Do PSUs need replacing over time?

Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear Fusion

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Might be a silly question but is there a general time limit you'd give for using a PSU before replacing it? It occurred to me that my AX860 is over 10 years old now, while it's a good quality unit and doesn't seem to have any issues, it did get me wondering if there's a risk to other components as time goes on (especially if I upgrade my GPU). Thoughts?
 
Nuclear Fusion said:
Might be a silly question but is there a general time limit you'd give for using a PSU before replacing it? It occurred to me that my AX860 is over 10 years old now, while it's a good quality unit and doesn't seem to have any issues, it did get me wondering if there's a risk to other components as time goes on (especially if I upgrade my GPU). Thoughts?
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If you do come to upgrade your GPU then yes, I'd upgrade an old PSU such as yours. As mentioned above, your going to benefit from new connections, specifications and standards. And, you'll get a shiny new 10-12 year warranty. :)
 
They do de-rate over time as the electrolitic capacitors and other components age, but I wouldn't change mine unless I was having issues.

My last PSU stopped being able to deliver peak power under load but it was about 10 years old. It started causing hard resets and crashes when my GPU and CPU demanded peak power. It just couldn't deliver it like when it was new. It should have been a high enough rating for my hardware, and it's why typically most decent PSUs can actually run beyond their rated power when new. But over time they do derate a bit.
 
The mean failure on many of the better brands these days is ~17 years, though some especially cheaper ones can be half that (I can't remember off the top of my head if that is ~17 years of 24x7 operation or ~17 years under "typical" operating conditions).

It used to be advised to replace by about 10 years max due to the whole "capacitor plague" thing of the early 2000s but that shouldn't be a factor any more unless you are putting a very old PSU back into use, etc. although I still lean towards over-speccing a bit and probably not running them beyond 10 years if a higher end setup that gets some decent usage.
 
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tamzzy said:
I'm still using an OG superflower leadex platinum from 2014 on my main PC, powering a 7800X3D and a 7900XT :cry:
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My spaghetti monster Bitfenix Formula Gold launched around 2014 funnily enough, 650w and it's doing a fine old job with a 5800X3D and 4070.

Higher quality power supplies are unlikely to damage components if they should fail from OAP syndrome, they have a lot of built in protections. If I was building entirely new rather than incremental upgrades I've done to AM4 at this point in time? I'd absolutely buy new, but mostly for the new ATX 3.0/3.1 standard and a necessity for more power for a substantial performance bump. Regardless, I'll keep using this thing on at least one of my rigs for as long as it lasts.
 
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I'm still using a 2012 Seasonic x 850w with a 9800x3d and a 4090 and it's been rock solid.

I have just managed to get a 5090 so I guess it's time for forced retirement.

I have a NZXT C1500W arriving tomorrow but as I am going to undervolt the 5090 I am tempted to just run 3 x 8pin which is apparently a thing with the 5090 to run at max 450w and the Seasonic would still be OK.
 
Devious said:
I'm still using a 2012 Seasonic x 850w with a 9800x3d and a 4090 and it's been rock solid.

I have just managed to get a 5090 so I guess it's time for forced retirement.

I have a NZXT C1500W arriving tomorrow but as I am going to undervolt the 5090 I am tempted to just run 3 x 8pin which is apparently a thing with the 5090 to run at max 450w and the Seasonic would still be OK.
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Seasonic are known for being wonderfully capable of pushing more power than their rating, likely keeps them going that bit longer too.
My last PSU was a bequiet on FSP platform, very good, but after about 10 years the 850W rating couldnt keep up with an RX Vega and 3900X.
I wanted a Seasonic to replace it but it was during the component crisis that I needed it so choice was limited, managed to find a Corsair that used a Seasonic platform. I loved the early Corsair PSUs as they were all Seasonic, it's what Corsair used to make their name in the PSU space, but then they started using other OEMs and I have had bad experiences with non Seasonic Corsair PSUs
 
hornetstinger said:
Not "decades" but certainly a long time
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Why not "decades" ???

If it's a high quality unit it should not have issues excluding the likes of the fan.

This is even backed up by Jonnyguru who said psu should have no problem if it's good quality lasting 25 years (He did mention the same as some others it wont meet new standards etc and new highend ones are better designed)
 
edGfaCTor said:
Why not "decades" ???

If it's a high quality unit it should not have issues excluding the likes of the fan.

This is even backed up by Jonnyguru who said psu should have no problem if it's good quality lasting 25 years (He did mention the same as some others it wont meet new standards etc and new highend ones are better designed)
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Because electronics have a finite lifespan. Capacitors typically last 20 years.
 
edGfaCTor said:
Why not "decades" ???

If it's a high quality unit it should not have issues excluding the likes of the fan.

This is even backed up by Jonnyguru who said psu should have no problem if it's good quality lasting 25 years (He did mention the same as some others it wont meet new standards etc and new highend ones are better designed)
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The big filtering capacitors are still electrolyte, it's only the smaller caps further in that are solid. These degrade with time.

Depending on how hard the PSU has been pushed, the temps it has run at, it all affects the lifespan.

They all de-rate over time, it just depends how over provisioned the PSU is to start with and how close to its limit you are pushing it. Our Industrial PSUs come with a de-rate graph based on temperature even when they are new. Modern PSUs are also designed to cope better with the transient spikes compared to old designs.

Plus the rail distribution has changed massively over the decades. Everything is 12V now, where before you had much bigger 3.3V and 5V rails. So a 500W PSU from 20 years ago, probably has half the max amps on 12V than a 500W today.
 
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