Psu sitting in 3 inches of water

[roommoshi8]

I have a dell optiplex 980 i7 that I wanted to convert into a gaming pc. I took it apart outside and spray painted everything black and left everything out to dry. The next day I woke up with my psu sitting in 3 inches of water because the water sprinklers unknowingly went off. So is my psu dead? If so I can’t just replace it for $20 because the motherboard connector is specifically for dell. That would mean I would have to buy a whole another $500 computer. Which I can’t afford because I’m only 12. I heard other people saying that if it has power going through it, it is fryed but if it’s off it just needs to dry. I didn’t have power connected to it, it was completely disconnected. Will it work or is it fryed and what should I do? I can’t really afford to buy a whole another computer.

[Fasauceome]

Let it dry for a week, then power it on to see if it works.

[SupaKomputa]

As long as you don't plug it when it's wet, it will be fine.

Put it inside a box with plenty of rice for 2-3 days or a week.

The rice would absorb any moisture.

At my place people wash dirty motherboards, let it dry and resell.

[WereCat]

If you truly had absolutely no power going though it before it got wet then you should be fine. 

I would suggest to let it be/dry for at the very  least 3-4 days before powering it so that the water/moisture evaporates. 

[Mathieu9836]

7 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

As long as you don't plug it when it's wet, it will be fine.

Put it inside a box with plenty of rice for 2-3 days or a week.

The rice would absorb any moisture.

At my place people wash dirty motherboards, let it dry and resell.

+1 for the rice solution

[comicsansms]

7 hours ago, Mathieu9836 said:

+1 for the rice solution

 

7 hours ago, SupaKomputa said:

As long as you don't plug it when it's wet, it will be fine.

Put it inside a box with plenty of rice for 2-3 days or a week.

The rice would absorb any moisture.

At my place people wash dirty motherboards, let it dry and resell.

Rice does literally nothing, and can cause more problems. If you want to remove water from it, hang it out somewhere to die, with plenty of airflow.

[Spotty]

8 hours ago, roommoshi8 said:

I have a dell optiplex 980 i7 that I wanted to convert into a gaming pc. I took it apart outside and spray painted everything black and left everything out to dry.

I'm confused here. Is there any relation to wanting to build a gaming PC and spray painting your computer parts, or are they independent statements that aren't related? Spray painting isn't going to give you extra FPS. Only RGB can improve gaming performance.

 

8 hours ago, roommoshi8 said:

The next day I woke up with my psu sitting in 3 inches of water because the water sprinklers unknowingly went off.

How do you not wake up with the sprinkler system going off?

Was there an actual fire in the building or was it a sprinkler system malfunction (or vandalism)?
I'm assuming your carpet, furniture, and other items were also ruined by being soaked in 3 inches of water? Claim the PC amongst the rest of your water damaged stuff. Then you can get yourself a proper gaming PC. With RGB.

 

13 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

hang it out somewhere to die

... Gallows?

[iamdarkyoshi]

10 hours ago, roommoshi8 said:

motherboard connector is specifically for dell

Cheap adapters exist to convert a standard unit to the 980's connector. 

 

Anyway, as others have said, just let it dry. If possible, put it near a heater to accelerate the drying process.

 

I clean dirty motherboards in water:

 

They always work after a proper drying. But water tends to get places it shouldn't so an air compressor and heat help drive moisture out.

[Jon_Joy_1999]

2 hours ago, Spotty said:

How do you not wake up with the sprinkler system going off?

Was there an actual fire in the building or was it a sprinkler system malfunction (or vandalism)?
I'm assuming your carpet, furniture, and other items were also ruined by being soaked in 3 inches of water? Claim the PC amongst the rest of your water damaged stuff. Then you can get yourself a proper gaming PC. With RGB.

Or maybe, since he took it outside, and never said he brought it back inside, it was the lawn sprinklers?

[Spotty]

1 minute ago, Jon_Joy_1999 said:

Or maybe, since he took it outside, and never said he brought it back inside, it was the lawn sprinklers?

Didn't even think of that. I guess that makes more sense.
Lawn sprinklers don't just randomly turn themselves on though, they're usually set to a timer or manual. If it was left outside then the same would have happened if it rained over night, so OP can't really act surprised if something left outside gets wet.

[Jon_Joy_1999]

Well OP says he's 12, and he's not asking what went wrong, he's asking if what has happened has bricked his PSU. Have you any ideas on what he can do to keep his power supply safe and working?

[Spotty]

4 minutes ago, Jon_Joy_1999 said:

Well OP says he's 12, and he's not asking what went wrong, he's asking if what has happened has bricked his PSU. Have you any ideas on what he can do to keep his power supply safe and working?

The only option is what has already been suggested multiple times: Letting it dry for a few days.

[Bitter]

Let's be honest, that Dell is a pretty poor platform for building a gaming PC in the first place. The motherboard is pretty limited , the BIOS is locked down from any kind of overclocking or performance (like running faster RAM, RAM timings, etc), the PSU is only 300W, and the case airflow is pretty poor assuming it's the mini tower or small form factor system. Adding a graphics card, even a competent slot powered one (low profile 1050 or 1650), will likely push that PSU to it's limits if the CPU is under heavy load. It does use a somewhat standard PSU size so depending on which case you have you may be able to use a standard PSU with this adapter. https://www.amazon.com/Supply-Connector-Adapter-Slimline-MotherBorad/dp/B007YA18RS

 

 

Now, there's no shame in re-using OEM stuff. My first PC I hacked up was an old Gateway. It was terrible but I crammed as much stuff into it as I possibly could and it did better than expected, but way back then a 200W power supply was fine because a graphics card never drew more than the motherboard slot could supply and it was well under 75W.  You just need to realize the limitations of what you're working with and avoid falling into the trap of spending a lot of money and effort on a PC that just won't be capable of what you ultimately want to do with it. Having an i7 is good, but you can recycle that i7 and the RAM into a different motherboard and case and have a much wider world of performance upgrades available to you. I know you're 12, you have no money, I've been there myself! Handing my parents cash to buy me things online, explaining and justifying my purchase to them, so on. I think most of us have been in a similar situation at some point, but sometimes it's better to live with what you have for a while and wait to bigger and better things later on.

 

 

As for it getting wet, do you have city water or well water? If you have well water there may be minerals present which could dry and short things on the circuit board. After you let it dry for several days you need to test it before you connect it to the motherboard! If you look up power supply testing you'll get an idea of how to do that but your 24 pin connector is different and the wire colors are different but they're all in the same locations, so simply counting over to the correct terminals to short together will work. If you're unsure please ask us before doing so, we don't want anyone to get injured and we certainly don't want you to fry the power supply because at your age your parents will ground you from PC modding for the next 5 years if you break it.