Do PSUs need replacing over time?

[alexp999]

I have a Panasonic stereo, SA-PM27 I bought when I was 17.

I'm 41 now.

Still sounds great as well actually.

I'm not disagreeing with your post as such, but stuff can last.

Definitely, the issue now is that things now are often made to last "long enough".

The old "don't make them like they used to".

If stuff is over engineered, over provisioned, it will last because it has headroom to degrade and still perform as intended.

 

[hornetstinger]

I have a Panasonic stereo, SA-PM27 I bought when I was 17.

I'm 41 now.

Still sounds great as well actually.

I'm not disagreeing with your post as such, but stuff can last.

You'll find the capacitors will be out of spec. How much will depend on various factors.

 

[alexp999]

You'll find the capacitors will be out of spec. How much will depend on various factors.

Likely to only show up at high volumes when it needs to drive the speakers harder. But eventually it will happen at your normal listening volume.

 

[edGfaCTor]

Because electronics have a finite lifespan. Capacitors typically last 20 years.

20 years is 2 decades.

Specs do not always mean bad or because they put a life of something doesn't mean that is it.

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.

No one is claiming it will run the same way it did day one.

I did say high quality not the low end units and if you look up a lot of the testing for the higher end they have plenty of head room.

I will also stick with the source I mentioned a man who himself has a lot of years behind him in designing and testing plus could have just come out with need to buy new because he works for a company who wants you to do so but he doesn't.

I have a lot of electronics which are over 30 years old and 0 of them have halved the ratings or cap issues but then again some have problems after a few years many variables at play.

 

[alexp999]

No one is claiming it will run the same way it did day one.

That's the only point I was trying to make, the title of the thread is do they need replacing over time and the answer is maybe.

They won't be able to deliver the same power as they age, it just depends if that is an issue, if you hit that ceiling with your hardware.

A 20 year old 1000W PSU, may only be able to perform like a 850W. That could be plenty, but if you NEED 1000W, it probably won't do it.

That's what happened to my old 850W BeQuiet, it should have been fine powering a Vega64 and 3900X, but under high load it started to fall over. Was perfectly fine the rest of the time.

 

[hornetstinger]

That's the only point I was trying to make, the title of the thread is do they need replacing over time and the answer is maybe.

They won't be able to deliver the same power as they age, it just depends if that is an issue, if you hit that ceiling with your hardware.

A 20 year old 1000W PSU, may only be able to perform like a 850W. That could be plenty, but if you NEED 1000W, it probably won't do it.

That's what happened to my old 850W BeQuiet, it should have been fine powering a Vega64 and 3900X, but under high load it started to fall over. Was perfectly fine the rest of the time.

AFter 20 years the connector system will have changed anyway, ie the extra CPU power connector, different HDD connector, GPU connector etc.

 

[alexp999]

AFter 20 years the connector system will have changed anyway, ie the extra CPU power connector, different HDD connector, GPU connector etc.

There are always adapters for those. Although as I mentioned earlier the rail distribution has changed significantly over the last 20 years. You can’t adapt that and the power rating isn’t indicative of how much 12V it can deliver. Most modern PSUs can deliver their entire power rating just on 12V. Certainly wasn’t like that in the past

 

[Devious]

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.

i was mistaken and I actually had the Coolermaster V850 from 2013 not the Seasonic (im sure I had one of those at sometime)

Anyway ,after installing the RTX 5090 using just 3 x PCI-E my PC wasnt functioning properly, with intermittent freezing, so out went the Coolermaster and in went the NZXT C1500W and the PC is rock solid.

 

[no_1_dave]

Also worth considering the huge, instant, power demand of modern components...

10-12 years ago 250w was considered power hungry for a GPU, with SLI upping that to 500w. You needed a really good top brand PSU for SLI and it was the only reason to buy expensive 850w-1000w PSUs.
Nowadays you can have 600w being pulled by the GPU while the CPU pulls another 250w. PSUs need to be able to ramp up and back down instantly inside this large margin and old PSUs just weren't designed for it