PC Stability
I think I've finally fixed the subtle, but persistent stability problems I've had with my computer since I upgraded to an Athlon XP 1600+ a few years ago.
I'm not surprised that under heavy load (for instance, playing Quake III) my computer would occasionally lock up hard. When I upgraded, it was a DIY job from my previous Celeron 333 system, and I didn't know about (let alone follow) AMD's system builder's guidelines.
At first I thought it was thermally related, because taking the cover off and pointing a big fan at the machine would reduce the occurance of the lockups. Eventually I bought the front and back case fans that I should have had from the beginning. By that time, however, the generic 300w PS that came with the case was having issues. I considered replacing it, but I had a perfectly good (and expensive) silent 250w supply that I bought for the old machine just before the upgrade, that had been sitting unused ever since. So, I put the 250w supply in there and hoped for the best. The system still ran, and I rarely did CPU intensive stuff like playing Q3A, but the symptoms got slightly worse, if anything.
This weekend I finally decided the problem was likely inadequate power for the motherboard. I had been a little concerned about that since I put the 250w supply in, but I'd been unwilling to spend the money on a new PSU and too busy with other things to worry about it. A little hunting on the net told me that a local computer store Cellar Computers (that I've noticed before to have good prices and decent service) had Enermax quiet PSUs. A web review convinced me that Enermax PSUs are extremely well built, and the Cellar price was as cheap as the few other online Canadian retailers I checked, without the shipping hassle. So, I layed out my $75 (hst included) and picked up a 350w model that should be more than adequate for my system, with a little room for future expansion.
Since I installed the Enermax on Saturday, I've had several one-hour sessions of Quake III without a hitch.
Now to replace that annoyingly noisy CPU cooler with a Zalman flower cooler...