that doesn't sound good. brownouts are never good for electronics and modern PC power supplies (ATX) are always on, though they only provide standby voltage. however there is a good bet that it may be just the psu. i'm not going to bother pricing american parts for you but in Australia you can easily get a generic power supply for about $40 new and a very good name brand PSU for about $130. it's a heck of a lot better than a new pc.