Collateral Damage from a PSU?

[Lacey-D]

A little background: A while ago I bought a custom built PC from an online retailer;

■Antec 900 Case
■Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R
■Corsair 6GB [3x2GB] DDR3
■Intel Core i7 950 [3.06 Ghz]
■ATI Radeon HD 5870
■Corsair Hydro Series H50
■Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT
■OCZ 700W Stealth XStream

I chose the parts, they built it and shipped it to me and it worked perfectly for a period of time, in that time I did nothing to the setup beyond unlocking ATI Overdrive and some minor cable management, after which I had no problems. However, a few months ago I smelled a smell that stank my room out for at least three days and it was none other than the PSU, I was too late to realize what it was before it eventually popped, smoked and my PC cut out.

[Yes I pulled that thing to pieces to find out what could make such a god awful stink. After reading so many many stories of OCZ supplies failing I certainly won't be using one of theirs again.]

Now for some honesty: After this happened I rather stupidly pressed the power button out of impulse and the PSU and LED fans seemed to come alive for a split second before cutting out again.

This leads me to ask:
■What would have caused an inductor to heat up that badly?
■What kind of damage can a burnt out inductor do to other parts of a computer?
■Is there a chance that this brick has taken the [insert component] with it?
I've been putting off trying to fix my PC for fear of finding out that there's more to fix than just the PSU but I'm seriously fed up of using a laptop. When I finally get round to it I think I'll be getting this as a replacement for the PSU:

http://www.corsair.com/power-supply-units/enthusiast-series-power-supply-units/enthusiast-series-tx650-v2-80-plus-bronze-certified-650-watt-high-performance-power-supply.html

If there is more that needs addressing I'll cross those bridges when I come to them. I appreciate any input.

 

[jsc]

The Corsair is a good choice.

As far as collateral damage is concerned, there is no way of knowing if the failed PSU took any other components with it.

The burnt out inductor (actually, that is a transformer - note the two windings on the toroidal core) failed because of too much current though it. Why is the question. I do not know what that transformer does in the power supply.

 

[obsidian86]

i suggest you ask on jonnyguru forums if you wanna know anything psu thats the place to ask

http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3

 

[truegenius]

[Yes I pulled that thing to pieces to find out what could make such a god awful stink. After reading so many many stories of OCZ supplies failing I certainly won't be using one of theirs again.]

 

[RetiredChief]

Ref jsc comment.
My quess is that it is a low current 20KHz->40KHz Control transformer. My quess is that the frequency went to Zero (ie DC). With DC the Resistance went to about 1 ohm. Normally relies on Xl to limit current - Xl = 2πFL. If F is zero then Xl is zero, but still has a small R value.

As others pointed out, May or may not have damaged components external to the PSU. All depends on what the output voltages did. So only real test is to try the new PSU. Recommend that you do it in a bare bones faction:
Connect Min components to boot, one stick ram, gpu and DVD drive. See if you can get to BIOS. The start adding memory, then HDDs (one at a time with a restart).