Burnt Smell on Cold Startup

[bariscokmar]

Hello everyone, I recently built a pc like a month ago (25~ days?). I know new computer parts and even the chassis can produce bad smell for a week or two but this one still goes on. When I first boot the computer I can really feel a strong smell and computer is located under my desk. I stick my nose to find the smell's source I am not sure but near the PSU is the strongest I think. Even when someone comes to my room can smell it. It kinda goes away after minutes but still there like a faint smell. Every part of my pc is brand new and here are my specs:

 

Aerocool Cylon Pro Chassis

Aerocool Cylon 600W 80+ PSU

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (OC'd 4.1 GHz @1.3V) with Stock Cooler

Sapphire RX 5600 XT Pulse Edition

Gigabyte B450M S2H Motherboard - Latest BIOS

Team T-Force 2x8 GB 3200 MHz DDR4 Ram

Adata XPG SX8100 NVMe 512 GB SSD

Sandisk Ultra 3D 500 GB SSD

Windows 10 Pro x64

 

I always check my temperatures around and they seem to be fine and I will include the HWMonitor results. Thanks for help everyone!

 

[DJ46]

It might be caused by something unrelated but that PSU is so cheap and low quality I wouldn't trust it even in a $300 rig built out of used parts.

 

For your rig I'd recommend a Corsair RM550x/RM650x or something from the Seasonic Focus Gold line.

If you want something cheaper you can get an 80+ Bronze unit. Have a look at the tier list on the forum.

Though I wouldn't spend a penny less on the PSU than I spend on a case.

 

I've never had issues with a burnt smell on a new component, only when running stuff on the edge at high temperatures when doing silly things.

The typical smell of a new component is just plastic, when it heats up it smells like a freshly unboxed component.

[bariscokmar]

1 minute ago, DJ46 said:

It might be caused by something unrelated but that PSU is so cheap and low quality I wouldn't trust it even in a $300 rig built out of used parts.

Yeah, it comes with the chassis and tech parts kinda expensive where I am located so I didn't change it. So what should I do save money to get a better PSU? And do you have any recommendation on which brand and how powerful should I buy?

[Levent]

I recently blew up my PSU and replaced it with a new and new one smelt like burnt plastic for couple of days, that might be it. Just be aware of it for a while, I wouldnt worry about it for now.

[bariscokmar]

1 minute ago, Levent said:

I recently blew up my PSU and replaced it with a new and new one smelt like burnt plastic for couple of days, that might be it. Just be aware of it for a while, I wouldnt worry about it for now.

25~ days is not enough to get rid of the smell then. Okay I will be on it for a while to see if something happens, how many days do you think I should wait until the smell goes away?. By the way let's say my PSU fails is there a big chance of my parts getting damaged or the safety measures will protect the PSU and the other components? 

[DJ46]

3 minutes ago, bariscokmar said:

Yeah, it comes with the chassis and tech parts kinda expensive where I am located so I didn't change it. So what should I do save money to get a better PSU? And do you have any recommendation on which brand and how powerful should I buy?

Have a look at the PSU tier list here: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/

Ideally you'd get something from the A tier but B+ is plenty good enough. Look through the options and pick something you can buy for a resonable price where you live.

3 minutes ago, Levent said:

I recently blew up my PSU and replaced it with a new and new one smelt like burnt plastic for couple of days, that might be it. Just be aware of it for a while, I wouldnt worry about it for now.

Normally I'd consider that but an 80+ White Aerocool PSU that stinks up a whole room after nearly a month is not worth the risk.

[bariscokmar]

2 minutes ago, DJ46 said:

Have a look at the PSU tier list here: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/

Ideally you'd get something from the A tier but B+ is plenty good enough. Look through the options and pick something you can buy for a resonable price where you live.

Normally I'd consider that but an 80+ White Aerocool PSU that stinks up a whole room after nearly a month is not worth the risk.

Thank you I will check out the list!

[DJ46]

6 minutes ago, bariscokmar said:

By the way let's say my PSU fails is there a big chance of my parts getting damaged or the safety measures will protect the PSU and the other components? 

On a high quality PSU (though some can still have issues with this) you can trust the OCP protection to protect you from shorts for example and OTP protection to turn the system off when it gets hot enough to get damaged. I wouldn't trust that on a cheap PSU, if it even has all of these.

 

It is NOT recommended to cheap out on a PSU for a good reason. If it fails, it can take a lot of stuff with it. There can be several possible catastrophic faults, and even if they are unlikely, think about how many components are connected directly to it. A motherboard might protect the CPU, but GPUs are expensive too and there's nothing in between them and the PSU.

[bariscokmar]

16 minutes ago, DJ46 said:

On a high quality PSU (though some can still have issues with this) you can trust the OCP protection to protect you from shorts for example and OTP protection to turn the system off when it gets hot enough to get damaged. I wouldn't trust that on a cheap PSU, if it even has all of these.

 

It is NOT recommended to cheap out on a PSU for a good reason. If it fails, it can take a lot of stuff with it. There can be several possible catastrophic faults, and even if they are unlikely, think about how many components are connected directly to it. A motherboard might protect the CPU, but GPUs are expensive too and there's nothing in between them and the PSU.

You're right. And I wanna ask one more question you seem like very on point with this topic. Normally after I turn off PSU via the switch behind it, I usually press the power button so that excessive power left on the circuit and the capacitors go away (I could be wrong on this tho). When I do this my old PC's fans and LEDs would switch on for like just a split second and turns off but with this one nothing ever happens. Fans won't move no lights flash for a split second. Is it a good or a bad sign?

[paddy-stone]

I've never known anything take this long to dissipate smell, not even a memory foam mattress, and believe me they can put out quite the smell.

I'd get that PSU out as fast as I can. It also doesn't make good economic sense to buy a cheap PSU if you think about it. Even if you buy a cheap PSU for say $40, that PSU as well as having the potential for killing your other parts, also might need replacing sooner. So buying a PSU for say $80+ in the first place that has decent components, should last you the warranty period if nothing else. Most good quality units will have a warranty of between 5-12 years, so even if you purchase one for say $140 and it has a 7 year warranty, that's only $20 per year, and that's if it ONLY lasts the warranty period.

I'd pay $20 a year just for the peace of mind that a good quality unit should have protections in place to save your other components if something bad happens. Plus with a good warranty, you should get that failed unit swapped out fairly quickly, if that comes to pass.

 

I normally get PSUs for approx £80-160, in tier A, and for me I have mostly gone with EVGA p2/g2 units, but would also consider corsair, phanteks and some of the others in tier A. Also don't forget that a good quality unit can be a lower wattage than you'd think and still be able to output enough power for the job. say a 550W unit can be better than a 700w cheap unit. With your system I'd say a 550W PSU would be more than enough, even if you upgraded some parts in the coming years. So look for around $50-80 on tier A, or B is my recommendation, if you can find them. They may cost more or not be in stock right now unfortunately as a side effect of COVID-19 and stock being low, and more people building their own right now IIRC. So take care with the pricing recommendations, as things might actually cost more right now too.

 

2 minutes ago, bariscokmar said:

You're right. And I wanna ask one more question you seem like very on point with this topic. Normally after I turn off PSU via the switch behind it, I usually press the power button so that excessive power left on the circuit and the capacitors go away (I could be wrong on this tho). When I do this my old PC's fans and LEDs would switch on for like just a split second and turns off but with this one nothing ever happens. Fans won't move no lights flash for a split second. Is it a good or a bad sign?

I wouldn't worry about it, some do some don't... it's not standard practice to discharge capacitors anyway, unless you're gonna be fiddling inside the case fixing something, or resetting CMOS. I believe that might be down to the motherboard protections anyway, rather than the PSU whether it has that split second boot up.

[bariscokmar]

24 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

I've never known anything take this long to dissipate smell, not even a memory foam mattress, and believe me they can put out quite the smell.

I'd get that PSU out as fast as I can. It also doesn't make good economic sense to buy a cheap PSU if you think about it. Even if you buy a cheap PSU for say $40, that PSU as well as having the potential for killing your other parts, also might need replacing sooner. So buying a PSU for say $80+ in the first place that has decent components, should last you the warranty period if nothing else. Most good quality units will have a warranty of between 5-12 years, so even if you purchase one for say $140 and it has a 7 year warranty, that's only $20 per year, and that's if it ONLY lasts the warranty period.

I'd pay $20 a year just for the peace of mind that a good quality unit should have protections in place to save your other components if something bad happens. Plus with a good warranty, you should get that failed unit swapped out fairly quickly, if that comes to pass.

 

I normally get PSUs for approx £80-160, in tier A, and for me I have mostly gone with EVGA p2/g2 units, but would also consider corsair, phanteks and some of the others in tier A. Also don't forget that a good quality unit can be a lower wattage than you'd think and still be able to output enough power for the job. say a 550W unit can be better than a 700w cheap unit. With your system I'd say a 550W PSU would be more than enough, even if you upgraded some parts in the coming years. So look for around $50-80 on tier A, or B is my recommendation, if you can find them. They may cost more or not be in stock right now unfortunately as a side effect of COVID-19 and stock being low, and more people building their own right now IIRC. So take care with the pricing recommendations, as things might actually cost more right now too.

 

I wouldn't worry about it, some do some don't... it's not standard practice to discharge capacitors anyway, unless you're gonna be fiddling inside the case fixing something, or resetting CMOS. I believe that might be down to the motherboard protections anyway, rather than the PSU whether it has that split second boot up.

Yeah you guys are right. I know PSU is a very critical component and should be high quality so that my other parts and my future upgrades have minimum risk possible. You are also so right about the COVID-19 and stocks. Prices went to the skies unfortunately my old PC's graphics card failed on me and I had to get more than a decent computer as fast as I could. I knew this PSU would be an issue and thought let's keep this for a bit when stocks and prices go normal after a while I was going to buy a new and probably a Corsair PSU. Never thought this would be an issue this fast. Thanks so much for your kind reply and recommendations. I will go with a 550W PSU and try to get it fast while saving some money. 

And yeah don't worry I don't do that discharge thing every time, only when I get my hands dirty and try to replace or touch stuff inside the case.

 

Thanks everyone for their kind replies and recommendations you are the best! Sorry if I've done any mistakes, English is not my native. 

[paddy-stone]

1 hour ago, bariscokmar said:

Yeah you guys are right. I know PSU is a very critical component and should be high quality so that my other parts and my future upgrades have minimum risk possible. You are also so right about the COVID-19 and stocks. Prices went to the skies unfortunately my old PC's graphics card failed on me and I had to get more than a decent computer as fast as I could. I knew this PSU would be an issue and thought let's keep this for a bit when stocks and prices go normal after a while I was going to buy a new and probably a Corsair PSU. Never thought this would be an issue this fast. Thanks so much for your kind reply and recommendations. I will go with a 550W PSU and try to get it fast while saving some money. 

And yeah don't worry I don't do that discharge thing every time, only when I get my hands dirty and try to replace or touch stuff inside the case.

 

Thanks everyone for their kind replies and recommendations you are the best! Sorry if I've done any mistakes, English is not my native. 

No worries, your English is very good. Hope you can find a PSU soon, and for a good price.