2 Power Supplies - 1 Day

What brand PSUs did you purchase?

The one i bought after the first one fried is called "600watt v series atx power supply- COOLMAX"

it was cheap and on sale.

What PSU did you have, and what did you buy? A quality modern PSU has full range active PFC (no little voltage switch) and at least 80+ certification for efficiency. Seasonic, Antec, Corsair, Enermax, and XFX are among the better brands. Apevia, Logisys, most Coolermaster, and anything with "max" in its name (other than Enermax) is what I call a Chokemax; overrated junk.
Plug in your components (which you did not list) at http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.js... to see what size PSU you need.

Edit: Cheap PSUs are never a good idea. Hopefully, it didn't take any other parts with it when it died; many do.

Here i have AMD Phenom II 965 3.4 ghz
GTX 460 SC EVGA 1GB
4GB Dual channel memory - patriot
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... - this mobo
anything else? sorry, i'm new to these forums. i entered everything in.. idk if i did it right, but it came out to 699

Your CPU counts as a single processor, not four. A quality 500W PSU would provide a comfortable margin; 450W would be enough.

Do you have any idea would could have caused the second one to blow?

I'm all for buying another PSU, i just want to figure out why it happened, so i don't go through ANOTHER one.

Thanks a lot, i appreciate the help.

It blew because it was cheap junk that was probably only good for half the wattage on its label, and likely lacked overload protection.

what are the chances it was because something was shorting out INSIDE the computer?

My dad seems to be convinced that it is my front usb port, the cable that connects to it. I took a look at it and didn't see anything wrong with it. Would it be pretty apparant if this was the case?

A good PSU would not blow from a short, it would trip and turn off nicely, it wouldnt blow the magic smoke out. Dont buy cheap crap and its much more likely to survive and shut down gracefully.

i'm going to go out and buy a nice 650 watt powersupply, that should be fine right?

My fingers will be crossed that nothing else happens, and i don't blow anymore money.

^What he said. You said you just bought new parts; if you just added the GPU, you would have overloaded your initial PSU, and likely the second as well.
Here's the conclusion page of a review of a good example of consumer fraud: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Logisys-PS600A12...

Edit: Wattage isn't everything; QUALITY is. If you pay less than $50, it better be a good deal on an Antec Earthwatts or Corsair "Builder" series. Dynex is junk. Most Huntkey / Rocketfish are junk (HardwareSecrets blew up a lot of them). Don't buy anything with a little voltage switch on it; at best you'll get an inefficient, obsolete design, and at worst you'll get overrated garbage that will die violently, taking other parts with it into the Abyss.

If the port isn't wired correctly it can cause a short circuit.

Do these get your guys approval?

http://www.frys.com/product/5503410?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN...

http://www.frys.com/product/5296257?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN...

Only the first one! Antec is excellent. That PSU will easily run your system, even with a significant GPU upgrade later if you want it.
The Apevia is overrated. Seems to me somebody melted a model like that one a few years ago. It looks "cool," but is garbage.

Edit: Here's an old HardwareSecrets review of a similar Apevia PSU: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Young-Year-YP-AB...

I'll buy this wednesday, and if it fries, i guess i'm S.O.L.

I'll keep you updated? C/D?

There are numerous excellent TECHNICAL reviews (none of that worthless consumer fluff) of the Antec Earthwatts around the web. Check out jonnyguru.com, hardwaresecrets.com, hardocp.com just to name a few.

JonnyGURU.com's review of the Antec Earthwatts EA650 650W is available here:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=110