I am a little confused, PSU degradation

[UnknownEngineer]

In all it's simplicity I present my question, do modern PSU's degrade over time, and by how much.

 

I know electronic components can degrade over time, but I never considered that it should be a problem with PSU's.

This came up after a friend of mine asked for a recommendation for a setup, long story short, another friend brought up PSU degradation as a reason to invest in a larger PSU.

 

[Blebekblebek]

it degrades faster when loaded more than 75% for long / sustain period.

most of time it just capacitor failure.

[Altecice]

Assume 20% degradation over its lifetime. But it can really depend on its average load during its life/ Components inside etc.

[Blebekblebek]

technically even if it's not doing anything once you turn the computer on, it still degrading.

[Enderman]

most degradation happens as a result of high temperatures

this can happen by either not having enough airflow, or by running the PSU near 100% for long periods of time

so technically a larger PSU will run longer because it will run cooler, but modern PSUs will last for such a long time that they will be obsolete before they should fail from degradation

[quan289]

How much a PSU "degrade" and losses it ability to output its rated specification varies depending on the design and engineering overhead of the PSU. This is true for even modern day PSUs.

 

Like for example, the Antec Signature 650w is capable of being overloaded to over 850wDC and still able to maintain better v.reg and DC quality output than the Antec Earthwatts Platinum 650w when it's not being overload. Another example would be the FSP Raider 650w, where it shown to not give much of an overhead, as it was design to shut off at around 670wDC but before it did, it has violated ATX specification.

 

Here's something you may find interesting. HardOCP retested their Silverstone Olympia 1000w PSU to see how well it performs after 7 years.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/03/09/silverstone_olympia_1000w_power_supply_7_year_redux/1#.VTAN95Me5Zg