Question How much life left in an old PSU?

[GodisanAtheist]

Is there any way, short of the supply dying and taking a bunch of your system with it, to measure degradation in an aging PSU?

I ask because I have a 10+ year old Corsair HX 650watt PSU that has been just absolutely rock solid from day one and has worked great in every upgrade and build I ever had in that time. The thing is a rock.

That being said, nothing lasts forever and i'm looking to upgrade my GPU from my current 980Ti to either an aftermarket RTX series card, one of the RTX 3xxx series cards that will launch soon, or RDNA2.

Last thing I'd want is a newer, more power hungry component to push my geriatric PSU over the line and end up costing me a bunch of time and money.

I know my 980ti doesn't exactly sip power itself, but with some of the rumors floating around about the RTX 3xxx series and power consumption I figured it would be a good time to ask.

 

[UsandThem]

You can get readings from it with various loads (like PSU reviewers do) if you have the equipment.

Power supplies eventually are not able to output their full rating load. Then they keep decreasing in that regard, or they die outright (some component in them stops working altogether). That said, if you've gotten 10+ years out of a PSU, consider that you got your money's worth.

You likely are going to pay a pretty penny for a new GPU, so you might was well get another top-shelf PSU and not worry about it again for another 10 years. PSU pricing has fallen quite a bit since the pandemic caused a major decrease in production/shipments, so it's not nearly as painful as it would have been 2-3 months ago.

 

[killster1]

i dont think your whole system with gfx included will use more than 350 watts so your 650watt psu will be fine. to play it safe you could sell your psu and buy a new one, or take it apart and look for leaky bulging caps, i havnt read on the 3000 series using lots or less amounts of power but im crazy excited for them as well. boy o boy i dont even play much games but when i do i want to do 4k@120hz with out breaking the bank and using less power
i have hx750 corsairs and hx850 corsairs and honestly i really didnt need to buy such big psu's for my rigs, i wonder how old most of them are most likely somewhere around 7-10 years like yourself, running fine with 1080 and 1080ti's. i would think the 980ti will use the same amount of power as the new card depending which model you pick.

have you tried using one of the watt meters? i was really shocked after redoing my system, it uses 75 watts under normal load and around 350 while gaming at peak.

 

[HerrKaLeu]

When you use the plug-power meter keep in mind what you read is what goes in. Your PSU is rated based on what goes out. Assuming 80% efficiency, reading 100W, means it is only 80W on the DC side. Obviously ignoring this, will be more conservative (=safer)

 

[killster1]

When you use the plug-power meter keep in mind what you read is what goes in. Your PSU is rated based on what goes out. Assuming 80% efficiency, reading 100W, means it is only 80W on the DC side. Obviously ignoring this, will be more conservative (=safer)

i bet his psu does better then 80% but true that helps the actual wattage numbers.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Is there any way, short of the supply dying and taking a bunch of your system with it, to measure degradation in an aging PSU?

I ask because I have a 10+ year old Corsair HX 650watt PSU that has been just absolutely rock solid from day one and has worked great in every upgrade and build I ever had in that time. The thing is a rock.

That being said, nothing lasts forever and i'm looking to upgrade my GPU from my current 980Ti to either an aftermarket RTX series card, one of the RTX 3xxx series cards that will launch soon, or RDNA2.

Last thing I'd want is a newer, more power hungry component to push my geriatric PSU over the line and end up costing me a bunch of time and money.

I know my 980ti doesn't exactly sip power itself, but with some of the rumors floating around about the RTX 3xxx series and power consumption I figured it would be a good time to ask.

Haha I have an HX620 12+ years it is working now in a Frankenstein machine for a friend of mine but as above 10 years is a long time and likely it isn’t putting out its full rated power at this point.
Using it on a non important machine is probably fine but anything else or anything that stores important stuff probably better to replace it.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Good info in here.

So the short short story is: No, there is no foolproof way to determine where on the spectrum a PSU is.

I remember using power calculators to find the top rated power for an old system, then doubling that when I got my HX650 (Old system used around 300W max, so I decided I'd get a 600-700W PSU) to keep things in the sweet spot on the efficiency curve.

Trick is, if we're around the corner from a PSU standard change with 12VO, I'd rather flog this old horse a bit longer till I can change over to a high quality PSU from the newer standard and ride that for the next 10+ years.

Maybe I'll pick up one of those Kill-A-Watt things and measure power at the wall just to know where I really stand in terms of power consumption. If I am still around the 300W mark then I won't sweat it too much.

My main PC is like a weird 20+ year old Theseus's Ship, and I'm the kind of guy that appreciates the building hobby but also doesn't want to spend huge money on it either (finding killer deals is almost part of the fun). As such, while I wouldn't want to be without a rig for any period of time, I can more than afford a replacement.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Trick is, if we're around the corner from a PSU standard change with 12VO, I'd rather flog this old horse a bit longer till I can change over to a high quality PSU from the newer standard and ride that for the next 10+ years.

Did you see the thread here about them, with the LTT YT vid where he tests one out? Basically, no benefit under heavy load, more or less, for a gaming PC, but for office/desktop PCs, idle power usage is basically cut in HALF. Leading to a greener planet.

That said, if there's a new standard, and it DOES catch on, then why not wait, but ... the current PSU could be kind of a ticking time bomb. It probably won't take anything out when it goes, given that it's a decent, high-quality PSU, but... those safety-feature components age too. Kind of a crap-shoot when one goes.

Would hate to take out a brand-new high-end Ampere GPU too, you know what I mean?

If it were me, I would probably buy a high-end PSU when Ampere hits, along with the GPU, and wait and see if the new standard catches on, and leave the 10-year-old PSU "out to pasture" with a more mild, desktop rig. (Assuming budget permits, of course.)

 

[GodisanAtheist]

That said, if there's a new standard, and it DOES catch on, then why not wait, but ... the current PSU could be kind of a ticking time bomb. It probably won't take anything out when it goes, given that it's a decent, high-quality PSU, but... those safety-feature components age too. Kind of a crap-shoot when one goes.

Would hate to take out a brand-new high-end Ampere GPU too, you know what I mean?

- Thanks for the anxiety attack Larry, I guess I was overdue for one anyway

Realistically, I will be picking an RTX 2080ti/Super when the new series drops for that second hand discount, or I will pick up an RDNA2 GPU since I like moving back and forth between AMD/Nvidia on subsequent updates if they're able to toss out a good deal (980Ti <- HD7950 <- GTX460 <- HD4850 has been my upgrade path since the DX10 cards dropped).

New NV cards tend to be way too rich for my blood, especially given the dismal performance improvements the 2xxx series brought (and the 3xxx series might continue, we'll see).

Did you see the thread here about them, with the LTT YT vid where he tests one out? Basically, no benefit under heavy load, more or less, for a gaming PC, but for office/desktop PCs, idle power usage is basically cut in HALF. Leading to a greener planet.

- The idea of fewer, smaller, cables and plugs is especially enticing after having to do cable management this last weekend on my frankenPC rebuild. Saving the planet is a nice bonus but then I wouldn't be PC gaming if that was the goal...

 

[aigomorla]

only real way is to open it up and inspect the capacitors.
See if any are buldging or starting to bulge..

Then taking the 12V 5V and 3.3V value reading while putting some load on it.
This is where my unused TEC Peltier stuff comes great at.... no better way to load up the 12V rail then putting 200W of TEC on it on 4 different Molex plugs.

The 5V and 3V are a bit more difficult... but from what i noticed it when a PSU dies it will start at the 12V rail.