PSU Life Span

[BarbaricSoul]

I was just thinking about my system and it's individual parts, and I got to thinking about my XFX PSU. And I realized it's almost 10 years old. I just did a full system upgrade for Christmas (see system specs). How long is safe to use a PSU. I've never had a system that actually pushed this PSU to it's limits, but I do run my CPU at 100% full load pretty much 24/7. Before the upgrade, it was hooked up to a i7 3930k OC'ed to 4.2 GHz system. So do I need to seriously consider replacing my PSU? I had a PSU die not too long ago, and it killed the i7 860 based system it was connected to. I don't want that to happen again.

 

[silkstone]

If it's a good brand, when it dies, it won't take out any components. Just replace it when it's dead.
My FSP Hydro 850W Gold just died, It was 3 years and 1 month old . . exactly 1 month out of warranty dammit.
In the past it had been pushed pretty hard, but never hitting the full 850 W, more like 24/7 at 750 W for a few months.

I've had a bunch of others die over the past decade . . . 7 units in total! None have ever taken out a single component as when I bought them, I checked the reviews to make sure they were well built

 

[hat]

Your system is probably pulling roughly the same power it was before, I would imagine. In either case, a quality 750w is plenty. Of course, nothing lasts forever and any power supply can always go boom... including brand new ones. The question is whether or not when the PSU dies, if it does, will take anything with it or not. A decent unit shouldn't.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

the one PSU that I did have die on me was a PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 860, which was considered the best PSU you could get at the time. Granted, that was a long time ago that that PSU was made, and PSU technology and surge protections have come a LONG way since then. My current PSU is a XFX XXX Edition, and it is a Seasonic OEM model, but I bought it new in Feb 2012 though, so it is almost 9 yeas old.

 

[Palladium]

Need to check which OEM made the innards of the XFX, if it's a Superflower, Seasonic or Delta I would have no qualms using it till it dies.

My educated guess is we are moving towards more efficient 12V only PSUs/mobos very soon like what Dell/HP/etc have been doing since at least 2013, so I would be hesitant to buy any traditional 12+5+3.3V PSU now when current ones still work.

 

[Bones]

Have a PC P&C 750W "Silencer" I bought back in 2007 and it's still doing well.
Not too long ago I did clean it out and checked the caps, all looked good inside.

 

[68Olds]

A Seasonic of that vintage should have good protections built into it. If it craps the bed it probably won’t take anything else with it. I have had a Seasonic S12 650w running a i5-4670k RX480 8GB system for a long time running F@H 24/7. That same PSU ran my Q9650 & E6600 through a few Forum Wars benching competitions. I blew up my original Seasonic S12 650w pushing an X6800 & a pair of HD 3870’s a bit too far. No other parts were damaged when the first Seasonic failed.

 

[harm9963]

10 year warranty ,is worth it , sure is , have 5 years plus left, didn't realize at the time what a great deal I got at Micro center, $149 for a EVGA 1300G2 PSU.

 

[Ruru]

Practically you can use a good quality PSU as long as it lasts, I had an used Corsair HX620 4 years ago which I bought used and it was already ~10 years old, I believe that it's still in use as I sold it to my friend's brother few years ago.

 

[freeagent]

It would depend on how hard you push it really. If you use it close to its full capacity at all times, you should get its expected lifespan out of it or more. But if you go over you could hurt it fairly easy if its not a nice one. Once you see your 12v 5v and 3.3v rails dipping to say 11.6, 4.7v, 3.15v, when your CPU or GPU, or both hit I would replace post haste. I would have replaced it before then btw.. If you don't push it, you could get a decade or more I would think. The one in my rig was bought by my brother in 2012, still pretty tight..

 

[xtreemchaos]

funny you should say but my corsair 750w kicked the bucket on friday , it just shut off while gaming and wont turn back on so ive a seasonic focus gx750 £99 inbound should be here monday. all my riggs have seasonic now thay come with10 years of worry free goodness.
"update" the seasonic has just been delivered, 18 hours from ordering from scan thats fast and it was free delivery .

 

[Bones]

It would depend on how hard you push it really. If you use it close to its full capacity at all times, you should get its expected lifespan out of it or more. But if you go over you could hurt it fairly easy if its not a nice one. Once you see your 12v 5v and 3.3v rails dipping to say 11.6, 4.7v, 3.15v, when your CPU or GPU, or both hit I would replace post haste. I would have replaced it before then btw.. If you don't push it, you could get a decade or more I would think. The one in my rig was bought by my brother in 2012, still pretty tight..

And that is why I overspec the size of a unit when doing a build.
Not a great idea to have one screaming along close to or at it's rated capacity all the time, that just shortens the life span of it. Every PSU I've ever had aside from those actually defective or I personally did something to cause it's death has lived a nice, long life and still have the 750 along with a few others that's at least 5 years old and still going strong today.

I know nothing lasts forever but as long as I can keep using the same money paid for these I'm good.

 

[Sithaer]

Can be quite random I would say.

I had an old 500W Chieftec unit from the 8800GT days or so, that was my first own built PC in 2008.
That one lasted me nearly 8 years, actually it still works but the fan is crazy loud and the on/off button is almost broke.

After that I had a budget/potato Thermaltake TR 2 S 450W unit that powered my i 3/GTX 950 system for years and I had to use it again for ~2 weeks recently as a back up PSU and it still works just fine except for the loud fan profile under load.

I had a 650W Cooler Master MWE Gold for not even 2 years and it died on me, well it was randomly shutting off my system and then I could barely turn it on so I sent it back to the retailer.
My system doesn't even draw 300 watt under heavy load so it wasn't stressed or anything, I generally don't push my systems as I'm not into ocing or use power hungry hardware.

Currently using a Seasonic Core GM 500W, got it as a replacement for the dead CM PSU.

I hope this one will last longer.

 

[freeagent]

I went over on a Corsair and Thermaltake 850w PSU when I was on X58, they did not like it at all and had very bendy rails on both after. It was to the point neither PSU would hold a simple 4GHz OC and run a game at the same time. Once the GPU kicked in the 3.3 would dive to 3.1x-2.9 ish or lower while the 12v travels down to 11.2v. Wont be buying from those guys anymore

 

[BarbaricSoul]

I went over on a Corsair and Thermaltake 850w PSU when I was on X58, they did not like it at all and had very bendy rails on both after. It was to the point neither PSU would hold a simple 4GHz OC and run a game at the same time. Once the GPU kicked in the 3.3 would dive to 3.1x-2.9 ish or lower while the 12v travels down to 11.2v. Wont be buying from those guys anymore

my voltages according to HW Monitor

 

[freeagent]

my voltages according to HW Monitor

View attachment 186342

Mint. You've got so far to go.. that looks brand new

 

[qubit]

I bought my Corsair HX 850W v1 in 2009 and it's still going strong, with no sign of fatigue and the fan bearing hasn't worn out, either. It had a 7 year warranty at the time and superb reviews for build quality and performance, so it's clearly lived up to the hype. In one review, they pushed it to 1KW before it showed signs of stress, which was amazing. That's 150W over its rated spec. I wouldn't expect any PSU to manage that.

When I eventually upgrade my CPU, I'll probably replace the PSU with an even better one, because newer PSUs support the latest ATX spec which enables modern power management features on the latest CPUs. And hey, it's still an old PSU and could fail at any time. While it's got protection circuits like you'd expect on a quality PSU, it's probably best not to push my luck with a new CPU, mobo, RAM and graphics card.

Given that you've just invested in an expensive upgrade and I don't know how good that XFX PSU is, I suggest replacing it with a Seasonic, or similar quality brand.

 

[StaticVapour]

I have Antec Neo HE500 (it's Seasonic) from 2005, just replaced it's 80mm fan with new one. The original had ball bearings so worn down that it had sound of an old diesel engine.

These wont last forever, there are quite many things that can affect PSU's lifespan

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I'm torn on this, I wouldn't risk it on My pc but my old Ocz 750 watt PSU from over ten years ago lives on in my nephew's pc with a new fan and the on off switch replaced without a hiccup, so far.
In the other end of that coin a winpower piece of shit I intend to beat to death with a baseball bat just killed a second pc I built up with it in, and I checked it's outputs were ok pre build both time's , it was new two years ago, I can't wait to smash that bast#@d.
In my pc ten years is my limit but I'd pay 4_500£ for quality power so expect better for my own.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I had a corsair 700w die after close to 15 years

 

[freeagent]

In one review, they pushed it to 1KW before it showed signs of stress, which was amazing. That's 150W over its rated spec. I wouldn't expect any PSU to manage that.

Yup, that's what I did, not quite 1KW, 950w, maybe a touch more. Mine was a TX. The Thermaltake was a modular 850 and it faded at 937w.

Both times wasn't on purpose, more of an oops.. I didn't pursue RMA either time.

 

[Bill_Bright]

How long is safe to use a PSU.

Until it is no longer safe. But there is no way to predict when (or if) that may be.

It should be noted that power supplies don't typically become "unsafe" as they age, or even when they fail. In fact, most are simply retired before they die because they become obsolete due to new and greater size requirements or they lack a needed connector for new hardware. Others are replaced because their fan bearings started to whine annoyingly, or perhaps a coil or transformer started to whine.

Typically, when a PSU fails due to age, it simply shuts down one or more of its output voltages. It does not become "unsafe".

So if your PSU is still functioning properly (and quietly), has sufficient capacity and the correct connectors, there's no need to replace it just because it is X number of years old.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Given that you've just invested in an expensive upgrade and I don't know how good that XFX PSU is, I suggest replacing it with a Seasonic, or similar quality brand.

It is a Seasonic OEM

 

[qubit]

It is Seasonic OEM

That's good, nice and safe.

 

[trickson]

I have a TX850 corsair PSU got back in 2012 and well it's still going strong it's in the AMD FX8300 I am on RIGHT NOW!
It's my office puter now.