Corsair PSU dies... overloaded, perhaps?

Sankari

Sankari

Sankari

Caporegime
Joined
29 Dec 2007
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Adelaide, South Australia
PC spec: Q6600, 4Gb GEiL ram, Gigabyte P35-DS4, BFG 9800 GFX+ OC, Corsair HX520, HDDs x2 (160Gb & 200Gb), DVD-RW, memory card reader.

Ran without a hitch when first built (I was using a Radeon 2600 XT Pro at the time) but started having problems when I upgraded to the BFG; random screen freezes, crashes, loss of signal to monitor (though sound would continue to play). I assumed that this was probably just a driver issue (nVidia drivers being what they are) and considered rolling back to a previous driver but didn't get around to it.

Yesterday morning I was playing World of Warcraft (nice frame rate, too!) when my PC lost power without any warning. :eek:

Checked power leads, power points, switches, all OK. Tried turning it back on, but no deal. Opened up PC to check for the dreaded burning smell, but couldn't smell anything. No burn marks, no tell-tale signs of carbon. All components looked perfectly normal. :confused:

Unplugged everything and tested PSU with mobo (no response) then case fans (no response). Verdict: PSU is dead.

Drove to [competitor] and bought an iCute 700W modular PSU. Not my preferred brand, but [competitor] was the only computer shop available at the time, and I suspected that I needed a gruntier PSU. Installed the iCute and was delighted to find that all my components were undamaged. Ran WoW flat out for a few hours without so much as a blink. The iCute is a little louder than the Corsair (particularly under load) but I can cope with that for a PC which works. :p

My questions:

* Did the Corsair die as a result of overload?
* Was my hardware simply trying to suck too much power, and was this responsible for the earlier freezes/crashes?
* If so, aren't modern PSUs supposed to trip out before permanent damage occurs?
* Since the Corsair is less than 6 months old, is this an RMA situation?

I am rather surprised and somewhat disappointed. I thought a Corsair would be tougher than this. Did I flog it too hard? :confused:
 
It did stop damage to your hardware. A cheaper lesser PSU would have fried the mobo too. No, it wasnt overloaded. Be lucky if it was drawing 350W never mind 520W.
 
Well, the OcUK shop recommends a minimum of 500W and preferable rate of 600W for my graphics card, so I'd be doubtful if the entire setup could be run on less than 300W. :confused:

Still can't understand why it died, though.
 
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Ive got an i7 920 @ 3.8ghz with 3 HDDs and GTX 260.

I have a device to monitor the power and it pulls no more than 240watts at load. Yours probably didnt even touch 200w.

Id say a bad PSU batch.
 
And the 1600W Psu's you can get too . . . It has 117A on the +12v rail
There really isnt any point to them.
Im pretty sure Corsair demonstrated running 2 SLI rigs from a 620HX. Cant find a link though :/
 
I've just RMA'd my 520w Corsair, 16 months old so it's back to the Netherlands:(.
Similar to yours except an ATI 3650. Just started getting random shut downs even in the bios, then struggled to boot at all.

Will not be buying another Corsair product!
 
Evangelion said:
Well, the OcUK shop recommends a minimum of 500W and preferable rate of 600W for my graphics card, so I'd be doubtful if the entire setup could be run on less than 300W. :confused:

Still can't understand why it died, though.
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The recommendation of 500w+ is simply to cover the shop against people who buy some El Cheapo Mega 600w PSU which is actually only capable of supplying perhaps 300w sustained and even then it probably won't be as well regulated as that from a decent supply.

As to why it died, it's an electronic component, unfortunately sometimes they die, at least it didn't damage any other components when it went.

LordSplodge said:
So what's with these 1000+ watt PSU then? :confused:
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There's no real need in them unless you are running tri-SLi, massive overclocks and silly numbers of hard drives but equally there's no real harm to them either apart from the fact that most people with them probably aren't in the optimal efficiency band because they actual load is relatively low.
 
The PSU you had was more than enough. Corsair PSUs generally are are underbadged - i.e. their 620s can do 740 etc.

I cannot find a review of your new PSU anywhere. They make cases too, and they're not so good. I can however find lots of people saying iCute PSUs are bad, because they're not a known quantity.

I've gone and specced up your power usage, using the calculator I linked, and you should be able to get away with using a 450W PSU (from a good manufacturer).

I've gone and looked at iCute's site, and I have to assume it's the Titanium Pro, rather than the Titanium (they only list 2). I've looked at both their output specs, and at their 80+ certification.

The efficiency graph shows roughly 84% efficient, which is very good.

The PSU is rated at 50A output on the 12V rail, which is reasonable for a 700W PSU, but not "great". Generally the nasty PSUs rated output on the 12V line is low or very low, which is where the problems come from, as no computer would draw such a low 12V current while still drawing x number of watts.

http://69.89.27.203/~icutecom/engli...TITANIUM/SP345_iCute_AP-750AS_750W_Report.pdf

http://www.icute.com.tw/english/TITANIUM_PRO.html

Until someone who knows what they are doing takes the lid off the PSU and looks at the circuitry, and tests it properly though there's no real way to tell.

Edit : Sorry the calculator I didn't link!

http://web.aanet.com.au/SnooP/psucalc.php

There is another calculator around, but I find it overstates things.
 
GSDog said:
I doubt it. Corsair's RMA service is in the Netherlands.
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Depends who you bought the PSU's from, some retailors will accept returns to them after the 1 year, infact for the whole 5 year duration of the PSU, hence I've just bought a Corsair 1000W HX.

sithlord said:
I don't really know why people bother with them. Suppose future proofing.

But a 600W - 700 W should future proof most people for the next 2 years.
semi-pro waster said:
There's no real need in them unless you are running tri-SLi, massive overclocks and silly numbers of hard drives but equally there's no real harm to them either apart from the fact that most people with them probably aren't in the optimal efficiency band because they actual load is relatively low.
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Johnny Guru disagree's, also check out: http://www.80plus.org/

corsair1000wfk8.jpg


Source - thanks to http://www.jonnyguru.com/
 
The Halk said:
The PSU you had was more than enough. Corsair PSUs generally are are underbadged - i.e. their 620s can do 740 etc.

I cannot find a review of your new PSU anywhere. They make cases too, and they're not so good. I can however find lots of people saying iCute PSUs are bad, because they're not a known quantity.

I've gone and specced up your power usage, using the calculator I linked, and you should be able to get away with using a 450W PSU (from a good manufacturer).

I've gone and looked at iCute's site, and I have to assume it's the Titanium Pro, rather than the Titanium (they only list 2). I've looked at both their output specs, and at their 80+ certification.

The efficiency graph shows roughly 84% efficient, which is very good.

The PSU is rated at 50A output on the 12V rail, which is reasonable for a 700W PSU, but not "great". Generally the nasty PSUs rated output on the 12V line is low or very low, which is where the problems come from, as no computer would draw such a low 12V current while still drawing x number of watts.

http://69.89.27.203/~icutecom/engli...TITANIUM/SP345_iCute_AP-750AS_750W_Report.pdf

http://www.icute.com.tw/english/TITANIUM_PRO.html

Until someone who knows what they are doing takes the lid off the PSU and looks at the circuitry, and tests it properly though there's no real way to tell.

Edit : Sorry the calculator I didn't link!

http://web.aanet.com.au/SnooP/psucalc.php

There is another calculator around, but I find it overstates things.
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Very tempted to use the dreaded Jesus pic here, because I honestly AM grateful for the info! :)

I had heard bad things about iCute's cases as well, which is is why I wasn't particularly keen on buying one of their PSUs. However, I have read a few positive reviews, which gives me some hope for the future. This thing was £10 cheaper than the Corsair, so if it lasts for 6 months I'll still be ahead. :p

I am very impressed by the connectors; nicely braided, and better quality than Corsair's.

Let's see how the next 6 months pan out. :)
 
Nelly said:
Johnny Guru disagree's, also check out: http://www.80plus.org/

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2241/corsair1000wfk8.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]

That still shows that at very low loads it is less efficient than when it is closer to it's rated output unless I'm misreading.

Essentially with a 1kw PSU most people are paying for a lot of capacity that they'll never use, I did say it won't do any real harm which is true but considering you could be paying anywhere in the region of £50 more for no benefit it seems an expensive way to go about things.
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semi-pro waster said:
That still shows that at very low loads it is less efficient than when it is closer to it's rated output unless I'm misreading.

Essentially with a 1kw PSU most people are paying for a lot of capacity that they'll never use, I did say it won't do any real harm which is true but considering you could be paying anywhere in the region of £50 more for no benefit it seems an expensive way to go about things.
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Upto 600W it hit's it's peak of 86% & upto 200W it's within 82% effieciency.

Their is no way I'll use all of it's power, but wanted a decent PSU that isn't Seasonic, the 620W HX has put me off quite a lot I had one that killed 3 motherboards when it was brand new.

I wanted Modular with 5 year guarantee with a return to UK base - which is supplied buy the retailer I bought it from. ;)

Everytime new graphics cards are released they seem to eat more watts, having seen power consumption results from various websites, so I'm definitly future proofed especially if I decide to splash out. :)

It was very over the top, it's a pity Corsair don't do a Channelwell 620W HX might last it's 5 years lol j/k not to say any PSU can just blow anyway. :)
 
I've spent a lot of time in the past over a short period of time learning about PSUs before I bought my Corsair. And again a lot of time in the past week or so, trying to get my head around things better.

First off the reviews are significantly better these days than they were 18 months ago.

That jonnyguru review though sadly doesn't have a realistic load for the PSU.

The draw on the 5V and 3.3V on modern systems is around 10A max on each, and doesn't vary much between systems. While the draw on the 12V rail is the one that varies, and the more graphics cards, and the more CPU cores you add the higher the draw goes. I'd have liked to have seen him kept the 3.3V and the 5V steady, and varied the 12V to see the real efficiency. SilentPCReview do something similar, too when they review. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article813-page4.html

However, the point I think Nelly was trying to make was that efficiency is pretty static across the board. Ignore the 25/25/1/1 figure, that's never going to happen.

Wasted power as a percentage varies by very little. At worst it's 82% and at best it's 86%. Running an average of 250W (even on a high end system this is reasonable) and wasting 18% that's 45W and at 10p per kilo watt hour that's 40 quid in a year.

However if you went for a PSU that was more efficient at your average power level, you're only going to save a tenner of that. And that's going absolute super efficient, worst against best for good PSUs.
 
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