When the heck did power supplies for computers get so expensive?
My video card was acting up while playing WoW, since it is the kind that requires a connection to the PSU, I wagered a guess that the PSU was finally reaching its end of life. I felt around the back, and the fan really wasn’t moving much air – and the air it was moving was pretty hot.
I gave it a quick clean with the canned air, but there wasn’t any improvement. So I headed over to the manufacturer’s website to get the output specs so I could check them with my voltmeter… Turns out they were all outside the specs (not good).
It was late on a Friday, so my only guess for where I could get a new one was Best Buy… I checked and the options that came up were $140 and $160. My jaw dropped. I’ve spent – at most – $50-$60 for my PSU’s in the past (haven’t had to buy one for about 6 years now). I did some more looking on the site and found a good one for about $100 from Thermaltake. I usually prefer ANTEC, but I wasn’t spending $160 on the thing.
Picked it up, dusted and cleaned the entire machine, swapped it in – and the video card is working like a champ again… Still can’t get over the price though.