I blew my motherboard, would my power supply have been damaged also?

[iceturf]

So I recently blew my motherboard, never having installed ram before (and having been told "plug and play") I thought the clips were in and everything was good to go. Started up, and noticed something immediately wrong. Quickly shut off the power to find my computer would boot but nothing would happen on the screen. Long story short, at least the motherboard fried. My solution, new mobo and CPU. But after having ordered I just realized, would the short from the RAM have caused power supply damage? Should I have / still order a new psu?

 

[inzone]

http://dodji.seketeli.com/downloads/shuttle-psu-paper-clip-test.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khpnx21oydg

The links above are for the paper clip test which is a way to test the power supply to see if it's still working. You take the 24 pin motherboard power connector and use a paper clip like shown in the utube video to make sure that the psu is still working.
The thing to do next is with what you have described as the issue , you should take and unplug the power supply and remove the cmos battery and press the power button for about 10 to 20 sec. then remone the ram and video card and wait for about a few min to make sure that any and all voltage is drained from the system.
Now start puttung thngs back starting with the ram , making sure it's seated and then the video card and cmos battery with the power supply being last. Then try powering up.

 

[geofelt]

I really doubt that the psu was damaged.
Quality psu's have protective circuitry.

If your psu is of questionable quality, I would replace it regardless. Exactly what do you have?

If you are interested, basic psu testers are about $10, here is one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899261023

 

[iceturf]

http://dodji.seketeli.com/downloads/shuttle-psu-paper-clip-test.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khpnx21oydg

The links above are for the paper clip test which is a way to test the power supply to see if it's still working. You take the 24 pin motherboard power connector and use a paper clip like shown in the utube video to make sure that the psu is still working.
The thing to do next is with what you have described as the issue , you should take and unplug the power supply and remove the cmos battery and press the power button for about 10 to 20 sec. then remone the ram and video card and wait for about a few min to make sure that any and all voltage is drained from the system.
Now start puttung thngs back starting with the ram , making sure it's seated and then the video card and cmos battery with the power supply being last. Then try powering up.

Well its supplying power, how much I don't know. I'm not sure I understand the second part of what your saying about putting the ram back in.

 

[iceturf]

I really doubt that the psu was damaged.
Quality psu's have protective circuitry.

If your psu is of questionable quality, I would replace it regardless. Exactly what do you have?

If you are interested, basic psu testers are about $10, here is one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899261023

Well its just a stock power supply that came with the case. I might end up just replacing it with this guy
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=17-153-023&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=5&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=3#scrollReviews
I like the idea that it has two fans.

 

[kivblue]

Thermaltake PSU is junk, stay away.

 

[iceturf]

Really? this one seemed to get good reviews.

 

[inzone]

Putting the sticks of ram back in the slots is what I was refering to since I had said to remove them and the video card.
Good psu's to look at are Corsair , Antec , XFX , SeaSonic and Silverstone. Try to get one with a single rail and a good amount of amps on the +12v rail.

 

[mmilner1]

So I recently blew my motherboard, never having installed ram before (and having been told "plug and play") I thought the clips were in and everything was good to go. Started up, and noticed something immediately wrong. Quickly shut off the power to find my computer would boot but nothing would happen on the screen. Long story short, at least the motherboard fried. My solution, new mobo and CPU. But after having ordered I just realized, would the short from the RAM have caused power supply damage? Should I have / still order a new psu?

Power supply should be fine but I personally would be irritated to know I had a stock PSU lol. I'd order a new PSU like you later suggested.

 

[geofelt]

Well its just a stock power supply that came with the case. I might end up just replacing it with this guy
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=17-153-023&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=5&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=3#scrollReviews
I like the idea that it has two fans.

As a rule, power supplies that come with cases are not much good.
It costs no more to buy quality, and you can potentially save yourself lots of grief.
For a similar price, this Corsair 430w unit should be better:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

To size it properly, we need to know what graphics card you plan to use.

 

[iceturf]

Yea, I know that stock PSU's are bottom of the bucket, but until now I haven't been running anything too fancy to merit upgrading the power source. My current parts list includes:
N82E16813157305 MB ASROCK|970DE3/U3S3 770 AM3+ R 1

N82E16814130579 VGA EVGA|01G-P3-1430-LR GT430 R 1
N82E16819103996 CPU AMD|4-CORE FX-4100 3.6G 8M R 1

-4 gb of ddr3-1600 memory.
-90gb kingston SSD
-random other little accessories and whatnot.

I feel a little silly having bought that graphics card, I saw a better one for only a bit for after I ordered, but I spent a bunch of time researching and used the TSW hierarchy chart to make my decision; at the time it was the best I was able to find for the price based upon the system I was looking to build.

I was surprised to see that a the IceQ radeon hd 4670 by HIS is still more than 100$, considering a friend of mine purchased the same (perhaps similar, but its stats appear the same) a number of years ago for less.

 

[iceturf]

What I might do is hold off for a number of months and then purchase a better quality PSU and VGA.

 

[inzone]

Something to consider for future purchases is that when building or buying for a gaming computer the most important part is the viseo card and should get most of the attention and the lions share of the budget. Even go a little over budget to get a better video card would be good it will make the most visable impact on performance.

 

[iceturf]

Best answer selected by iceturf.