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Do PSUs need regular replacing? Or only if it stops working?

GamerBlake
35 minutes ago, GamerBlake said:

Is that common though? Or is it one of those 1% or less occurrences?

 

No real way to know for sure overall. ;)

 

It's a very big wide world out there outside of the forums or even the PSU companies, OEMs etc.

 

In short it's best to just replace the PSU once the warranty period is getting close to ending.

 

PSUs don't get better with age, yes even the best ones don't.

 

The only real way to know if an older PSU is still in spec is to have it professionally tested like at Corsair for example. They plug the PSU into their testing equipment and run their tests on it. Other than doing that it's not accurate.

 

The old if it still turns on it still works fine doesn't apply with PSUs. 🙄

 

 

 

 

i9 9900K @ 5.0 GHz, NH D15, 32 GB DDR4 3200 GSKILL Trident Z RGB, AORUS Z390 MASTER, EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra, Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB, Samsung 860 EVO 1TB, Samsung 860 EVO 500GB, ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27", Steel Series APEX PRO, Logitech Gaming Pro Mouse, CM Master Case 5, Corsair AXI 1600W Titanium. 

 

i7 8086K, AORUS Z370 Gaming 5, 16GB GSKILL RJV DDR4 3200, EVGA 2080TI FTW3 Ultra, Samsung 970 EVO 250GB, (2)SAMSUNG 860 EVO 500 GB, Acer Predator XB1 XB271HU, Corsair HXI 850W.

 

i7 8700K, AORUS Z370 Ultra Gaming, 16GB DDR4 3000, EVGA 1080Ti FTW3 Ultra, Samsung 960 EVO 250GB, Corsair HX 850W.

 

 

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If it's a nice PSU from a reputable brand, it should be fine for even more than 10 years.

You will, however, most likely upgrade a lot in that time period so the wattage may not be enough...unless you have bought like some crazy 2kW PSU...than you're prob safe lol.

 

Everything degrades with time one way or another, as far as PSUs go, its capacitors may die (psu will stop working).

Expect having lower power efficiency and prob smaller power capacity than advertised.

An old PC at home (that's been upgraded many times over the years but is still within PSU 80% cap) is still running off of a 15 years old PSU. Has had no issues whatsoever so far.

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1 hour ago, GamerBlake said:

Not sure yet. I have a 2080 Ti right now and idk if the 30% performance increase is worth $700 + tax after I already spent $1299 + tax on my 2080 Ti.

well if you can actually order a 3080 then you can sell the 2080ti for less loss than if you didnt. its not like youll end up paying 700 + 1300 for a 3080, youll pay 700 + 1300 + whatever you can sell the 2080ti for, which appears to be ~650-800 bucks atm. youve already paid 1300 and you dont have a 3080, but if you can get an order in and sell the 2080ti before stock normalizes youll still end up paying 1300 ish total but youll have a 3080 in your hands instead of a 2080 ti

topics i need help on:

Spoiler

 

 

my "oops i bought intel right before zen 3 releases" build

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600 (placeholder)

GPU: Gigabyte 980ti Xtreme (also placeholder), deshroud w/ generic 1200rpm 120mm fans x2, stock bios 130% power, no voltage offset: +70 core +400 mem 

Memory: 2x16gb GSkill Trident Z RGB 3600C16, 14-15-30-288@1.45v

Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming

Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S w/ white chromax bling
OS Drive: Samsung PM981 1tb (OEM 970 Evo)

Storage Drive: XPG SX8200 Pro 2tb

Backup Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 4TB

PSU: Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium 750W w/ black/white Cablemod extensions
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C Dark (to be replaced with a good case shortly)

basically everything was bought used off of reddit or here, only new component was the case. absolutely nutty deals for some of these parts, ill have to tally it all up once it's "done" :D 

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4 hours ago, For Science! said:

I think it was something down the lines of "not all Japanese caps are good, but all good caps are Japanese". So its just a marketing ploy.

 

Edit: could have been the other way around "not all good caps are Japanese, but all Japanese caps are good?" or something like "Never seen a bad Japanese cap".... can't remember now. I think it was @jonnyGURU who said it in an interview with GN years ago

LOL!  You mean, "not all non-Japanese capacitors are good, but all Japanese capacitors are good".  Something to that effect.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

LOL!  You mean, "not all non-Japanese capacitors are good, but all Japanese capacitors are good".  Something to that effect.

 

 

Got it. 

Not all good Japanese are capacitors, but all non-capacitors are non-Japanese.  /s

😂

 

But more on topic, as a PSU reaches its end of life through "wear and tear", what would be the expected phenotype? Would a boom or fire be expected? Or is it just a loss of efficiency/inability to provide the watts leading to a gentle death?

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2 minutes ago, For Science! said:

Got it. 

Not all good Japanese are capacitors, but all non-capacitors are non-Japanese.  /s

😂

 

But more on topic, as a PSU reaches its end of life through "wear and tear", what would be the expected phenotype? Would a boom or fire be expected? Or is it just a loss of efficiency/inability to provide the watts leading to a gentle death?

 

Could be a variety of things that can happen actually..

 

Best case is it just stops working..... The rest is a crap shoot and luck.

 

 

i9 9900K @ 5.0 GHz, NH D15, 32 GB DDR4 3200 GSKILL Trident Z RGB, AORUS Z390 MASTER, EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra, Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB, Samsung 860 EVO 1TB, Samsung 860 EVO 500GB, ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27", Steel Series APEX PRO, Logitech Gaming Pro Mouse, CM Master Case 5, Corsair AXI 1600W Titanium. 

 

i7 8086K, AORUS Z370 Gaming 5, 16GB GSKILL RJV DDR4 3200, EVGA 2080TI FTW3 Ultra, Samsung 970 EVO 250GB, (2)SAMSUNG 860 EVO 500 GB, Acer Predator XB1 XB271HU, Corsair HXI 850W.

 

i7 8700K, AORUS Z370 Ultra Gaming, 16GB DDR4 3000, EVGA 1080Ti FTW3 Ultra, Samsung 960 EVO 250GB, Corsair HX 850W.

 

 

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11 minutes ago, For Science! said:

But more on topic, as a PSU reaches its end of life through "wear and tear", what would be the expected phenotype? Would a boom or fire be expected? Or is it just a loss of efficiency/inability to provide the watts leading to a gentle death?

The most common thing an aging PSU does is kills components down stream.  Even a PSU with blown seconday caps isn't a "catastrophic failure" as it will continue to output power.  The more common catastrophic failures is something like an SMT components popping or a MOSFET or Schottky diode popping.  Then everything comes to a screeching halt.

 

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19 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

The most common thing an aging PSU does is kills components down stream.  Even a PSU with blown seconday caps isn't a "catastrophic failure" as it will continue to output power.  The more common catastrophic failures is something like an SMT components popping or a MOSFET or Schottky diode popping.  Then everything comes to a screeching halt.

 

And so would you then recommend preventative replacement of "good PSUs" every 10 years or so? like what would be the decision process in determining if the PSU needs replacing, and how often would you check, and what would be the "replace now warning light", if there is such a thing

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28 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

The most common thing an aging PSU does is kills components down stream.  Even a PSU with blown seconday caps isn't a "catastrophic failure" as it will continue to output power.  The more common catastrophic failures is something like an SMT components popping or a MOSFET or Schottky diode popping.  Then everything comes to a screeching halt.

 

Do you know if a Corsair RM850x is considered high quality?

 

Thats what I’m currently using and I’m hoping spending that extra money at least guarantees a higher quality PSU with less risk of catastrophic failure.

CPU: i7 8700K (5.1 GHz OC). AIO: EVGA CLC 280 280mmGPUEVGA XC2 Ultra 2080Ti. PSU: Corsair RM850x 850W 80+ Gold Fully Modular. MB: MSI MEG Z390 ACE. RAM: 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB (3600 MHz OC). STORAGE: 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2 NVMe, 2TB Samsung 860 EVO, 1TB Samsung 860 Evo, 1TB Samsung 860 QVO, 2TB Firecuda 7200rpm SSHD, 1TB WD Blue. CASE: NZXT H510 Elite. FANS: Corsair LL120 RGB 120mm x4. MONITOR: MSI Optix MAG271CQR 2560x1440 144hz. Headset: Steelseries Arctis 5 Gaming Headset. Keyboard: Razer Cynosa Chroma. Mouse: Razer Basilisk Ultimate (Wireless) Webcam: Logitech C922x Pro Stream Webcam.

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17 minutes ago, GamerBlake said:

Do you know if a Corsair RM850x is considered high quality?

 

Thats what I’m currently using and I’m hoping spending that extra money at least guarantees a higher quality PSU with less risk of catastrophic failure.

 

It is very high quality.

 

Lower risk after it's past the warranty period? There is no guarantee of that. ;)

 

Best just to replace them in the end.

 

Even 10 years is a lot to ask of a PSU really, the RMX has a 10 year warranty.

 

At 10 years I doubt any PSU would still be within specs and that is the point. ;)

 

 

i9 9900K @ 5.0 GHz, NH D15, 32 GB DDR4 3200 GSKILL Trident Z RGB, AORUS Z390 MASTER, EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra, Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB, Samsung 860 EVO 1TB, Samsung 860 EVO 500GB, ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27", Steel Series APEX PRO, Logitech Gaming Pro Mouse, CM Master Case 5, Corsair AXI 1600W Titanium. 

 

i7 8086K, AORUS Z370 Gaming 5, 16GB GSKILL RJV DDR4 3200, EVGA 2080TI FTW3 Ultra, Samsung 970 EVO 250GB, (2)SAMSUNG 860 EVO 500 GB, Acer Predator XB1 XB271HU, Corsair HXI 850W.

 

i7 8700K, AORUS Z370 Ultra Gaming, 16GB DDR4 3000, EVGA 1080Ti FTW3 Ultra, Samsung 960 EVO 250GB, Corsair HX 850W.

 

 

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A good quality psu should not do any damage to components when it dies out. It should just shut down or fail to start.

 

The first thing that would fail in a power supply would be the fan, followed by electrolytic capacitors, if any are used. Electrolytic capacitors are sensitive to heat and degrade with time... and if they still are fine after 10 years (perfectly possible with high quality electrolytic capacitors) they will eventually go bad after around 20-25 years due to plastics or rubber or whatever is used to seal the capacitor's bottom cracking or developing micro fractures so electrolyte would eventually leak out.

 

Other than that, lots of heat cycling and inrush currents (power supply turning on and off) could eventually degrade primary capacitors and could cause issues I guess

 

Don't worry so much about it... if the psu is from a reputable manufacturer, you should expect at lifetime of at least the warranty PLUS a year or two. They wouldn't offer such high warranty if they weren't confident about it (well, most of the time ... ocz cough cough0 

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5 minutes ago, mariushm said:

A good quality psu should not do any damage to components when it dies out. It should just shut down or fail to start.

I actually disagree.  PSUs don't have "ripple protection".  ;)

 

34 minutes ago, For Science! said:

And so would you then recommend preventative replacement of "good PSUs" every 10 years or so? like what would be the decision process in determining if the PSU needs replacing, and how often would you check, and what would be the "replace now warning light", if there is such a thing

Yep.  I never use one for more than 10 years.

 

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16 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

I actually disagree.  PSUs don't have "ripple protection".  ;)

 

Yep.  I never use one for more than 10 years.

 

Cool, so in summary "by a good quality PSU and replace every 10 years". 

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1 hour ago, For Science! said:

Cool, so in summary "by a good quality PSU and replace every 10 years". 

 

If the warranty is 10 years..... 

 

Some as in most PSUs don't have 10 year warranties, I would not use one past the warranty period on a new system or upgrade.

 

And even then maybe a year at most....

 

Most PSUs have 3 to 7 year warranties. 

 

So the broad answer would be NO, that's not the answer.

i9 9900K @ 5.0 GHz, NH D15, 32 GB DDR4 3200 GSKILL Trident Z RGB, AORUS Z390 MASTER, EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra, Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB, Samsung 860 EVO 1TB, Samsung 860 EVO 500GB, ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27", Steel Series APEX PRO, Logitech Gaming Pro Mouse, CM Master Case 5, Corsair AXI 1600W Titanium. 

 

i7 8086K, AORUS Z370 Gaming 5, 16GB GSKILL RJV DDR4 3200, EVGA 2080TI FTW3 Ultra, Samsung 970 EVO 250GB, (2)SAMSUNG 860 EVO 500 GB, Acer Predator XB1 XB271HU, Corsair HXI 850W.

 

i7 8700K, AORUS Z370 Ultra Gaming, 16GB DDR4 3000, EVGA 1080Ti FTW3 Ultra, Samsung 960 EVO 250GB, Corsair HX 850W.

 

 

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2 hours ago, For Science! said:

Cool, so in summary "by a good quality PSU and replace every 10 years". 

In summary, "Buy a good quality PSU and use it until warranty is up, and replace as soon as possible."

 

That encompasses all warranty lengths at least.

MAIN PC:

CPU: Intel® Core™ i9-9900K Processor  Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro Wifi  CPU Cooler: Scythe Fuma 2  GPU: EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra  RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4x8GB) 3000Mhz CL15

Case: CoolerMaster TD500 Mesh PSU: Thermaltake GF1 PE 750w Storage: 1TB Western Digital Blue 3D + 1TB Crucial P1 + 1TB ADATA XPG Gammix S11 Pro + 4TB Seagate Barracuda 5400RPM OS: Windows 10 Home

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SECONDARY PC:

CPU: Intel® Core™ i3-9100F Processor  Motherboard: ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4-CB  CPU Cooler: Arctic Alpine 12 CO  GPU: EVGA RTX 3060 XC RAM: ADATA XPG 16GB (2x8GB) 2400Mhz CL16

Case: CyberpowerPC Onyxia  PSU: ATNG ATA-B 800w 80 Plus Bronze  Storage: 500GB Samsung 850 EVO + 2TB Seagate FireCuda SSHD 5400RPM    OS: Windows 10 Home

 

Former parts that I've used: Acer XG270HU, Asus Dual OC 2080, Gigabyte Aorus Master 3080, Gigabyte Gaming OC 3080, EVGA XC3 Ultra 3080, EVGA FTW3 Ultra 3080 Ti

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