11yrs later my very first PSU is going strong!!

[JEDIYoda]

I purchased a PC Power & Cooling 500 watt PSU in 2005!! U think It will work for another 11 years!!

You need to talk loud so I can her ya,,,,,,

 

[C1]

It could, but some components will wear out & finally fail. These include any exhaust fans or filtering capacitors.

However, for an enthusiast, these are replaceable.

Eventually though, the PSU simply becomes obsolete in terms of connectors & stuff (eg, form factor).

In any event, you may want to check your PSU for start up voltage & ripple via an O-scope.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I plan on never retiring my BFG ES800 and EX-1000 PSUs

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I've got some other recent threads -- 1 or 2 -- on a problem I was having. The unit is a Seasonic X750 Gold X-Series, 5.5 years old.

System had only been flashed with the BIOS update of August, 2011; OC'd variously to 4.6 or 4.7 depending on how I feel about it. Never, never -- ever ever -- was configured for sleep or hibernate. System goes to our 91-year-old Moms, and must wake, sleep and hibernate without problem.

So I was trying to resolve a problem that maybe 1 out of 5 or 6 times, return from hibernation would hang just before or just after system post shows the list of drives configured. If it hung, you would simply press the PWR button and it would reboot and most times complete Resuming windows successfully. Only once in a while, you'd get a menu that the system couldn't trust the hibernation file information, and you could either continue with loading that hibernation info or you could eliminate it and continue to Restarting Windows.

I was going to dump the X750 and ordered an X650 gold x-series for which I've just received RMA replacement scheduled for test on another system very soon.

But I did the BIOS upgrade to second most-recent with the Intel storage driver update.

It appears I may have resolved the problem. I'll just need to watch it for a few more days, raising and sleeping enough times to be sure.

So -- yeah -- I could see 10 or 11 years. Just not sure I'd let it go that long.

 

[John Connor]

I wonder what the power factor reduction is now?

 

[Torn Mind]

As well it should be going strong.

Typically, there is very little data on what actually fails on a PSU and even less information on how it failed beyond the usual "reviewer loads to to its capacity and it fries itself because it can't do it". One, due the fact that warranties are voided once a PSU is cracked open, and surely no one wants that. Two, the number of guys with the knowledge to not just swap a bunch of parts, but outright identify the failed part, are few.

Every PSU will eventually die because the water in the caps dry out. But if everything else on the PSU is gravy, meaning no one was asleep while soldering, no cold joints, no defective silicon, no defective board, well-designed airflow, etc, reaching that moment can take quite a while. Even the low end units can deliver power for a long while. It's just that they can't shut off once things go awry.

 

[jimbob200521]

I have a 470 Silencer from PC Power & Cooling from about the same time still going strong, although it's not in daily use anymore. But it still turns on when I need it to!

 

[bigboxes]

I had an Antec 300W power supply that died in in 2010. I took it apart and one of the resistors had blown on a board. Charred some of the surrounding parts. Was the first power supply I bought. Lasted 11 years. I have such a fondness for those first parts. The only thing still working from that build is the cpu, ram and floppy drive. They are not in use today. I suppose I could resurrect them just to play old games. Memories...

 

[Red Squirrel]

I have a server that's been on since at least 2008 (going by dates on system files and don't recall if I had reinstalled the OS at some point or not) and never changed the PSU, it's just a white box build. Don't recall what kind of PSU it is either. They can last a surprisingly long time, which really makes sense as they are relatively simple devices. The most likely failure point is the capacitors but if they use half decent brands and not Wun Hung Lo ones and there is adequate cooling and decent thermal design those can last a long time too.

That said I probably would not use such an old PSU in a new build, as there has probably been lot of advancements in efficiency since then, and there is probably still a bigger chance of failure given the age.

 

[Bearmann]

Oh, I feel totally remorseful after this thread. I pulled a corsair HX 520 out of my 6 year old build. I'm on my second build since I pulled the Corsair, and both times I succumbed to a brand new shiny PSU rather than reuse the Corsair. I looked at it this week with a flashlight shining through the grill. I couldn't see much, but what I saw looked nearly new. I feel so guilty and wasteful

 

[bigboxes]

Oh, I feel totally remorseful after this thread. I pulled a corsair HX 520 out of my 6 year old build. I'm on my second build since I pulled the Corsair, and both times I succumbed to a brand new shiny PSU rather than reuse the Corsair. I looked at it this week with a flashlight shining through the grill. I couldn't see much, but what I saw looked nearly new. I feel so guilty and wasteful

Six years is old in power supply years. I would never build a brand new computer with that power supply. If I did it would only be temporary. All of the replies ITT are purely anecdotal.

 

[Sven_eng]

Six years is old in power supply years. I would never build a brand new computer with that power supply. If I did it would only be temporary. All of the replies ITT are purely anecdotal.

Nonsense, how many 6 year old+ PC's are out there today still going strong with rubbish non-branded PSU's. Every Dell and HP built before 2010 for a start, which is 100's of millions of PC's.

 

[Torn Mind]

Nonsense, how many 6 year old+ PC's are out there today still going strong with rubbish non-branded PSU's. Every Dell and HP built before 2010 for a start, which is 100's of millions of PC's.

Those non-branded PSUs are not rubbish. Mediocre, perhaps, but not rubbish. Understand that Logisys is also a "brand", and their branded garbage is terrible compared to a mediocre AcBel Dell. The workstation units like those for the Precision are high quality.

 

[Sven_eng]

Those non-branded PSUs are not rubbish. Mediocre, perhaps, but not rubbish. Understand that Logisys is also a "brand", and their branded garbage is terrible compared to a mediocre AcBel Dell. The workstation units like those for the Precision are high quality.

I actually meant to quotation mark "rubbish" in my previous post - I'm aware that the PSU's in OEM desktops are acceptable for their PC builds.

The point stands though and I'm fed up reading nonsense. There are literally billions of PC's out there with non-descript PSUs, still going strong after 10+ years.

 

[UsandThem]

Nevermind. After careful consideration, I'm staying out of this thread.

 

[Torn Mind]

Six years is old in power supply years. I would never build a brand new computer with that power supply. If I did it would only be temporary. All of the replies ITT are purely anecdotal.

PSU "success" years after purchase is rarely ever reported. If it is a lack of data you are talking about, it is the lack of people singing the praises of old PSUs that are still trucking to this very day. If anything, where is the actual failure data and explanation of how the PSUs failed?

Old PSUs already passed the "quick failure" modes that warrant a RMA. Anything else is just a race to when the caps die or an electrical transient decides to randomly wipe out anything from an IC to a resistor.
Two items might "wear" on a PSU within a time frame of 6 years. The caps and the filtering MOVs. But somehow, if someone is buying high quality Japanese caps and only getting 6 years of use, they might as well go cheaper, because 6 years is not worth that sort of premium.

 

[bigboxes]

PSU "success" years after purchase is rarely ever reported. If it is a lack of data you are talking about, it is the lack of people singing the praises of old PSUs that are still trucking to this very day. If anything, where is the actual failure data and explanation of how the PSUs failed?

Old PSUs already passed the "quick failure" modes that warrant a RMA. Anything else is just a race to when the caps die or an electrical transient decides to randomly wipe out anything from an IC to a resistor.
Two items might "wear" on a PSU within a time frame of 6 years. The caps and the filtering MOVs. But somehow, if someone is buying high quality Japanese caps and only getting 6 years of use, they might as well go cheaper, because 6 years is not worth that sort of premium.

My point was that all PSUs fail. If they are going after 11 years then they are the exception and not the norm. I have a hard drive that is still chugging away from 2005. Are there others out there still doing duty? Yes. It's just not common. You are correct about the cause of death. Usually capacitors or when you have a power spike/surge that takes out some component in it's path. I've got a Seasonic that is on 7 years right now (7 year warranty) so we'll see how long that lasts.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I have a server that's been on since at least 2008 (going by dates on system files and don't recall if I had reinstalled the OS at some point or not) and never changed the PSU, it's just a white box build. Don't recall what kind of PSU it is either. They can last a surprisingly long time, which really makes sense as they are relatively simple devices. The most likely failure point is the capacitors but if they use half decent brands and not Wun Hung Lo ones and there is adequate cooling and decent thermal design those can last a long time too.

That said I probably would not use such an old PSU in a new build, as there has probably been lot of advancements in efficiency since then, and there is probably still a bigger chance of failure given the age.

I made wise decisions and wasteful decisions when I rebuilt my server in 2014. It only needed to be a quad-core "anything", and I wish I'd picked the NVidia "x80i" board among my parts-locker that would at least offer me PCI-E 2.0. But the 780i had not yet been decommissioned for apparently the same problem I had that caused me to replace a Wolfdale C2D with the Quad Q6600. It was just a matter of sequence and convenience.

I can't tell whether the upgrade to a $90 OEM or "Pull" processor was necessary, but I can tell that it was marginally worth it.

Because we had at one time maybe 3 systems running in the house with DDR2, I had plenty of good kits to put 8GB in the 680i. No extra expense.

But I did spend ~$100 on a 650W Seasonic. That server will be replaced by an IB i5-3470 in a Z68/Gen3 mobo fitted with 16GB 4x4 Corsair XMS DDR3-1600 9-9-9's that probably cost me "used" [2 years] about $80 when the Egg was still offering that kit for ~$170. I used them in another system for the good part of a year. I can take my time with the integration of Win 2012 R2 Essentials to the household network until the old server breaks down. Hopefully, it will be ready and running before that.

And I already bought a new PSU for the i5-3470 server, tested and ready, for more like $130 because it was a Seasonic X-Series Gold.

Oh, I feel totally remorseful after this thread. I pulled a corsair HX 520 out of my 6 year old build. I'm on my second build since I pulled the Corsair, and both times I succumbed to a brand new shiny PSU rather than reuse the Corsair. I looked at it this week with a flashlight shining through the grill. I couldn't see much, but what I saw looked nearly new. I feel so guilty and wasteful

If it bothers you, settle on a discipline for how many spare PSUs you need to keep in your parts locker. Personally? I'd give myself one and no more than that.

Look at it in a business-like way. You invested in the "plant and equipment" of a good PSU that had a lifecycle of six years. For the accounting and according to guidelines for that sort of thing, it would straightline over 5 years as 5-year property if it could only be fitted into a Schedule C (et al) for a home business. But that's just the allocation of your initial outlay of something around $100 more or less. If you got a 5-year warranty, it was more likely a "good" PSU and the protection matches the accounting and the lifecycle.

If all this was for your own convenience and pleasure with no taxable revenue associated with its use, it still all amounts to the same thing. And if the old Corsair was tested "good" but you just decided to retire to the parts-locker based on this thinking, permit yourself to recycle whatever won't fit in the parts locker.

Good or bad, as opposed to some other items, the salvage-value of discarded PSUs is probably closer to the net return on the recycling output than to the remaining value in the fourth year.

 

[nopainnogain]

Thanks to this thread, I remembered that my current PSU (a Corsair TX850) has been working hard for almost 7 years.

It was replaced today by a Seasonic SS-1050XM². Again, way too big for my needs, but you can't find what you need in my country. Anyway, I intend to put this guy to work for at least 7 years. Not bad.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Speaking of PSU life times, I was in one of our switching offices and noticed some Marconi rectifiers. It had the actual original Marconi logo on it, the one with the fancy M. I thought that was interesting as it's not often you see that company name on anything these days. Those PSUs have probably been in service longer than I've been alive. Telecom grade stuff mind you. Telecom stuff is built like a tank and designed to last.

 

[nopainnogain]

Nice. All things made in order to last are fascinating. Not because they "defy time" (which could, in the end, be considered vanity), but because they need to be extremely well made in order to last: and I see this as a defy to ourselves.

My TX850 seems to be fine and I intend to use it in a less important machine.

 

[Bearmann]

If it bothers you, settle on a discipline for how many spare PSUs you need to keep in your parts locker. Personally? I'd give myself one and no more than that.

Well, that 's exactly what I did. I didn't have any spare PSU's, so the Corsair will fill that need should it ever arise. I don't build a lot of PC's like many of you do here, but maybe a it will be a lifesaver or diagnostic tool in the future.

 

[MongGrel]

Have a few Antecs around that are 10 years +, used to buy some cheapos that would blow up about anytime there was a thunderstorm in the area several decades ago. I started getting much more protective about my PSU's at the time.

Antec is outsourced of course, but the ones I have checked on who made them are fine, the CPU-850 I have in the main is a Delta build and probably been chugging along about 8 years now.

 

[bigboxes]

Well, that 's exactly what I did. I didn't have any spare PSU's, so the Corsair will fill that need should it ever arise. I don't build a lot of PC's like many of you do here, but maybe a it will be a lifesaver or diagnostic tool in the future.

Yeah, you got to understand there's a lot of techies on this board. What's normal for us is not the norm. Sometimes we forget about that.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Well, that 's exactly what I did. I didn't have any spare PSU's, so the Corsair will fill that need should it ever arise. I don't build a lot of PC's like many of you do here, but maybe a it will be a lifesaver or diagnostic tool in the future.

Heh! We should do a survey designed by a psychologist to determine if there's an abnormal number of OCD types among the enthusiasts here! Some of us just get our juice and jollies from building and tweaking, building and tweaking.

Keeping track, I built two "older-gen" systems within the last two years. I apparently average one top-end (or budget-top-end) system about every 4.5 years.

I was going to retire a Seasonic X-series "Gold" 750W unit that had been running non-stop for 5 years -- wait-a-minute! I think I already spoke of this in an earlier post to this thread . . . . I'm getting old . . . But anyway, as an update, that PSU seems to be perfectly stellar for now.