What's your average PSU lifespan?

How long do your PSUs last?

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spectrumbx

[H]ard|Gawd
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Having gone through another PSU failure, making it the 3rd in the last six years, I am now pondering whether PSUs have a general short lifespan or whether it is purely my environment that is killing them.

I have been a fan of Fortron Blue PSUs and bought five of them. three have now died leaving two remaining with only one in service.

My new PSU is the EVGA NEX 750B (moving off Fortron).

What have been your experiences?
 
I have never had a failure. I think the reason for this is, I tend to get a PSU that just meets the need at the time so, at upgrade time I buy a new one. Using a PSU over three years is a rare thing for me.
 
The only PSUs that died early on me were Enermax 380W and 430W many moons ago, and a cheap 600W PSU from Ebuyer that I decided to try to see if it was ok (It died pretty quick!).
Since then I havent had a PSU long enough to see its death, but havent bought anything cheap.
I'm currently running a Corsair AX750 (7 yr warranty) which is over 2.5 yrs old and has been rock solid so far.

Get a good quality PSU that can supply 50% more than your max. Max power output drops with use, heat, age and decreases further when pushed harder.
It will age slower and should last longer.


How long a PSU will last can vary with too many parameters to give a meaningful vote so I havent voted.
Different PSUs have different design life as well.
 
I've only had one fail on me, it was an Antec True Power Trio 650watt. After 3 years of 24/7 operation, it started to whine one morning, it still worked but was noisy, Antec replaced it with a current model of the same line and it's been going strong for 2+ years now running 24/7.
Some of Antecs PSU's have 5 year warranties which is nice.
 
I've only had 3 psu's actually fail. 1 was a cheap POS, 2nd was an Antec EA 650 and the 3rd was a Corsair TX 950.

These days I only use top notch PSU's from the likes of Corsair or Seasonic. No problems with any of them and the oldest is 3.5years old, 3 of these run 24/7/365 with a 4th running about 6 hours a day
 
I've also never had a PSU failure. My PCP&C Silencer 750 has been running for 8 years now and I have a host of of OEM Dell and HP units that have been running since the late 90's.

Purchasing a high quality PSU and not overloading the system is usually the key to keeping them running.
 
I never had a PSU failure which was a real failure, only annoying from silent PSU. I had one Enermax Modu82-425 refunded because it was emiting a buzzing noise even when only connected to the power, but the switch at back was at 0 position. Then i sent a Seasonic X-650, X-750 and Corsair AX-750 for RMA because of the whining fan noise after some time using them. Now i am using Seasonic X-460 fanless ones, no fan noise from those :).
 
How long they last until failure or how long they last until they became unusable?

Time until first failure has averaged 3-4 years for me, almost always because of junk brand capacitors going bad, but the computer would still run OK unless the bad caps were in the +5Vstandby circuit, which also controls the PSU.

I've never had a PSU become unusable, meaning it burned out a chip I couldn't buy, a component I couldn't identify (or track down), or a transformer.

What component failed in your Fortron Blues?
 
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The only PSU that fully failed was my Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-400 from 2005 Broke in 2011. I took it apart fixed it and to this day it's still running in a old P4 machine.

The other was my HX1000. didn't fully fail but was making my computer act funny during heavy loads. RMAed and currently works fine.
 
About 2 in 4-years time. One is Enermax Infiniti and a no name brand. The inifiniti took a dive when we have a severe fluctutation last year.
 
My 3 year old Corsair HX1000 is failing in my secondary PC, I think. Over the last 2 months, I've been getting all kinds of weird voltage warnings along with some severe choppy playback on any video I've tried to watch. Everything else in the PC checks out fine.
 
Back in the day 5+ years ago I had a few cheaper no brand ones eventually go out... at least one in the form of causing random bsods. In recent history of buying good brand ones seasonic/corsair etc I've never had one fail or even give a hint of failing.
 
I think the never had a failure option can be deceiving. Someone could replace their PSU every 2 years, or only have had one for a couple years.

I keep my PSUs for a minimum of 5 years. I'm just retiring an Enermax EG565P-VE 535W and a Seasonic M12 550W. I purchased the Enermax back when I got an Athlon 64 3500+ in 2005 and the Seasonic when I built an AM2 server rig in 2008. The Enermax powered an A64 3500+, Opteron 165, Q6600, and a 2500k.
 
Corsair had a major issue with the AX1200. When my power supply started randomly rebooting my system I spent a month trying to figure out what was wrong since when it was working there did not seem to be any issues with the psu. They actually stopped selling the AX1200 and when I replaced my unit and called to ask what was taking so long back in October they told me that no one was getting replacement units until Dec 12th. I got the unit in the mail a couple days ago and I'm still not sure if I want to put it in my system, since my old silverstone OP is working fine it just does not have enough power or connections for my sata hard drives.
 
I had a hx620 die on me after a year, got it RMAed and now 6 months later i hope it still runs for atleast another few years lol
 
larrymoencurly said:
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What component failed in your Fortron Blues?
Click to expand...
No idea. I don't know much about fixing PSUs. So, they were all simply trashed.

LOCO LAPTOP said:
The only PSU that fully failed was my Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-400 from 2005 Broke in 2011. I took it apart fixed it and to this day it's still running in a old P4 machine.
...
Click to expand...
I wish I could fix these things. Not so much to save money, but to be able to better troubleshoot these things.

I ended up ordering a new motherboard and CPU in addition to the power supply as I was not sure where the real failure was. :eek:
So, now I have a useless motherboard + CPU combo and cooler just sitting here.
Luckily, they were cheap enough that I don't feel like troubling myself with returning them paying shipping and restocking fees. Going into the local give away bin.
 
I've never had a PSU die. The one in my sig is still going strong for over 6 years now.
 
It can.
Less efficient PSUs generate more heat (which is why they are less efficient).
Heat wears electronics faster.
 
never had a PSU die on me due to its fault
i had only 1 PSU die on me, but it was because of a storm going and bad electricity outlet at the same time

(all of my PSUs were running 24/7 most of the time)
 
I always go overkill with my PSUs, and they last a LONG time. A rig I built 10 years ago is still going strong at my parents house. I have used some of my PSUs on multiple builds and upgrades. I have had a couple PSUs fail on me when I first started building computers and since then learned that quality of the unit and buying about double the wattage of what I actually need is a good investment. Like NukeULater I have a PCP&C 750 watt still going strong in my sons computer that I have had for about 7 years.

The price difference between what a moderate wattage high quality PSU and an overkill high quality PSU isn't usually that much, often about $30-50 if shopping the sales. Then you have something to carry over to the next build even if the next batch of CPUs and GPUs are power-hungry.
 
All of my PSU's are 6+ years old.

Corsair 620HX, 550VX, OCZ 600W, Cooler Master 500W.
A bunch of Antec EarthWatts 380W.

All of them ordered in 2007-2008.
 
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My Enermax Noisetaker EG495P-VE has been powering my system through numerous upgrades since 2004.
 
I've been using mostly Antec PSU's for quite a few years.

I do currently have a BFG 1200 in my main rig.

In the past I have had a couple of the Antecs lose capacitors, but I replaced the couple caps that died and those power supplies are still working just fine. Pretty sure that one of the older ones is probably around 7-8 years old. Not exactly sure since it was used when I got it.

I always buy powers supplies that are rated for a decent amount more than I actually think I need. I also look at reviews from places that do actual good testing, like the [H] and JonnyGURU.

Also keep good airflow through my cases so that the power supplies never get overly hot.

Heat kills electronic and electrical components. The closer to ambient you can keep them, the better.
 
I have been using the same 1200W unit for 6 years. Still very efficient and runs well. I will probably replace it this year.
 
cyclone3d said:
I've been using mostly Antec PSU's for quite a few years.

I do currently have a BFG 1200 in my main rig.

In the past I have had a couple of the Antecs lose capacitors, but I replaced the couple caps that died and those power supplies are still working just fine. Pretty sure that one of the older ones is probably around 7-8 years old. Not exactly sure since it was used when I got it.

I always buy powers supplies that are rated for a decent amount more than I actually think I need. I also look at reviews from places that do actual good testing, like the [H] and JonnyGURU.

Also keep good airflow through my cases so that the power supplies never get overly hot.

Heat kills electronic and electrical components. The closer to ambient you can keep them, the better.
Click to expand...

This is why I have always bought too much PSU. They tend to last longer when not loaded 80% all the time.
 
I've been fortunate. Almost all of my power supplies keep on working just fine to the point where I can use them in hand-me-down machines to other folks.

Even my old Antec Truepower 430 watt still does just fine in a modern day system.

My main power supply at home uses an Antec Truepower Trio 650 (Seasonic build). It's still reliably cranking out power, and the voltages are rock-solid stable.

The only power supplies that failed me in the last 10 years can be counted on the limbs of a triple limb amputee, and that was a cheap Eagle brand 300 W power supply that came with a cheap aluminum case that I bought in 2003. Ever since then, I've almost exclusively used Antec, Seasonic, and Corsair units, and haven't had any problems.


Edit: I did miss one failed unit, one of the Antec power supplies that used those horrible Fujyyhu capacitors...
 
Unabomber said:
I've been fortunate. Almost all of my power supplies keep on working just fine to the point where I can use them in hand-me-down machines to other folks.

Even my old Antec Truepower 430 watt still does just fine in a modern day system.

My main power supply at home uses an Antec Truepower Trio 650 (Seasonic build). It's still reliably cranking out power, and the voltages are rock-solid stable.

The only power supplies that failed me in the last 10 years can be counted on the limbs of a triple limb amputee, and that was a cheap Eagle brand 300 W power supply that came with a cheap aluminum case that I bought in 2003. Ever since then, I've almost exclusively used Antec, Seasonic, and Corsair units, and haven't had any problems.


Edit: I did miss one failed unit, one of the Antec power supplies that used those horrible Fujyyhu capacitors...
Click to expand...

I have mostly dealt with server PSU's popping. They get loaded for years at a time.
 
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