Concerned about PSU temps

[VirtualLarry]

Both of my Q9300 rigs in sig have Antec EarthWatts 650W PSUs. That's all well and good, but they seem to prefer silence, over cool. They don't push a lot of air, even though the upper rear of my case (where the PSU is mounted), get nearly hot enough that I cannot even hold my hand to that area.

So I figure that the PSU is operating at 50C+. Is that going to shorten its lifetime? Why don't the fans spin up with temp? Is the temp controller broken? It does it on both units though.

 

[strep3241]

Not positive but I would think the fan is temp controlled.

It would be nice if we could tell what temp the PSU is running at. We have a temp for everything else, why not the PSU?

 

[heymrdj]

Infrared Thermometer? They run 20$ and they are certainly multitaskers.

 

[killster1]

If anything is so hot that you cant hold your hand on it then it will def die faster than not super hot. I would put more airflow in your case.. Why not just point a fan under it. At first i was goign to say i wouldnt use such crap psu but jonnyguru seems to like the psu. (i like to spend at least 100$ on a psu and buy way higher rated psu than i need)

 

[bryanl]

In practice, lifespan will depend on the quality of the electrolytic capacitors, and the newest Earthwatts are made by Delta and contain a mix of good and bad brands of such capacitors (see http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=110 ), while previous generation Earthwatts were made by Seasonic and contained OST capacitors, a bad brand.