When do you finally retire a PSU?

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Guarateed_12

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I have an EVGA 1000G Gold Power 1000w PSU. The thing is... it's probably seen about 8 to 9 years of service but that "service" has been far below what the PSU is capable of. This thing has never been pushed or strained. I'm pretty sure what I need to consider is age. And that's what brings me here and to my question "Should I be shopping for a replacement?".
 
Surely if there are no reliability or performance issues it's fine to let it soldier on, especially if you have it operating well within its limitations.

Keeping it clean and well maintained is the key, there's no reason why it won't give you at least another couple of years, the Corsair RM650 in my daily driver is 12 years old and performs as well now as it did on day one. If it works why change it?

As an aside a few years ago I was planning an upgrade and bought a few items including a far superior PSU, however that build never happened. When I attempted to use it recently it was completely dead, who knew that sitting idle for years does more harm than a decade of regular usage?
 
I've only "demoted" old power supplies when I have a new build where its cost dwarfs the cost of a new power supply (e.g. new PSU is only 10% of the build cost). At that point its usually a new MB, CPU, GPU, etc. anyways so I just keep the old PSU with the old parts.
 
I bought a Corsair CMPSU-850TX in 2009 and sold it to a friend in like 2016??? or so. That thing had been running near 24/7 since it was installed and he only stopped using it because he upgraded to a whole new rig last year.

Not that warranty period always indicates reliability, but it only had a 5 year warranty. The EVGA 1000G has a 10 year warranty, so I would expect it to last even a lot longer than that. I'd keep on using it.
 
ive only replaced them when they dont meet the system needs or they pop. the 750w in my system now was salvaged from old C2Q system i found sitting outside at a buddies place...
 
Since i expect them to die without burning the house down i´ve only retired them if the system starts to crash (the intervall of crashes shortens = psu dies)

Or after a flood:

12.jpg


Nigirin contact spray helps with fluid spillage (or cleaning sandy/dirty pcie slots) - but this is high wattage and the risk is simply too great
 
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I have a Seasonic-built Corsair 850W PSU that has seen daily use for 13 years. I'm overdue for a new main PC though, and when I do finally build one, I'm going to replace the PSU. But the current one has performed flawlessly this whole time. 2023 was especially rough on it, cuz I got an MSI Suprim X RTX 3090 from a guy over on thefpsreview forums back in January, and it's been working the PSU haaaaaard. Still it takes those workloads with no issue.
 
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When they die or when I retire the rig that they're in. I tend to do full builds and keep old ones around. Vid cards don't count as part of a build. My current oldest is a X79/Socket 2011 build I did in April 2012. Still has the original board and PSU. Post OCZ acquisition PC Power & Cooling Silencer 950W PSU too. Maybe those weren't that bad? Half the ram is original -- I doubled it in 2014. Swapped the i7-3820 for a Xeon E5-2687Wv2 a couple years ago. The PSU in this box will get recycled when the rest of it gets recycled. Maybe I'll keep the case.
 
DrezKill said:
I have a Seasonic-built Corsair 850W PSU that has seen daily use for 13 years. I'm overdue for a new main PC though, and when I do finally build one, I'm going to replace the PSU. But the current one has performed flawlessly this whole time. 2023 was especially rough on it, cuz I got an MSI Suprim X RTX 3090 from a guy over on thefpsreview forums back in January, and it's been working the PSU haaaaaard. Still it takes those workloads with no issue.
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The beating heart of the system, PSU's rarely get any praise or attention. I salute your battle worn stalwart.
 
They usually get retired when they pop, but more realistically get thrown in a box and forgotten about. I was happy to have the old Rosewill Capstone 1kw when my girlfriend's computer's PSU decided to get flakey. It only got taken off primary duty because I moved to an ITX setup in a case that only fits SFX PSUs. No apparent issues with it, and it's /old/ now.
 
I replace when the rails get saggy, get some crashes that are not settings or OS related, or if I think its just not up to par anymore.
 
I generally get a new PSU each time I build myself a new rig, every 2-4 yearsish. I generally leave the old PSU with the rig it was initially built with. A 10-12yr warranty is mandatory.

I just had a 11yo Seasonic x1050 kill the MB and CPU it was hooked up to when it died. Rails were solid as a rock, it gave no signs of weakness whatsoever prior to its death :(
My new theory is once the warranty expires the PSU will be relegated to pump bumping and other soft jobs. Expensive lessons suck ass.
 
I normally get a new PSU if I do a complete new build. I hand down or sell the older parts.
 
I had a 550 Watt Cooler Master in use for > 15 years on numerous builds.. It was even running without good airflow so the fan would run elevated for over a year (on 24x7).. still worked fine... but I never run my PSUs above 1/2 capacity.

Gave it away to a friend and still in use for like 18 years now LOL..

Honestly though, if you feel the need, open it up and see if there are any bulging caps.. that would be your first sign... or if you have a way to load test it for sag / stability, etc..


My APC battery backup (full sign wave) is > 15 years old.. but I recapped it 5 years ago. Still going strong. I replace batteries (lead acid) every 30 months or so. This is 1,500 watts, so really never hit it above 400 watts or so (with monitors, network gear, etc.)
 
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Guarateed_12 said:
I have an EVGA 1000G Gold Power 1000w PSU. The thing is... it's probably seen about 8 to 9 years of service but that "service" has been far below what the PSU is capable of. This thing has never been pushed or strained. I'm pretty sure what I need to consider is age. And that's what brings me here and to my question "Should I be shopping for a replacement?".
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I have a Rosewill 1K bronze that has been through several builds. At first it was overkill, then it became just enough, then with new equipment is now operation under spec again. Yeah, Rosewill, still working fine after nearly ten years with a spare in the drawer.
 
narsbars said:
I have a Rosewill 1K bronze that has been through several builds. At first it was overkill, then it became just enough, then with new equipment is now operation under spec again. Yeah, Rosewill, still working fine after nearly ten years with a spare in the drawer.
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If I remember right a lot of those older high wattage Rosewills are CWT OEM and tested pretty much top of their class when new. I've got an old Rosewill Capstone 1kw that's still going strong in my girlfriend's PC. It was in a box for years because I switched to SSD, had to pull it out a few months ago when her much newer Corsair 750w bit the dust.
 
I'm demoting my 10 year old CoolerMaster V1000 because it can't handle the transient spikes of my (new to me) RTX 3080 Ti. That is getting replaced with an MSI MPG A850G. It seems the older Seasonic platforms were quite sensitive to transients.
 
I'm still running my Antec Truepower Trio 650 watt unit (Seasonic build) in one of my office PC's. I think I got this power supply either in late 2007 or early 2008, and there was no worries about there being any of those satanic Fuhjyuu capacitors in it.

Voltages are stable, and it's still chugging along powering up an Intel i3 10100-based system with a GeForce 960 GTX. I figure since the power needs for this system are low, that the old warrior can still keep on chugging along, essentially being put out to pasture.

I have a 520 watt Seasonic unit ready to replace it, but it can certainly wait its turn. I know that I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of the old Antec unit several times over.
 
looking over the responses, it's amazing how long a quality unit can last. i changed out my old corsair HX650 because i felt i needed something with a bit more power when i rebuilt last year. well that 15 year old corsair is still running to this day....gave all my old parts to the brother in-law.

needless to say i got another corsair. not sure about you guys, but i can thank [H] back in the day for doing all the PSU reviews. those demonstrated to me why i should be buying quality power supplies.
 
Unless physical damage occurs I use power supplies for test rigs for a LONG time. I probably have some 15 year old units. But for new rigs I want few issues with, I usually try not to exceed 5 years if I'm re-using parts.
 
I bought a X750 in 2012 and used it until about 2019~ when I got a RX580 and for some reason my rig would not boot with the RX580 and the Seasonic, a spare corsair 650 watt power supply worked fine with this set up... Seasonic RMA's the X750 (replaceing it with a mkII but without MKII cables initially would did cause some confusion and after a bit of back and forth I received the need MKII cables... I have been using the replacement X750 MKII since then... I haven't bought a power supply since 2012 apparently...
 
Usually until it dies, though I replaced my 1050w Silver rated PSU with a 850w Platinum rated one recently, because 1) I didn't need the extra power and 2) it was getting really old. Still works, though, and I use it for testing.
 
I bet a PSU that is never turned off would probably last 25+ years whereas a PSU that is turned on a dozen times a day would probably last half of that.
 
Carlyle2020 said:
Since i expect them to die without burning the house down i´ve only retired them if the system starts to crash (the intervall of crashes shortens = psu dies)

Or after a flood:

View attachment 600354

Nigirin contact spray helps with fluid spillage (or cleaning sandy/dirty pcie slots) - but this is high wattage and the risk is simply too great
Click to expand...
Anything electronic that's subjected to submersion must be completely disassembled and cleaned out with anhydrous solvent, dried extremely well and tested with lower voltage (at least the light bulb test) to make sure its OK. This takes way too much time and with the price of PC parts it's better to toss/replace.
 
There are a couple reasons to look for a new PSU. You might be interested in a more modular model with thinner/more/better cables. You could be interested in something that's ATX 3.0 certified or featuring PCIE 12V cables for a cleaner setup with newer video cards. Your fan might be louder than you'd like and you might want a quieter one. I'm sure there are other reasons along the same lines, too.
You have to weigh desires like those with how much the $200'ish means to your budget.
 
No worries mate, i´ve already sorted everything out.

BeQuiet 1500watt
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Evga 850 ga:
1706739253881.png


And those are nice stand-ins since my new 4090 rig lives behind a sound dampening divider and is very utilitarian:

1706739941721.png
 
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