Old high quality PSU, or semi-old mid-quality PSU?

[Rexter]

Simple question really, maybe a little dumb. I got a second hand PC with a Corsair VS550 PSU, which is pushed pretty hard with the hardware its running and is from 2017 (current pc its in is from 2021). I have another PSU I can replace it with, a Silverstone ST85F-P which has been in use since 2015 (but not pushed so hard).

Should I replace the Corsair PSU with the Silverstone one despite it age?

 

[P4-630]

I would just get a new one imo, it's the heart of your system.

 

[dirtyferret]

Simple question really, maybe a little dumb. I got a second hand PC with a Corsair VS550 PSU, which is pushed pretty hard with the hardware its running and is from 2017 (current pc its in is from 2021). I have another PSU I can replace it with, a Silverstone ST85F-P which has been in use since 2015 (but not pushed so hard).

Should I replace the Corsair PSU with the Silverstone one despite it age?

given the choice I would put more faith in the PSU I owned rather than the one i did not own especially when the VS tier is group regulated and designed more for the home office PC. Otherwise I would take P4-630's advice

 

[QuietBob]

Unless it's an office PC (or one with a slot-powered video card at most), I wouldn't trust any of these PSUs. Both are very low quality units based on old topologies.

The Corsair is rated for 504 W (old/orange label) or 528 W (new/grey label) on the 12V rail. What kind of system is it powering?

 

[Rexter]

Unless it's an office PC (or one with a slot-powered video card at most), I wouldn't trust any of these PSUs. Both are very low quality units based on old topologies.

The Corsair is rated for 504 W (old/orange label) or 528 W (new/grey label) on the 12V rail. What kind of system is it powering?

Yeah I'm getting a bit nervous now. The Corsair PSU powers a gaming pc with a Ryzen 7 5800X, 32gb ram, GeForce RTX 3060 12gb.
Just opened it up and its the old orange "VS" label.

 

[natr0n]

I put new fans in older realible psu's.

Do some tests check stats in bios etc..

Nothing to be afraid of.

 

[#22]

Yeah I'm getting a bit nervous now. The Corsair PSU powers a gaming pc with a Ryzen 7 5800X, 32gb ram, GeForce RTX 3060 12gb.
Just opened it up and its the old orange "VS" label.

It's always awesome to buy new PSU lol and man can't tell you what condition are both after years of service. But SilverStone is one way better performance and build quality-wise. That's why you could suspect it's performance also degraded less over the years to make those differences even bigger. Additionally you mention that SS haven't been pushed that hard as VS, so another point for SS degrading less. Looks like easy 3:0 for SS. Plus I bet it's quieter what is the only aspect of PSU's performance you notice on daily basis.

 

[Assimilator]

a Silverstone ST85F-P which has been in use since 2015 (but not pushed so hard)

That's not really a thing, capacitors are rated for X number of hours and that number changes by the same amount regardless of running the PSU at 1% or 100%. Of course high operating temperatures i.e. high load will nominally affect this too, but most PSUs are pretty good at keeping their components cool enough to avoid temperature becoming an issue.

Should I replace the Corsair PSU with the Silverstone one despite it age?

Yes. The ST85F-P is a better PSU overall even if older, and the draw of the system it's powering is such that it'll sit at around 50% load, which is coincidentally where PSUs are the most efficient. But honestly neither of these units are particularly good by today's standards.

 

[Rexter]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I can see now I should put money aside for a new high quality PSU, but in the meantime I will switch the Corsair for the Silverstone PSU. I just realized from this thread I havent payed any attention to PSU's for many years now so I have no idea on whats been going on in that field. Need to do some studying I guess.

 

[Panther_Seraphin]

PSUs have increased efficency a LOT in recent years in the lower price brackets (Gold being common place and platinum not massively out of reach)

Titatnium has been a nice shift towards acheiving high efficency at low/idle power loads on top of new sleep states lowering power draw even more.

 

[Chrispy_]

Your thread title is wrong.

Old top-quality PSU, or nearly-as-old, very cheap PSU?​

The decision should be much easier with that corrected title and honestly the 5800X and 3060 will be absolutely fine on the ST85F-P. Buying a new PSU won't hurt, but I'd expect that Platinum unit to outlast the current CPU and GPU's useful lifespan. Why spend money you don't need to?

The only thing to worry about in older PSUs are primary (electrolytic) caps and fan bearings. Your unit has Nippon Chemi-Con, I would expect them to last 10 years of hard labour near their rated maximum temperatures , so a 9 year old unit that's had an easy life at low temperatures should be fine.

 

[Assimilator]

Your thread title is wrong.

Old top-quality PSU, or nearly-as-old, very cheap PSU?​

The decision should be much easier with that corrected title and honestly the 5800X and 3060 will be absolutely fine on the ST85F-P. Buying a new PSU won't hurt, but I'd expect that Platinum unit to outlast the current CPU and GPU's useful lifespan. Why spend money you don't need to?

The only thing to worry about in older PSUs are primary (electrolytic) caps and fan bearings. Your unit has Nippon Chemi-Con, I would expect them to last 10 years of hard labour near their rated maximum temperatures , so a 9 year old unit that's had an easy life at low temperatures should be fine.

Be careful, the ST85F-P is an older Silver-rated model that is not the same as the later ST85F-PT, which is the Platinum one. Good job Silverstone for using dumb product codes!

 

[ExcuseMeWtf]

Silverstone might be old, but looks much more robustly built than VS, which is basically the lowest you can go without being straight trash. I'd trust it as long as capacitors are in okay state.

 

[#22]

The only thing to worry about in older PSUs are primary (electrolytic) caps and fan bearings. Your unit has Nippon Chemi-Con, I would expect them to last 10 years of hard labour near their rated maximum temperatures , so a 9 year old unit that's had an easy life at low temperatures should be fine.

I also wouldn't suspect the most crucial here protections being everlasting.

 

[Chrispy_]

Be careful, the ST85F-P is an older Silver-rated model that is not the same as the later ST85F-PT, which is the Platinum one. Good job Silverstone for using dumb product codes!

Good spot. ST85F-P is 80+ silver, but still uses 100% Japanse caps at least.
The VS550 isn't trash, but it's about as cheap as I'd ever go with the caveat that I'd not want to use more than 2/3rds capacity with a dGPU involved.

 

[kambei.7s]

Simple question really, maybe a little dumb. I got a second hand PC with a Corsair VS550 PSU, which is pushed pretty hard with the hardware its running and is from 2017 (current pc its in is from 2021). I have another PSU I can replace it with, a Silverstone ST85F-P which has been in use since 2015 (but not pushed so hard).

Should I replace the Corsair PSU with the Silverstone one despite it age?

Just experience...I use in my main PC very old but solid PSU 10+ years for now corsair HX 650 (Seasonic clone, didnt remember exac model), voltages fine, cooler fine, hardware fine (I maintenance it from time to time, cleaning), it's solid PSU with 7 years of warranty even in my country. I Never have serious problems with chieftech's PSUs. Also, as far I know VS not good PSU series.

 

[dirtyferret]

Be careful, the ST85F-P is an older Silver-rated model that is not the same as the later ST85F-PT, which is the Platinum one. Good job Silverstone for using dumb product codes!

built by different OEMs as well

Good spot. ST85F-P is 80+ silver, but still uses 100% Japanse caps at least.

if I recall (maybe wrong) it's just the main cap so the other could be cost cutting caps. "Japanese" cap doesn't tell anyone much, plenty of cheap Japanese caps out there. Also, what would a 50% Japanese cap look like? Has anyone ever had a conversation when someone says its a Hitachi cap and someone else goes 100% Hitachi?

now corsair HX 650 (Seasonic clone, didnt remember exac model)

modified seasonic G-650 so not really a "clone" or rebranded unit

 

[Panther_Seraphin]

if I recall (maybe wrong) it's just the main cap so the other could be cost cutting caps. "Japanese" cap doesn't tell anyone much, plenty of cheap Japanese caps out there. Also, what would a 50% Japanese cap look like? Has anyone ever had a conversation when someone says its a Hitachi cap and someone else goes 100% Hitachi?

Usuaully the ones going "100% Japanese caps" tended to be accurate and they had a mix of Nippon Chemicon/Panasonics etc in them.

The ones going "Japanase Caps" were the ones who would do the bulk cap being maybe a Nippon Chemicon then all the smaller electrolytics would be teapco etc

 

[dirtyferret]

Usuaully the ones going "100% Japanese caps" tended to be accurate and they had a mix of Nippon Chemicon/Panasonics etc in them.

The ones going "Japanase Caps" were the ones who would do the bulk cap being maybe a Nippon Chemicon then all the smaller electrolytics would be teapco etc

Japanese Cap is a marketing term meaning there is some sort of correlation to the land of the rising sun and nothing more. Ive seen "100% Japanese Cap" on boxes meaning it was just the main, "Quality Japanese Caps" and then looking at the cap specs and seeing it was clear my definition of quality did not match the brands. Also you can have better caps from Teapo than Nippon chemi-con. These companies do make various quality caps at different specs for different price points.

 

[Panther_Seraphin]

Japanese Cap is a marketing term meaning there is some sort of correlation to the land of the rising sun and nothing more. Ive seen "100% Japanese Cap" on boxes meaning it was just the main, "Quality Japanese Caps" and then looking at the cap specs and seeing it was clear my definition of quality did not match the brands. Also you can have better caps from Teapo than Nippon chemi-con. These companies do make various quality caps at different specs for different price points.

Oh 100% agree with that statement regarding quality =/= location

Rubycon and Nippon Chemicon are held up as the pinnicle of capacitor manufacturing. Other Japanese brands get looped into the same "quality" as these just by being from Japan.

There are plenty of good caps from other manufactuers from other parts of the world but the capacitor plague of the early 00s is still used as scare material for those that arent from those "pinnicle" manufacturers.

I personally havent seen ones with the 100% japanese claim not using all japanese caps but plenty of those with just japanese caps being filled with all sorts of no name caps as long as the bulk cap/caps was from a japanese brand.

 

[TechKilledMe]

Kinda bumping into this thread. When is a good time to replace a good PSU? I have an EVGA SuperNova G2 1000 that has been rock solid for almost 10 years now. My warranty is finally about to expire in less than a year. Should I just keep on using this thing for years? Or just plan to replace once warranty is up? From what I remember reading, this is a rebranded Super Flower that was one of the best PSUs out back in 2015 so I could see it easily lasting many more years. I just like to be proactive, especially with power delivery.

 

[dirtyferret]

I personally havent seen ones with the 100% japanese claim not using all japanese caps but plenty of those with just japanese caps being filled with all sorts of no name caps as long as the bulk cap/caps was from a japanese brand

Every now and they you will see a post of someone opening up their PSU to find different caps(and other parts) than those sent out with the test unit. Now that JG forum is gone you don't see the posts as often but the practice still exists. Even brands with tight control like Corsair & CM have an approved vendor parts list for swapping out. Other brands don't really give a rat's behind.

 

[ExcuseMeWtf]

^We call this AVL (Approved Vendor List). In BOMs (Bills of Materials) usually there is not one such vendor, if possible This is just smart business in case of issues with timely delivery/QC/sudden price hike of component.

 

[wNotyarD]

Oh 100% agree with that statement regarding quality =/= location

Rubycon and Nippon Chemicon are held up as the pinnicle of capacitor manufacturing. Other Japanese brands get looped into the same "quality" as these just by being from Japan.

There are plenty of good caps from other manufactuers from other parts of the world but the capacitor plague of the early 00s is still used as scare material for those that arent from those "pinnicle" manufacturers.

I personally havent seen ones with the 100% japanese claim not using all japanese caps but plenty of those with just japanese caps being filled with all sorts of no name caps as long as the bulk cap/caps was from a japanese brand.

You don't even need to get out of Japan to get "tier-2" caps: Toshin Kogyo/TK.
Very easy way to lower the BoM while being able to flaunt "100% Japanese capacitors".

 

[Panther_Seraphin]

Kinda bumping into this thread. When is a good time to replace a good PSU? I have an EVGA SuperNova G2 1000 that has been rock solid for almost 10 years now. My warranty is finally about to expire in less than a year. Should I just keep on using this thing for years? Or just plan to replace once warranty is up? From what I remember reading, this is a rebranded Super Flower that was one of the best PSUs out back in 2015 so I could see it easily lasting many more years. I just like to be proactive, especially with power delivery.

They are definately good units. Depending on usage you could probably get quite a few more years out of it safely.

I would look to see what is around there in terms of budget to efficency as those units back in the day were pretty spendy so if you were willing to spend the same again you may pickup 1-2 tiers of efficency with another 10+ year warranty.