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How long do psus last?

B

bendic

n00b
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Messages
45
I was wondering how reliable are psus as they age say >=5yrs? What components determine the reliability of the psu? Are the capacitors the only thing that need replacement to restore units to like-new condition?
 
With proper cleaning, they can last more than 10 years.

Usually, the things that fail first are the fans, which then cause the power supply to overheat and fail. Other times, it can be a capacitor or the transformer, or some other circuitry that fails.

Capacitor aging in modern power supplies rarely becomes significant for 10+ years, especially in quality power supplies.
 
Tsumi said:
.....
Capacitor aging in modern power supplies rarely becomes significant for 10+ years, especially in quality power supplies.
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Thats good news, but I though electrolytic caps degraded alot faster than that? Something like 10%/yr or does that not apply to psus?
 
The capacitors used in PSUs generally do not degrade for long periods of time, and certainly not at 10% a year. Maybe 5-10% every 10 years.

Not to mention quality power supplies are rated conservatively, such that the components are not running near their limits as long as you stay within the rated wattage.
 
Heh......I had a 300W Fortron last me 2 days...........another 1 year......they were cheap.

I've got an 850 W PC Power and Cooling server grade PSU that is still running strong after 10 years.

Most of my Corsair's are between 1 and 6 years old and have never missed a beat.
 
magoo said:
Heh......I had a 300W Fortron last me 2 days...........another 1 year......they were cheap.

I've got an 850 W PC Power and Cooling server grade PSU that is still running strong after 10 years.

Most of my Corsair's are between 1 and 6 years old and have never missed a beat.
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Fortron: its a fortress and involves Tron! How could it not be great? :D :D

Yes, quality correlates significantly with durability over time. Capacitor & rectifier quality and on and on. Its a common misconception that "wet" (electrolytic) capacitors always fail relatively quickly. Quality ones can keep going within specifications for quite a long time.

In terms of cap aging, the most common thing that happens is that they decrease in their capacitance over time. Which means their power storage/output decreases. Often takes a very long time to decrease out of spec, depending on the quality. Quality supplies with a sufficient amount of overhead past their rated power won't be causing problems for common computer assemblies for quite a long time. Unless you are running a supply that is either underpowered or on the edge for your particular assembly.

All components age to varying degrees; caps, wire insulation, resistors, diodes, rectifiers and so on. I think it would be a waste of money and time to try to restore a very old power supply to "like new" status. Not to mention dangerous if you don't use components with identical (or better) ratings.
 
I have a Compaq Evo D500 from 2002 and everything in it works well, except the fans of course. I was my main computer until 2010 and now I use it occasionally to play StepMania nowadays and it does the job. If you have a well-made PSU and as someone else above said, as long as the fan works to keep it cool it should last, mine did.
 
I have an Enermax EG465W PSU from 2001 that has been through 4 systems including a barton 2500 w/ Radeon 9700, and it's currently powering an athlon x2 4800 and radeon 4850 in my brothers system.

In the 12 years of this PSU's life, it has probably been off for maybe a month total. It generally runs 24x7. I had also done quite a bit of overclocking and torture testing, accidentally shorted it's 12v leads a few times, fried a motherboard and ram on it by drunkenly inserting the ram backwards, among all sorts of other abuses. It's got several dongles and adapters on it to make it work with newer motherboards, drives, and video cards. I've even used it numerous times to power non-pc components.

This thing is a horse. It has never hiccuped, the fan still spins beautifully. Other than blowing it out a few times a year, no maintenance has ever been required.

Needless to say, the next PSU I picked up was an Enermax as well. The Infinity 720. THe first one failed after a month, but that was likely caused by a screw that had fell into it. I got it RMA'd and the replacement has been going strong for about 4 years now.
 
Tsumi said:
With proper cleaning, they can last more than 10 years.

Capacitor aging in modern power supplies rarely becomes significant for 10+ years, especially in quality power supplies.
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Over 10 years is very optimistic for anything below the built quality among the lines of a HCP-1200.

Teapo caps are known to shit out very early such as in a mere 2-2.5 years if they aren't ventilated well.

Nippon Chemi-Con's, on the other hand, last MUCH longer. Though, there've been many cases of them shitting out under 5 years on some CWT units (such as the DSG design the HX750/850 is based on, which has lateral metal scraps as heatsinks that make the internals and specifically the caps get hot).
 
I'm using a 300W Delta made with Nichicon and Rubycon caps in 1999 that tested good for capacitance and ESR about 3 years ago. Its +12V is rated for only 13.5A, so I don't use any high power graphics card with it.

I've had about as many Teapos as Fuhjyyus fail in PSUs, mostly in the +5Vstandby circuit of old Antecs, but PC Power & Cooling uses them in some of their products without much trouble, including those warranted for 7 years.
 
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I've only had a few psu's fail on me. The power supply in the first computer I ever built is still running fine in my sister's computer. (it went to her at some point). It's over 10 years old. My server's PSU is a good 7 years old, maybe even more as it may have been recycled from an older machine. I tend to just pass them around.

I think the key is proper cooling (ex: replace fan if it fails) and not overloading it.
 
jmilcher said:
the most important factor is power input...
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I have to agree here, yes the quality of the device plays a huge part in the life of a PSU, but all electronics are best served with regulated and conditioned power. By using a good rated and quality UPS (uninterruptible power supply), the power conditioning being sent to the PSU for the PC will allow those things to last much longer than most because of the ballanced, constant, and conditioned power.

UPS's are underated by most who have never been exposed to the many reasons why they are necessary for more than "in case the power goes out". With a quality unit, they protect you against the worse kind of electrical issue and that is brown outs. Brown outs can kill electronics faster than a surge and because we all experience multiple a day in various levels, many of us never think the strain happening on our electronic gear - but that UPS can compensate for low voltage as well as produce back up power.

By conditioning the power and keeping it at a constant voltage to the PSU, the life of any PSU is extended - pending PSU build quality issues we have all potentially experienced that no UPS could ever guard against such as bad solidering, or bad caps, etc.

I run a UPS dedicated to just my PSU for Frank, then one for everything else in my rack, then one for only my monitors, to ensure that they are always being fed proper voltages. Most people find issues when they buy an underated UPS for their current draw needs then blame the UPS - always buy 1.5x to 2x the UPS you need and you will always be covered. Frank uses a 2500W UPS to feed his 1600W PSU - and it has extended batteries. All my other components are run from an 1800W PSU, same with the monitors. Why so much? Better to have it and not need it then need it and not have it - I feel confident that all my gear gets good solid power and not only will my PSU perform at peak but so should the rest of my gear if the PSU is given good solid power.

I have had a Silverstone 1500W Strider die within two weeks, a HighPower 550W last me 9 years and is still as good as the day I bought it, and an Antec 650w PSU still kicking strong 4-5 years later.Generic ones could last as long as long as quality ones if you got the lucky draw that was done right and had the better parts in them that just seemd to converge on that model you purchased where 20 others owning the same model had crap results.

Point is there is not set limit on how long PSU's should last as a general rule of thumb. There are so many factors that come into play when trying to consider this, such as build quailty, component quality, QC, and more, but one thing you can bank on and that is the the quality of power being fed to the PSU will ultimately determine its life and longevity.
 
The1stCAV said:
I have to agree here, yes the quality of the device plays a huge part in the life of a PSU, but all electronics are best served with regulated and conditioned power. By using a good rated and quality UPS (uninterruptible power supply), the power conditioning being sent to the PSU for the PC will allow those things to last much longer than most because of the ballanced, constant, and conditioned power.
Click to expand...

I'd like to see actual quantifiable data on that point. Quality power supplies have several protection mechanisms to prevent damage from power surges. As well as being able to supply adequate DC voltage during periods of below standard power ("brownouts"). For DC devices, the currents that flow through them are not simply proportional to the voltage supplied to your power outlet.

Damage from surges above 120V/240V, sure. But again, quality power supplies contain mechanisms to prevent this. As an example here, one of the reasons I like Delta power supplies dates back to the early 1990's. They were factory installed on various IBM PS/Valuepoints & PS/2s (among others). Those were sold all over the world, including to countries that didn't have the typically stable power we were accustomed to in the West (and Japan) at that time. Those Deltas could take pretty significant surge hammering (and brownout recovery voltage surges) and keep on ticking. They (and some other current PSU makers) continue that sort of quality today.

Without question, UPS devices are very useful. I never run a computer without one. But not for "protection of the power supply/computer", I run them for the ability not to lose/corrupt work during a power outage.

The1stCAV said:
I run a UPS dedicated to just my PSU for Frank...
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Dr. Frankenstein, is that you? (runs away screaming) :D
 
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larrymoencurly said:
I've had about as many Teapos as Fuhjyyus fail in PSUs, mostly in the +5Vstandby circuit of old Antecs, but PC Power & Cooling uses them in some of their products without much trouble, including those warranted for 7 years.
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I hate Teapo. They BLEW up my old Real Power Pro 1250 which I paid a shitton for. And it blew up TWICE...

Teapo's are notorious for going bad in a few years without showing any signs. The formula is somewhat shitty and ain't all that great.

But yes, you're right. The design of the PSU has A LOT to do with the age of the caps.

And actually the Turbo-Cool's with Teapo's had the Teapo's at the BACK of the unit, a place where they don't get sufficient cooling.

Teapo's age. And when they do, they DECREASE the performance of the unit or just explode.

From the Taiwanese caps, SAMXON is the way to go. CWT uses full SAMXON on many units such as the new HX Gold units or the low end CX Builder V2 series. They have very low ESR, last very long and can get down to ultra low ripple. They aren't as expensive as Jap caps and they're what BadCaps.net offers for replacements on the first place.
 
Fritingo said:
I'd like to see actual quantifiable data on that point. Quality power supplies have several protection mechanisms to prevent damage from power surges. As well as being able to supply adequate DC voltage during periods of below standard power ("brownouts"). For DC devices, the currents that flow through them are not simply proportional to the voltage supplied to your power outlet.
Click to expand...

Challenge Noted - accepted :eek:
 
If the PSU is a good quality unit to begin with, AND the fan doesn't fail, AND it not pulling a 100% load 24/7, AND it's not abused with cig-smoke, cat hair, Coca-Cola, etc, AND the input power is clean then it should last you long enough until you need a higher wattage unit or until want to get a new shiny one.
 
SirMaster said:
I'm on 8 years on my 850w Thermaltake Toughpower. It's in its 3rd PC.
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You might want to check out it's caps, solder joints and what not.

Those units blow up every once in a while.

And they also use some crappy Yate Loon fans with high bearing/rattling noise. Those are also notorious for early failures.

A new PSU based on a superior, modern topology wouldn't hurt.
 
I have a 550 Watt Enermax from my Socket A days that's still being used on a daily basis today. If it wasn't for the fact that it doesn't have a 20+4 ATX, SATA or PCIe power connectors, I could more than likely use it in my main gaming machine, but I don't like using adapters.

Don't ask me why I had a 550 watter paired with a Socket A system, I don't have a good answer for that. I've also popped the cover off a couple times throughout the years and visually, everything looks brand new.
 
Check out the glue. Those old Enermax units were notorious for that shitty "hot glue of death".

Check out the caps, solder joints etc. as well.
 
Caps and solder joints looked good on last check. What am I looking for with the glue??
 
I have two Yamaha P2201 Pro stereo amps, 230wpc or almost 700wpc bridged mono, made in 1976. All original capacitors and still going strong after almost 40 years.

And there are people who think caps die after only a few years? I guess anything is possible with a cheap enough Chinese component.

p2201nudes.jpg
 
Still got a 330watt AcBel PSU in use that came with my 1998 IBM Xseries Pentium 3 server that is currently acting as a switch between a few other apache and file servers. 2013 - 1998 = a long time.

EDIT: Corrected.
 
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kindasmart said:
If the PSU is a good quality unit to begin with, AND the fan doesn't fail, AND it not pulling a 100% load 24/7, AND it's not abused with cig-smoke, cat hair, Coca-Cola, etc, AND the input power is clean then it should last you long enough until you need a higher wattage unit or until want to get a new shiny one.
Click to expand...

I agree. Most of the time, I need new connectors or more connectors before the PSU is dead.
 
GotNoRice said:
I have two Yamaha P2201 Pro stereo amps, 230wpc or almost 700wpc bridged mono, made in 1976. All original capacitors and still going strong after almost 40 years.

And there are people who think caps die after only a few years? I guess anything is possible with a cheap enough Chinese component.
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nice equipment

What you say is true, in fact I have quality test equipment even older than that that is fine.

Unfortunately failure of electrolytic capacitors has become all too common in recent years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/
 
Not being cleaned = overheated components in PSU. That applies to any computer component, actually. No bad PSU's ever, and that's over 100 builds.
 
If the quality isn't total garbage, and it's not overloaded they'll last for years. Seen plenty of 10+ year old PSUs still working fine. Of course, there was that time period during the mid 2000s where a bunch of crap caps were made, so PSUs from that era may not last.
 
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