• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Boy, 24/7 running 100% on video cards is hard on PSU's

Markfw

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
I just burned out another PSU. This time a Antec 550 NEO. It boots the comp, and after 5 minutes, just shuts off. Can't restart until you remove the power card for 5 minutes, then restart, and 5 minutes later, it shuts down again. I verified this, after putting a 1010 watt PSU on it, changing nothing else. Up for an hour now. This system has always been a flaky one, and I could never get a good OC. I always suspected the PSU. Now I think I have confirmed it was on the edge all the time. a Q8200@2.8 and 2 8800 GTs superclocked to 720. All @100%load 24/7. I think that was a lot for a 550 watt PSU.

The last PSU was an OCZ 700 watt, but that was due to heat. I left the side cover on, and when it died, I took the case cover off, and man was it a furnace in there ! And had been on 24/7 for a year that way. I can't blame the PSU on that one.
 
Yeah, I agree.
I just replaced 2 PSUs of comps who had been running 24/7 for more than 3 years ...
The second part to fail are HDD ... and graphics cards used for crunching ...
 
Well you should know what power supplies are built to last. I always hear bad things about ocz ps but never had an issue with any I've used.
 
Well I have tried quite a few "quality" PSU. The best - IMHO - are oversized PSUs: you need 300W and put in a 600W one.
Those who last the longest in my cruncher farm are from scrapped servers ... and there is no name on them ...
Just now I have 11 FSP 600W PSUs which have lasted more than 3 years - 24/7 ... all others have had some failures ... no matter what price range, quality, test results ...
OTOH: my experience is not that big ... I have had 15 or more computers running 24/7 only since 2003 ... and the pros among you all have much more experience! 😉
 
petrusbroder said:
Well I have tried quite a few "quality" PSU. The best - IMHO - are oversized PSUs: you need 300W and put in a 600W one.
Those who last the longest in my cruncher farm are from scrapped servers ... and there is no name on them ...
Just now I have 11 FSP 600W PSUs which have lasted more than 3 years - 24/7 ... all others have had some failures ... no matter what price range, quality, test results ...
OTOH: my experience is not that big ... I have had 15 or more computers running 24/7 only since 2003 ... and the pros among you all have much more experience! 😉
Click to expand...
yea amen to getting oversized PSUs for stability. my main rig in my sig is hauling 2/3 of my milkyway RAC right now, and its drawing 500w at the wall consistently. that enermax PSU could probably handle another 5870 to boot lol. always gonna stay in the 1/3 to 2/3 load range for 100% load 24/7 use. i have a coolermaster real power pro 750w in my other milkyway box that's like 3 years old now, hope it stands up to the job once i put another 5870 in that box as well
 
Last edited:
yeah... you definately don't want any of the <500 W coolermaster psu... I had bought 3 of them a couple of years ago a month apart from each other... and they all three went up a month apart from each other....the fans normally die in them, then the psu is close behind

but my PCP&C 750 psu have been going strong with no problems. I had one PCP&C 610 that used to be running my i7 860@4GHz and a GTX280 until i started getting random reboots... was able to find a PCP&C 750 to replace it with.
I added a GTX260 to the system and it's able to handle it all with no problem.

Now the PCP&C 610 is sitting here waiting to go in one of my older low end systems. I have an opteron 175 on an nforce 4 board it can go into thats just sitting empty with no psu or graphic cards. anyone got a couple lowly dx10 cards they want to donate... it'll go to a good home that will crunch til the end of days. 😀

my favorite psus for my multi gpu crunchers are:
pcp&c 750
Corsair 850HX
OCZZ850 (that's thier gold series one)

for my single gpus and cpus:
Antec earthwatts
enermax (i have one enermax silencer 750 that's been going for almost 4 years now)

I look for the high efficiency models... with as many as I have running, less heat is better.
 
I haven't had too many PSU failures. My most recent was an Antec Basiq 500W unit that had been running 24/7 for like two years, possibly longer. The fan went, started making a lot of noise. Been meaning to RMA it to Antec, but haven't been arsed.
Previously, my OCed E2140 dual-cores were running ThermalTake TR-430W units, which don't have the greatest reputation. But the fan in those didn't fail yet. (I think it has dual fans.)

Hopefully my EarthWatts 650W in my quad-GPU cruncher holds out. I have an OCZ GameXtreme 850W in the spare closet, along with some EarthWatts 380, 430, and 500 units, and another 650W.
 
The reason I am sticking to the OCZ refurbs (bought like 8 now) is that when the fortron 700 disappeared from newegg, the OCZ's showed up with the same specs. So I got one, and it was a relabeled Fortron ! Side by side, even the labels were the same, except OCZ, instead of fortron ! The only 2 of these I killed, one was due to a shorted SATA cable (sparks and all) and the other I overheated big time, left the side cover on without enough fans in a small case with 2 video cards 24/7@100&#37;. The heat was horrible when I opened the case. Nothing could have withstood that, but it did for over a year !
 
This is an important thread. Although my experience with crunching is relatively short, I was an electronics technician with the U. S. Postal Service for 14 years, and everything that has been said in this thread rings true. I haven't had any power supply trouble in the last 4 years, I have known people who have, and it always seems to happen when there is little margin between the rating of the power supply and the demands of the computer. When Rudy Toody and I first started building computers, he had the foresight to purchase a device that hooks into the ATX cable and enables one to test the power supply under load before it is ever connected to the motherboard. That device has saved us some trouble.
 
I clicked on the link & it's dead atm.

I used to buy Antec PSUs when I moved away from cheapo units, I bought at least 3 of them, a TP 380 for my landladies rig which failed (flaky 5v line) in ~1yr, RMA'ed it & that unit failed 1-2yrs latter with the same fault! Although it runs SETI for me it's only running an Athlon XP 2600!

A TP 430 for my then main rig (was an XPM 2500 @2.5 GHz) that failed within 1-2 yrs, RMAed it & got a TP II 430. Whilst that was much better & lasted much longer, about 4+yrs (when it nearly caught fire) & was powering this rig (Q6600) it was rarely loaded much beyond about 50&#37;. The XPM 2500 was drawing 180w from the wall & the Q6600 225w, their were 2 short times (month ish) when I was running the F@H GPU client that it was drawing ~280w, even that is only just over ~50% load when you factor in PSU effiency.

I also bought a TPII 480(?) for a mates rig (Opteron 146 then, upgraded to a 165 last year) 4 1/2 yrs ago, so far that's still going although he has had some problems with that rig......
He doesn't run DC for me anymore 🙁.

I think I bought a 4th Antec PSU which failed too, but I can't remember anything worthwile about that! :$
Anyway, 4 out of 5 failures for me is far too much & I won't be buying Antec PSUs again for a very long time!

We'll see how my OCZ Stealth Stream 600 (3yr warr.) in my 2nd rig & Corsair TX650 (5yr warr!🙂) in my main rig will do......
 
Last edited:
The link is ok for me too. thanks RT!🙂

I've had several Antec PSUs fail on me too. I'm running 750W Seasonics now and so far so good although it's only been a few months.
 
rabrittain said:
a device that hooks into the ATX cable and enables one to test the power supply under load before it is ever connected to the motherboard
Click to expand...

It would not be under any significant load since the device would have no way of telling the wattage rating of the PSU or how the power is split over the 3.3V/5V/12V. I would simply invest in a digital multimeter. If you want to test before connecting to your system then join the green connector and a black connector on the 20/24 pin ATX with a paper clip. As for load testing, I would read reviews of the PSU from a site such as jonnyguru or hardocp which do complete and competent testing. Obviously any PSU can have faulty units, but these tests will determine how the properly functioning units will operate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top