How old can a PSU be and stay safe?

eddiew

eddiew

eddiew

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Silly thought has just occurred to me: my power supply is somewhere over 3, possibly 4 years old. It's a good quality, ~400W Akasa Paxpower unit, is free from excess fluff, and shows no sign of trouble.

My next expected upgrade will be to swap my Phenom II for a Sandy Bridge, and my 8800GT for an AMD 6850, which will actually reduce the power draw of the whole PC while significantly ramping up performance (I love it when that happens :))

But... what's a safe lifespan for a PSU? Does age make it more likely to one day go *pop* and send 240V through my motherboard? Would such a failure just make it turn off and send me scurrying out to some horrible overpriced street retailer for an emergency replacement?

Ignorance is horrible, thoughts and experiences appreciated :)
 
PSU will be good for 1 second to 20 years depending on quality of components / manafacturing / QC and luck.

Of course the very low end of this scale would be caused by transit dammage or bad manafacturing / components.

I would say the chance of a faulty PSU dammaging components when it fails are so low its of no concern, though in theory it can happen its not likley.
 
I have a working PSU in my old machine still used on occasion from c.2002.

My first build was given to me by my dad using old components, apparently the PSU was about 8 years old and lasted me another 2 before I upgraded.

I don't think there is a general lifespan. Depends on the built quality. And whether you want a new warrenty lol.
 
Given that all the warranty will do is get me another one if it breaks, buying a new PSU just to get a warranty seems a bit silly :)
 
Theres no real expectancy, any electronics equipment (even major named brands) can go pop at any given moment. But this can generally be determined on brand build quality, internal components used and ofc how hard or often the item was used. Personally ive got a 6 year old 620w gigabyte PSU and only replacing now for head room with new build
 
I'm in a similar boat, got an 480W Antec in 2004, it was replaced under warranty for a 500W model when it failed in 2006, and it's still going strong! :p
 
Cheers guys, I am encouraged to stick with what I have. I love it when technology moves on to give me better performance for the same power envelope :)
 
Actually if it all works ok can you post back and let us know? Cause that's probably the upgrade I'm gonna go for in a month or so, and I wasn't sure if a 4-year-old 500W PSU would be enough for it, so if it works for you I'd like to know! :p
 
manveruppd said:
Actually if it all works ok can you post back and let us know? Cause that's probably the upgrade I'm gonna go for in a month or so, and I wasn't sure if a 4-year-old 500W PSU would be enough for it, so if it works for you I'd like to know! :p
Click to expand...

Depends on rail distribution and who made it ;) Modern systems primarily need lots of 12V amps.
 
Have no idea how old my 400W Paxpower is but it's still going strong ;)

There's no definitive time limit, you'd have to get the lowest MTBF of all of the components used in it's construction just to get an estimate, even then if one resistor 'goes' then there's no guarantee that the PSU wouldn't just keep working as per normal... mostly :p
 
X-Power 580W - lasted 3 years before a power surge killed it (didn't take any components)
CX400W - about 2 years and going strong
OCZ SXS 400W - about 2 years and going strong
Dan 215W - about 12 years and still going strong

Just pure pot luck IMO.
 
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