Brand new PSU (Corsair RMx 750W) smell?

PaulM

PaulM

PaulM

Associate
Joined
18 Feb 2008
Posts
1,036
I just bought a Corsair RMx 750W (it's the 2018 version, not the 2021 version, but brand new). Before even turning it on I noticed it smelt but didn't think much of it, just thought it was because it was new... but I've had it on for 6 hours now and there's still a strong chemical smell coming from it.

I've only had a couple of PSUs before, this was replacing a 12 year old one, but I don't remember any of them smelling like this even when brand new. Searching around seems to give conflicting info whether it's normal or not.

Has anyone else had this? Don't know whether I should hope it goes away after a few days or just RMA it.

Thanks
 
Hard to know without being able to smell the actual smell but electronics can have a harsh chemical smell out the box which goes away over 2-3 days of use or so which is normal but not always present with a new product.
 
Mine did have a plasticky chemically 'new' smell to it out of the box.
I shoved straight in my pc though so dunno now.

Been running fine though.
 
Thanks for the replies, it's been running nearly 36 hours now, the smell is still there but it seems to be slightly better than yesterday. I'll give it a week and if it doesn't go away I'll RMA it.
 
Can you see inside at all? My concern would be that one of the capacitors is leaking. Sometimes it's better safe than sorry: better to return if the smell is really strong than lose a computer.
 
I couldn't see anything leaking but without taking it apart I can only see about half of the capacitors. This afternoon I left a benchmark loop running for a few hours to get the PSU fan spinning, now the smell seems a bit better so hopefully it's ok.
 
Last edited:
Factory smell definitely shouldn't last whole week.
Time to send that stinky away and hope that smell doesn't stick to room...
 
Yeah that doesn't sound right... When I said mine had a smell to it fresh out of the box, it certainly didn't stink the room out, I had to give it a good sniff through the fan grille.
 
Thanks for the advice, picked up a replacement RMx750 and this one doesn't smell so I guess the other one was faulty in some way. Another positive is the replacement also completely eliminated the coil whine coming from my 3070, first time in 12 years I've had a PSU/GPU combination that doesn't have annoying coil whine!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom