Good info - thanks guys. admittedly, I haven't messed around with computer power supplies that much. They are either setting on a shelf or in a computer and I use a bench power supply for all my testing work. My only thought was if a guy had several supplies just laying around, maybe parallel them to a common rail and even if one died, the others would carry on until the dead unit could be replaced. But sounds like keeping them all happy paralleled would be more hassle than it's worth.
I was also a bit surprised - even scouting out the usual surplus dealers and discount stores for other power supplies, watt-for-watt, an ATX PS seems to be the cheapest by far.
