BFG EX-1000... Anyone still using one of these?

Sudos

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Jan 8, 2013
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There's already an official thread about this power supply from back in 2009, but I didn't want to go resurrecting that ancient of a thread just to ask a silly question such as this. but, curiosity is getting the better of me.

Is anyone out there still using one of these supplies? I'm currently powering my daily-driver box made of 100% used parts, off one of these. (i5-2500k, 16GB of RAM, P67-SLI motherboard, GTX 750Ti, GT430 for secondary, an SSD and 5 spinnydisks, plus optical drive.) Handles the load very well, even if I'm not really pushing the thing at full tilt. At one point I had a 6970 2GB in there and that was starting to kinda push it a bit, but not really.

I got the BFG out of a pile of scrap at my friend's ewaste recycling business and slapped it in. at that point in time I was using an OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W thing that died as they all do-- Cheapo Teapo input filter cap dried up and took out half the PSU with it. Needed a stopgap solution to hold me over, and since then, I've stopped looking for a replacement and just embraced this meaty mess of absolute win. I've read reviews and have heard the issues of ripple on the second and third 12V rails, but I'm not using those at all, so I guess I've just been lucky.


The PSU in question in its natural habitat. excuse the crude-cut sheetmetal surround. the case is 20 years old and needed modification.
6jHj8wF.jpg


From a time when dual HD4870X2s in Crossfire would have been the big in-thing to do for all them frames, it still leads to the question, as I do have a friend that collects BFG products and has been pestering me to give it up as a working example of one for his hoard... Are there any others out there in computerland still making use of one of these nearly 10 years down the line? Even if it's in a server/NAS/etc. doing some kind of work... how many are left in the wild?

I know of only one other on eBay being sold right now for about $65... and that's a bit steep considering that which is being sold is an almost decade-old 1kW supply from a dead company.
 
Wasn't BFG's main draw that they offered a lifetime warranty when that wasn't really common? Until they went under anyway.

I'd be suspicious of using that unit nowadays given that capacitor aging has to be taking a toll on it. The efficiency probably isn't terrible at least since those were rated to at 80%+ with all Japanese caps.
I actually recently retired a Silverstone Olympian from around the same era, not because it wasn't still working, but just because it felt like time to let it go.

edit: If you knew the condition of the PSU while it was running you could probably better gauge if it needed replacing or not, but since that's a mystery I'd err on the side of caution with it.
 
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