Do PSU's have a life span?

[Flobberknock]

I've had my PSU for about 6-7 years now and I'm just about to swap my 970 for a 980 Ti with my friend as he no longer uses his for gaming. 

 

Now I can see this adds about 100 watts of extra load, which isn't an issue in regards to my PSU's capacity, but obviously will push it harder than it's currently running. 

 

There's nothing that indicates there's a problem with it, but wasn't sure if they degrade over time or if there's a rule of thumb in terms of something like "you should replace it every 5 years to avoid something going bang" kind of mentality. 

 

Any thoughts?

[Skiiwee29]

Generally with a PSU, I would recommend running it for the warranty period. 

[alexhelvetica]

A PSU if built right and treated well can last for decades.

 

You shouldn't use a 10 year old PSU in a modern computer, one because they were sold for computers that the 5V rail was the important rail, and two, they'd have an older design, preform less well, and have less safety features, plus they are old.

 

I wouldn't recommend someone use a PSU for more than it's warranty peroid, that said, there is a lot of shit PSUs with a 5 year warranty (and 10 years - EVGA NEX-G), so even if it's still has warranty, I wouldn't recommend you use it. It really depends on the model.

 

What PSU do you have?

[Flobberknock]

Cheers guys, 

 

@Comic_Sans_MS I'm not sure if this is the exact one as it seems they don't sell them anymore but I think this is what I got many moons ago

 

https://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/powersupplies/nov-psu650.html 

 

Save to say I think I just made everyone here cringe

[alexhelvetica]

1 minute ago, Flobberknock said:

Cheers guys, 

 

@Comic_Sans_MS I'm not sure if this is the exact one as it seems they don't sell them anymore but I think this is what I got many moons ago

 

https://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/powersupplies/nov-psu650.html 

 

Save to say I think I just made everyone here cringe

Replace it please, it shouldn't have been used 7 years ago, and shouldn't be used now.

 

Fairly cheap good PSUs include the BeQuiet PurePower 10, Corsair CX-M, Corsair CX, Corsair Vengence, Antec Earthwatts Pro, Coolermaster MasterWatt (Not including lite, or MWE). 400W should easily be enough for your i5 and 980ti.

[Flobberknock]

@Comic_Sans_MS hahah I thought that may be the response. 

 

Yeah it was a purchase from way before I had even a basic knowledge of components to be honest, and PSU's have always been a gap in my knowledge. 

 

I'll purchase one now, it's been in my head for a while so your post has completely re-enforced that. Thank you for you help!

[Froody129]

49 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

Replace it please, it shouldn't have been used 7 years ago, and shouldn't be used now.

 

Fairly cheap good PSUs include the BeQuiet PurePower 10, Corsair CX-M, Corsair CX, Corsair Vengence, Antec Earthwatts Pro, Coolermaster MasterWatt (Not including lite, or MWE). 400W should easily be enough for your i5 and 980ti.

Imo 400w is cutting it a bit fine. Given OP's CPU is overclocked and they also seem to want to OC the GPU I'd go for at least 500w. A 980ti quite easily pulls 300w or more if it isn't board limited. That's not leaving a lot of room for other things 

[Flobberknock]

I took @Comic_Sans_MS model advice and went for the Corsair CX550m, as you're right, I do intend to try to overclock the 980 Ti so wanted a bit more headroom than 400 watts, plus the 550w was the same price, so it made sense if I'm going to be pulling 300-350 watts normally.

[alexhelvetica]

15 minutes ago, Froody129 said:

Imo 400w is cutting it a bit fine. Given OP's CPU is overclocked and they also seem to want to OC the GPU I'd go for at least 500w. A 980ti quite easily pulls 300w or more if it isn't board limited. That's not leaving a lot of room for other things 

No, 400W is more than adequate. A PC with a 4th Gen extreme edition and a GTX 980ti pulls 386W from the wall, so about 355W DC, or about 340W DC 12V.

 

[Stefan Payne]

7 hours ago, Flobberknock said:

There's nothing that indicates there's a problem with it,

There was nothing that indicates a Problem with this PSU a week ago:

 

7 hours ago, Flobberknock said:

but wasn't sure if they degrade over time

I haven't found any evidence for that claim.

However that does not mean that you should ever combine old PSU with new Hardware because the way Hardware consumes power changes over time oregularly.

 

So a PSU that might have been awesome 5 or 10 years ago will cause unnecessary trouble these days as the power consumption changed because power saving mechanisms changed and it causes more transients...

 

 

7 hours ago, Flobberknock said:

or if there's a rule of thumb in terms of something like "you should replace it every 5 years to avoid something going bang" kind of mentality. 

 

Any thoughts?

You should replace the PSU if you do a major upgrade after a certain period because:

a) you don't know how good or bad your PSU is

b) you don't know if it is able to handle the changes in Power Consumption.

 

And with a bad PSU it might be working but it is also possible to destroy your hardware, though that takes a couple of months and doesn't happen instantaneously.

 

 

And your PSU doesn't seem to be that high quality anyway.

 

 

So look for a good quality 450-550W PSU like Bitfenix Formula or Whisper M, Cougar GX-F or other higher end PSUs.