Repair or replace my desktop PC?

£20 - £30 for a PSU.

Fit it yourself it's an absolute doddle.

Personally I would try a new power supply. They are dead easy to fit and not very expensive. 

There may be more damage but when power supplies give way it is uncommon (but not unheard of) that they take other components with them.

There's little reason to replace a PC IMO unless you are gaming or need to for W11 compatibility reasons (although this can be worked around). I have an ex-office PC which is from I dunno, 2012 or something, that works perfectly well, and my Zwift PC is a 2009 laptop that also works fine.  SSDs were fitted in both cases mind.  And before anyone pipes up, I have a 2012 MacBook Pro that is a brick because it won't support the most recent OS so no current browsers will work on it, and no websites will accept traffic from the older browsers.

If it suited your needs before, then it seems like a no-brainer to just stick a new PSU in it.

OK, thanks folks. I will have a go at fitting a new power supply myself. Got some time on my hands this coming month.

So I want another 400w one?

They are a standard size I assume?

PC's come in a set of standard "form factors".

https://www.tomshardware.com/features/pc-form-factor-basics

Fab thanks.

I'll pop the old one out and measure up.

If the PSU went bang, maybe it was being utilised near to it's upper end more often than not?
If there's not a lot of cost difference, I'd probably go up to the next power output - something like 600w to give it some headroom?

Far from an expert though & there could be many other reasons why it failed.

Just to agree that PSU's are a doddle to fit, just a couple of screws and some cables to plug in. The different sockets prevent the components being fed the wrong supply!

PSUs are a standard size unless you have a micro ATX case or similar. I had (many many years ago) a Corsair PSU die on me. Replaced it and the rest of the computer was fine, no damage done.

Processor doesn't look to be win 11 compatible, so I'd teplace the whole thing. It's had a good innings by PC standards.

I'd say replace as well, especially if you're still running Windows 8.1. Replaced my desktop of a similar vintage at the weekend with a £300 mini PC. Wouldn't surprise me if the spec is significantly better than 5he one it replaced despite the age. Bought another mini PC a few months ago for about £150 for the garage to replace an aging Vista era laptop (running W 10). Much faster and boots quickly.

In  both cases the original PCs worked but we're slow, despite reinstalling Windows periodically, and prone to glitches  but the main driver for me was to upgrade to W11. I use  my PCs for email, internet banking, online shopping etc. so would rather have something supported with security updates.

Thanks for the further thoughts folks.

Processor doesn't look to be win 11 compatible, so I'd teplace the whole thing

I was just actually speaking to a colleague who advised me to check on this.

Looks like my processor is fast enough but I don't fully grasp the other requirements here:

Windows 11 Specs and System Requirements | Microsoft Windows

Would anyone care to speculate?

Posted by: molgrips

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And before anyone pipes up, I have a 2012 MacBook Pro that is a brick because it won't support the most recent OS so no current browsers will work on it, and no websites will accept traffic from the older browsers.

If you want to get it going, more than likely you'd be able to install a more recent version of the OS using this; https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/

Posted by: chakaping

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Thanks for the further thoughts folks.

Processor doesn't look to be win 11 compatible, so I'd teplace the whole thing

I was just actually speaking to a colleague who advised me to check on this.

Looks like my processor is fast enough but I don't fully grasp the other requirements here:

Windows 11 Specs and System Requirements | Microsoft Windows

Would anyone care to speculate?

I would fit a new PSU, upgrade to Windows 10, (free), then run PC Health Check, https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/how-to-use-the-pc-health-check-app-9c8abd9b-03ba-4e67-81ef-36f37caa7844

This will tell you where your PC doesn't meet Win 11 requirements, then you can upgrade the components to allow you to install Win 11.

The other option is a pretty straightforward work around. https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-requirement

Saves you buying a whole new PC.

Cheers for that, I like the idea of keeping the thing going and avoiding waste (as well as saving £££s) 🙂 

How easy the PSU is to replace depends how big the case is and how well the cables are routed.  It's often a bit fiddly on smaller systems.

Yes it's possible it damaged something else when it blew up, but it's more likely that it will be fine.

If you can afford it, a modular PSU is nicer to fit because you can just remove unused cables instead of stuffing them in the case somewhere.

If I was considering a new PC I would be buying it now. Apparently RAM prices are skyrocketing due to AI data centre demand. Once current inventory is exhausted PC prices will be going up. 

So I opened the PC up last night feeling all optimistic about swapping the PSU myself, only to be swiftly deflated by this mass of wires...

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I was expecting the power unit to have a plug at the back, but it appears to be hard-wired in?

There will be plugs at the other end of that wiring loom. Just trace where it goes and unplug each connector. There will be at least one connector on the motherboard, make a note of that so you don't forget to plug the new one into the same place. Then remove the PSU, fit the new one, and plug everything back in.

Posted by: chakaping

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I was expecting the power unit to have a plug at the back, but it appears to be hard-wired in?

It's not hard wired.

PC's are modular. Each of those wires will be supplying power to an individual component. Motherboard, graphics card, HDD, etc will all have a plug at the end of those wires. They are all different and it's basically impossible to connect the wrong plug to the wrong part.

Easy swap, just label each plug as it comes out if you are worried. The new plugs will usually be labelled, but you can compare. Newer PSU's have sockets/plugs on the PSU for only the wires you need, rather than the full lot.

I 4xxx CPU isn't windows 11 compatible. My son still games on his i7 47xx series with a more powerful GPU.

I've just dug out an old Lenovo workstation running a Xeon processor, so my wife can access her old emails for her govt gateway passwords. The passwords aren't on her current laptop. Despite being pretty old (10 years) it's super for desktop applications. Only issue is Windows10, but if you aren't doing too much on the internet with it and are careful, it's OK.  I upgraded our old i7 4xxx series laptop as the hinges broke, otherwise would have kept it.  

Is there a long white connector on the motherboard 12 pin and then a smaller smaller 12v 4 pin square connector