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When do you replace your PSU? When it dies?

If you don't need more capacity, when should you replace your PSU?

  • Total voters
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J

J Macker

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jan 25, 2001
Messages
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I've got an "old" Antec Quattro 850w. Nothing is wrong with it. It's probably 3 years old.

I saw another thread where another user was asking if he should replace his PSU.
So I'm curious;

If you don't need more capacity, when should you replace your psu? After it dies? Before it dies?

Will it kill other hardware when it dies?
Sell it before it dies to an unknowing victim?
 
How long a warranty did Antec give you with it, just out of curiousity?
 
I would say, after the warranty is up, start looking for an exceptional deal on a power supply. If it goes out before you manage to find said deal, well... you don't have much choice in the matter, do you?
 
Till it dies. And when it does my hardware's already old and it probably took them out too. ANOTHER GOOD REASON TO UPGRADE.
 
J Macker said:
If you don't need more capacity, when should you replace your psu? After it dies? Before it dies?
Click to expand...
Numerous reason to start looking at a new PSU:
1) If it dies, of course replace it.
2) If hardware starts randomly dying, replace it.
3) if it's a poor quality PSU to begin with, replace it.
4) If you start seeing random stability issues that goes away when you try a different PSU, replace it
5) If it's more than 5 to 6 years or so and not under warranty, I would start looking around for great PSU deals just in case
6) If you're not having random stability issues, random dying hardware, your PSU is of good quality to begin with, if it meets the current power needs of the PC, and it's less than 7 years old, don't really need to replace it.
J Macker said:
Will it kill other hardware when it dies?
Click to expand...
If it's a good quality PSU, the chance of that is low. Still happens even with good PSUs but the chance of that happening with good PSUs is fairly low.
 
I'm using a PSU made in 1999 that was bought used (pull from an Acer desktop). It was repaired only when first received because of broken solder on the transformer (rough handling in shipping?).

If a PSU goes bad and the cause isn't a bad transformer, it gets fixed and reused.
 
I still have an OCZ 420W with rail pots on the back going strong. I don't have much experience, but I don't like replacing this for the sake of replacing them.

Although if building a new system, it feels nice to have ALL new parts. Unboxing is at least 45% of the fun :D.
 
buy top quality PSUs and run the snot out of them till flames shoot out the back.

Replace electrolytic capacitors every 5 years.
 
meh if it is a high quality unit .... so far anyways I guess I just don't worry much about it


I am trying for the life of me to remember how old the Corsair VX550W in my wife's computer is??? I think it is going on five years old.


for that matter i had a pfsense box that was a old as could be p4 box with the orig generic psu in it... that thing had to be 10yrs old and ran 24/7 till i retired it to cut power usage (using DD-wrt instead now w/ little linksys router..... I prefer pfsense but couldn't justify running a full pc for that...


I have replaced power supplies mainly as upgrades rather than due to failures or to prevent failures.

I got a TX650 for my rig 2yrs ago.. and gave my wife the VX550 (i really bought the tx650 mainly for this) not because her old power supply was failing but because it had a 80mm rear fan and it was loud as heck.


I just got a Seasonic X750 for my rig to try to cut down cable clutter and move the TX650 to my home ESXi server ... this server had been running for 2+ years w/ a Xigmatek NRP-PC402 ..this power supply will now move to duty in my back up pc i have laying around ...ironically powered currently by the same power supply that use to be in my wife's computer when my video card ate shite i had to actually use the back up rig for a couple days and the noise was unbearable.

the NRP-PC402 doesn't enjoy the best reputation ... and may well deserve this ..it did however run my esxi server for the last 2+ years without any problems....meh



what i need to do is round up the various ancient very unmodern design ...i.e basically useless 300~450Watt psu's i some how have laying around here... and ewaste / donate them.. need to really do some general spring cleaning (somewhat late perhaps :D) I have a ton of basically useless (to me) old computer crap around here.
 
Antec's True Power Quattro 850 Watt power supply has a 5 year warranty. Thank you for supporting Antec!
 
The only PSU I have had die on me is on my recent build when I chose a Corsair Professional AX750w 80+ Gold. It was running fine for 10 seconds and then a loud pop and all the power went out, that was followed by another pop. Correction I have had my first build power supply fail on me but not with a popping sound. I am glad they have good warranties. I took it back and got a Antec instead. It has been running fine ever since. I know PSU's have fail rates but I didn't want lightning to strike twice.
 
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When the warranty has ended the PSU gets replaced. Unless, of course, the unit fails prior to warranty ending which has happened to me before. That is why I keep a spare PSU handy that will run my system at full load with roughly 25% capacity overhead.
 
Between home and work every 7 to 8 years is about when I replace a power supply (if it did not die earlier) that is unless I replace the whole system (work only). At home that means a power supply will last 3 motherboards that is since the early 90s when I started building every desktop / server that I have had.
 
Same philosophy as with car batteries - replace it well before failure :p

My TX750 is about 4.5 years now (5-year Corsair warranty). Will probably be replacing it in a few weeks or months. The TX750 then becomes my 'diagnostic/backup' PSU.
 
larrymoencurly said:
I'm using a PSU made in 1999 that was bought used (pull from an Acer desktop). It was repaired only when first received because of broken solder on the transformer (rough handling in shipping?).

If a PSU goes bad and the cause isn't a bad transformer, it gets fixed and reused.
Click to expand...

Yep if the capacitors start to look bad, then I'll desolder them and replace with quality ones.
 
yes same i only build couple of PCs, just once i had PSU died, i sold the rig, build new one hadn't had problem yet been over 5 years.
 
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