Dunno how common, but I know my girlfriend and brother experienced a range of problems due to PSUs. With my girlfriend we tried everything before realising it was the PSU, including formatting the HDD (well, attempting to but the PSU made sure it screwed that up too!).
As Squilliam mentioned, HDD and memory problems tend to arise first with PSU problems. My brother also had problems with his DVD drive before it completely went.








