My old computer is freezing and I think it may be the power supply. I ask your opinions on whether it is the power supply which is broken, before i go out and buy a new one. (sorry i do not know that much about power supplies)
My computer is a few years old. It occasionally froze at first. when I say froze, I mean that it just stopped responding. the fans would keep turning and the display would continue showing the same non-moving image. the light for the power is still on, also the LED on my mouse is still on.
At first it seemed to only happen when the computer was doing a complex task, like rendering game graphics or loading big web pages. Now it also happens during startup also. sometimes during the motherboard flash page it just freezes. Also, if the computer manages to last through the first few minutes after startup, it can continue running without freezing, even for a whole day. I thought fans might be clogged or something, I spent an hour cleaning them out, still getting freezes.
So does the above sound like the power supply is broken?
Secondly, am I right in believing that all power supplies are the same or compatible since the pentium 4?
I am thinking of buying the new power supply, putting it into the newer computer ( a core i5) and moving the newer computer's old PSU into the old computer (which is a intel core quad 8200).
Third, does it really matter whether I buy a big brand one or not? when i google power supplies many say you should buy a brand name one, but before this I have never heard of anyone talking about their cool flashy power supplies. also the computer guy who put it together never tried to talk me into buying a more expensive one.
what are your thoughts on these two and should I buy the more expensive one or no?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/COODMAX-CD-P500W-Power-Suppl...
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Corsair-VS-Series-VS650-650W...