January 17, 2005

January 17, 2005 · by John Chen

OCZ ModStream 520W PSU Review @ OCModShop

“PC enthusiasts sometimes talk that their rails are low and that they need a new power supply. First off, the rails that they are referring to are the 3.3V, 5V, and 12V lines that come off the power supply. The 3.3V and 5V generally power the digital devices like the motherboard, PCI slots, AGP slot, etc. The 12V is usually for motorized devices like the hard drives, CD-ROM, fans, etc. These lines are rated to run at a certain specification, usually somewhere around plus or minus 5%. Technically, if these lines stay within this margin, the system should run fine with no instabilities but if they do run out of specification a number of problems can arise. Usually power supplies go under the minimum voltage when used over a long period of time. When the rails are low this usually leads to blue screens and various other instabilities like random reboots. When these lines are overvolted problems arise again like drive failure, blue screens, damaged drives and damaged motherboards. Therefore, it is easy to see why it is important to have “clean” power - power that is stable, does not fluctuate, and within a tight tolerance.“

ATI Radeon X800 Pro @ Viper Lair

“The X800 Pro is definitely no slouch. Smooth performance in most games with the image quality turned up and the resolution maxed is something to be proud of. Based on our results, we have no problems recommending this card to our readers. While some benchmarks have shown the 6800 GT to be faster, the actual gaming experiences with the X800 Pro were positive.”

LED PCI Bracket Mod Guide @ CaseModGod
Sunbeam Tech Samurai ATX Case @ BigBruin

Recovered from an Internet Archive snapshot of the InsaneTek front page.