My Computer Caught on Fire

Earlier in the week I was woken up by the loud sounds of something cracking and a couple loud pops. My first thought was someone was breaking into the house. I started freaking out. I cleared the house like I was in some Iraqi village and didn’t see anything. Then I smelled the smoke. It was coming from my office and I started looking for flames. It stunk like plastic so my computers and the power outlets were my concern. I couldn’t see what was burning and after several minutes the smell started going away. I was lost, I didn’t see anything and after the smell was gone, trying to track down the source was pointless.

The next morning as I started work, I realized one of my PCs wasn’t working and then the light bulb went off. I pulled the computer from the cabinet and there was the smell. Turns out the power supply on the PC melted. I don,t know how the hell something like this happens but I’m just happy it didn’t burn down the house. There wasn’t much online that I could find about other power supplies that do this so I guess I’m just lucky. I was running a Rhino ATX12V I guess I should have checked NewEgg.com before buying this thing at FRYS.

I don’t know if it damaged the Motherboard. I am assuming the drives are safe. I was going to pull them out and throw them into some enclosures but don’t need anything off of them since it was mainly used for browsing, FTP and other basic tasks. It was storage for my music and some files but no apps I need. I figure I’ll get the data off of them when I get a new computer. So that’s my dilemma, what do I replace this PC with? Part of me want to get an Intel Core i7, and have something to really be a geek with but it’s unnecessary and I don’t have a Grand to drop on a new computer.

Maybe I’ll find something this weekend with all the holiday specials. Does it even matter very much anymore what the processor is? Does AMD make a decent processor these days? I was always guided away from them in the past.