold. My son built this one and chose the components. I had never heard of FSP before but the review on Tom's was very good. You use Seasonics. Since it appears you use high end gear I looked them up and was surprised that the price range was similar to what I have paid. There are a lot of PSU suppliers in a similar price range. How do we separate the wheat from the chaff? Is there a brand such as Seasonic that is generally regarded as the gold standard? I realize a complete answer would require a lot of writing but is their a good link on power supply selection that you can provide?

Another unrelated question: Is there an advantage to having AH2 and AH3 on different drives or is it just a personal preference?

Thanks again for all the great information you provide. 

[Bizman]

The long version can be found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-psu-brands,3762.html

Shortly put, there's roughly four types of PSU makers: Those who design and build their products, those who let others build what they design, those who build what others have designed and those who add their sticker on a blank PSU. Note that good PSU's can be found in all of the four groups. Finding crap in the first group is very rare, they can't blame anyone else if they fail. The worst products can be found in the fourth group, but that's not a rule. Many well known reputable brands sell PSU's under their name while the product actually is a SeaSonic. There may be small differences or they may as well be identical to the maker's own label. The worst option is a fancy pompous name built by whoever has made the lowest bid.

FSP (Fortron Group) is a long time manufacturer who mostly build for others but also sell under their own brand. Their products have been known to be quite reliable, several years ago they had the least reclamations in France if I remember right.

There's no reason to have AH2 and AH3 on separate disks. By default they install even in the same folder, C:\HiTech Creations  - where they must have their own separate sub-folders.

[Condor]

Thanks Bizman. The Toms article is going into my library. I knew there were a lot of manufacturers and brand names but had no idea there were so many.

[Chalenge]

There's no reason to have AH2 and AH3 on separate disks.

Now if I did it there has to be a reason, wouldn't you think? In this case it is so that I could monitor the health of the HDD and also maintain separate audio libraries.

[Bizman]

Now if I did it there has to be a reason, wouldn't you think? In this case it is so that I could monitor the health of the HDD and also maintain separate audio libraries.

I stand corrected. In certain cases like the one you described there is a reason.

In my understanding the question was if everyone should install the two games on separate disks and my answer was similar to what HiTech has told on this forum.