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PSU lifespan

thinkingbear

thinkingbear

n00b
Joined
May 15, 2005
Messages
29
Coming up on 6 years ago I built a couple of boxes using a 600W Enermax Noisetaker and a Seasonic S12-600W. Both have performed flawlessly through several upgrades and are still in daily operation driving overclocked systems.

But the time has come again for an upgrade, at least to one of the systems and to decide again if I re-use the PSU's or not. I know the the output capacity of PSU's degrades with use, but over what time frames and with what consequences?

My first thought is to re-use the current PSU and if I start having problems down the road have that be the first place I look. But the thought I may be playing Russian roulette running the risk of blowing out $1000 of new hardware because I cheaped out on a $100-$140USD PSU bothers me.

What are your thoughts on when to replace a PSU? When it goes will it go slowly and just not deliver enough power, or will it go with a BANG?

The PSU will be driving:
i5-2500K overclocked as far as possible
Single Radeon 5870 from old system, over clocked
Single optical drive, 2 SSD's and 1 large storage HDD
Soundcard plus various USB devices.
 
you should be fine a as for it blowing and taking out every thing in your system some times its safer to use a know good psu then a brand new one that could(very very very tiny %) have a fault in it and fry when you first power it on. Point is if it works don't worry about it a psu can last a long time if not run hot and close to max load all the time
 
Quality parts and design. If you are concerned and they are out of warranty; listen carefully for fan noise, possibly remove cover carfully, examine insides , clean fan blades and use vacuum or air on insides, examine again, replace cover. (hope you didn't start something)
Then wonder why.
 
Thanks for the input everybody. I'll probably just ride the old girls until they give up the ghost.
 
Fan is the weak link in PSUs, they get dirty, noisy, worn out. Seasonic s12/m12 is good stuff, I'd replace fans and go another 5yrs.
 
Most silicon has a very long life span. The weak points will be the mechanical things (Fans, and switches), and the electrolytic capacitors. If you have the instrumentation, check the voltage ripple, and voltages. If they are still whithin spec go for it, they should be fine.
 
I have low quality power supplies from the 90's that still chug along so you should not have to worry much with a higher quality power supply from this decade.
 
If you have a dog bring him into the room where your pc is at. If he wants to leave the room urgently replace the psu.
 
I have a PC Power and Cooling 510 Turbo that's eight years old and has been running at about 95% capacity 24/7 for the last six years with the fan screaming at full blast and it's never skipped a beat.

I'm so sad they sold out to OCZ.
 
I had an enermax coolergiant I think it was 460w blow up on me at least 5yrs old. It was powering 2 ide hd xp 2400xp -m bfg6800oc
 
You need to retire both those supplies IMMEDIATELY!! You can send them to me for safe disposal.
/sarc

If it was me I would pull the covers and do a thorough cleaning and inspection, especially fans and caps. Replacing bulged caps is not very difficult.
 
afoctober2 said:
I had an enermax coolergiant I think it was 460w blow up on me at least 5yrs old. It was powering 2 ide hd xp 2400xp -m bfg6800oc
Click to expand...
When you say blow up, you mean an actual mini-explosion inside the PSU? Did it take any other hardware with it?

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Unfortunately no dog here, but the cats don't seem to mind the noise yet. Taking off the covers, dusting, and new fans sounds like the plan.
 
Knock off the mudslinging or people start getting infractions.
 
i opened it up fuse was blown i put in new fuse figuring wouldnt work. It powered up for a second blew again. I did it knowing it likely happen put it on a bench and used paper clip to start it and stayed back.
 
I think the whole notion that has become increasingly common - that power supplies are somehow only good for a few years - is silly at best.

If you treat your hardware well, it should last a LONG time. That means keeping it clean, keeping it cool, and not asking more of it than it can give. Buying quality hardware in the first place doesn't hurt either.

I have a Fortron 550w EPS12v powersupply that I got in 2003 for a Xeon system. The EPS12v spec means it has dual 12v rails, a 24-pin ATX connector, and an 8-pin 12v connector; stuff almost no regular ATX supplies had at the time. The spec eventually evolved into the modern ATX12v spec, but because it has all the connectors a modern system needs I've really been getting my money's worth out of it. It currently powers my Core i5 server with no issues and I could easily see myself still using it 5-10 years from now.

I could also list dozens of examples of audio equipment from the 60's and 70's that still functions today with zero maintenance. I'm not talking about am radios either, I'm talking about 100+lbs stereo amplifiers good for 240+wpc into 8ohms, 20-20k with soda-can capacitors and bowling ball sized toroidal transformers that pull more watts from the wall than my dual 4870x2 rig.

What's special about all that old hardware that allows it last 30-40+ years and still work?

Nothing.
 
@ gotnorice

I agree with the caveat that there was a whole episode in the 90s where a S Korean outfit had stolen an incomplete dielectric recipe from a competitor and produced millions, if not billions, of substandard electrolytic caps. It took a long time for these to work their way through the supply chain. Caps are to this day very suspect in any failure.
 
afoctober2 said:
i opened it up fuse was blown i put in new fuse figuring wouldnt work. It powered up for a second blew again. I did it knowing it likely happen put it on a bench and used paper clip to start it and stayed back.
Click to expand...
If it blows fuses, that means the PSU itself is damaged. Bypassing the fuse won't solve anything; the unit will probably damage anything you connect to it.
 
Zero82z said:
If it blows fuses, that means the PSU itself is damaged. Bypassing the fuse won't solve anything; the unit will probably damage anything you connect to it.
Click to expand...

yeah thats why I didn't connect anything probably bad cap ? I kept the psu just took it a part took out all the fans
 
I think it's more likely one or more bad transistors rather than capacitors, but I'm not an expert on these things so I may very well be wrong.
 
thinkingbear said:
Coming up on 6 years ago I built a couple of boxes using a 600W Enermax Noisetaker and a Seasonic S12-600W. Both have performed flawlessly through several upgrades and are still in daily operation driving overclocked systems.

But the time has come again for an upgrade, at least to one of the systems and to decide again if I re-use the PSU's or not. I know the the output capacity of PSU's degrades with use, but over what time frames and with what consequences?

My first thought is to re-use the current PSU and if I start having problems down the road have that be the first place I look. But the thought I may be playing Russian roulette running the risk of blowing out $1000 of new hardware because I cheaped out on a $100-$140USD PSU bothers me.

What are your thoughts on when to replace a PSU? When it goes will it go slowly and just not deliver enough power, or will it go with a BANG?

The PSU will be driving:
i5-2500K overclocked as far as possible
Single Radeon 5870 from old system, over clocked
Single optical drive, 2 SSD's and 1 large storage HDD
Soundcard plus various USB devices.
Click to expand...

"I know the the output capacity of PSU's degrades with use, but over what time frames and with what consequences?"

Can you explain the above sentence?

cityjim
 
Degradation of the filter caps will increase the voltage ripple.
 
GotNoRice said:
I think the whole notion that has become increasingly common - that power supplies are somehow only good for a few years - is silly at best.

If you treat your hardware well, it should last a LONG time. That means keeping it clean, keeping it cool, and not asking more of it than it can give. Buying quality hardware in the first place doesn't hurt either.

I have a Fortron 550w EPS12v powersupply that I got in 2003 for a Xeon system. The EPS12v spec means it has dual 12v rails, a 24-pin ATX connector, and an 8-pin 12v connector; stuff almost no regular ATX supplies had at the time. The spec eventually evolved into the modern ATX12v spec, but because it has all the connectors a modern system needs I've really been getting my money's worth out of it. It currently powers my Core i5 server with no issues and I could easily see myself still using it 5-10 years from now.

I could also list dozens of examples of audio equipment from the 60's and 70's that still functions today with zero maintenance. I'm not talking about am radios either, I'm talking about 100+lbs stereo amplifiers good for 240+wpc into 8ohms, 20-20k with soda-can capacitors and bowling ball sized toroidal transformers that pull more watts from the wall than my dual 4870x2 rig.

What's special about all that old hardware that allows it last 30-40+ years and still work?

Nothing.
Click to expand...

Older electric stuff usually is built with much more material, and generally built out of things that dont degrade so fast. Modern electronics will last a long time, but usually its the electrolytic capacitors that are the weak points. The capacitors from way back then usually are electrostatic plates which means they will last an epicly long time.

Some older hard actually isn't too bad on electricity. I had an old fisher sound stage 2 from 1978 or 79 that was my bass for my computer that I finally stopped using when I burned a channel with too big a speaker.
 
Starting to veer a little off topic...but with truly old electronics, think vacuum tubes, restorers and hobbyists will frequently bring a long disused piece of gear up the first time on a Variac, or variable AC transformer so they can slowly, over the course of hours, apply the mains voltage. The lore is that this allows the dilectric in the ancient caps to electrically reform.
 
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