Lifetime of a PSU

Farseer

Farseer

Farseer

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18 May 2012
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225
Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade my graphics card (670 or 770) and currently have a 6 year old Corsair HX 620 psu with an overclocked i7 2600k which should be ok (it meets the requirements).

However as its 6 years old would anyone recommend I get a new psu? e.g. a Corsair 850w.

Do people normally get a new PSU for a new build (this PSU is from my previous build), it just seems an expensive waste if you have say a high quality psu running ok to not use it again.

Cheers.
 
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It depends on how many hours it was used for. PSUs have an MTBF of ~100,000 hours. While this sounds high, that's only 1.5 years when used 24/7. Also, running the PSU at a higher temperature will shorten lifespan (ie high load or poor cooling).

I had a Seasonic die after 5 years running 24/7, so personally would always buy a new PSU for each 3-5 year build.
 
sadbuttrue said:
It depends on how many hours it was used for. PSUs have an MTBF of ~100,000 hours. While this sounds high, that's only 1.5 years when used 24/7. Also, running the PSU at a higher temperature will shorten lifespan (ie high load or poor cooling).

I had a Seasonic die after 5 years running 24/7, so personally would always buy a new PSU for each 3-5 year build.
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Either I'm crazy of 100,000 hours is a little over 11 years...

My HX620 is also still going strong, it was replaced some years back by Corsair due to low voltage @12V when hot. I'd keep with the old one providing it's not under stress. Electrical systems at work are often a decade old and keep ticking.

AD
 
decto said:
Either I'm crazy of 100,000 hours is a little over 11 years...

My HX620 is also still going strong, it was replaced some years back by Corsair due to low voltage @12V when hot. I'd keep with the old one providing it's not under stress. Electrical systems at work are often a decade old and keep ticking.

AD
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My bad. Guess too many braincells have fried this weekend.
 
My Corsair HX620w started to fail a few weeks ago, ended up having to remove the gpu while i waited for the new one; moved up to a seasonic 650w. (was 5.5 years old)
 
Interesting this has come up. I have had my HX620w for around 6 years now so it is out of warranty. Still works flawlessly and has been powering an overclocked GTX 480. I feel a bit worried that it could start to fail now.

I am going 670 sli which would probably be ok on a 620w (as according to reviews a GTX 480 actually pulls more power than two 670's in sli!!) but i would need molex adaptors or a few more modular cables and i am worried about being out of warranty with a power supply.

For that reason i have bought a HX850. more cables than you can shake a stick at, it will probably only be stressed at 50% load with my system and most importantly 7 years warranty.

I was thinking about an XFX 850w black edition Gold PSU for a similar price but that has only 5 year warranty and i have heard bad things about XFX RMA. Corsair, despite being in Netherlands, seem to have glowing reports for PSU RMA's. Almost everyone seems to get a newer and higher wattage/better power supply back :D
 
Jono8 said:
Interesting this has come up. I have had my HX620w for around 6 years now so it is out of warranty. Still works flawlessly and has been powering an overclocked GTX 480. I feel a bit worried that it could start to fail now.

I am going 670 sli which would probably be ok on a 620w (as according to reviews a GTX 480 actually pulls more power than two 670's in sli!!) but i would need molex adaptors or a few more modular cables and i am worried about being out of warranty with a power supply.

For that reason i have bought a HX850. more cables than you can shake a stick at, it will probably only be stressed at 50% load with my system and most importantly 7 years warranty.

I was thinking about an XFX 850w black edition Gold PSU for a similar price but that has only 5 year warranty and i have heard bad things about XFX RMA. Corsair, despite being in Netherlands, seem to have glowing reports for PSU RMA's. Almost everyone seems to get a newer and higher wattage/better power supply back :D
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That was kind of my thinking when I created this thread. All things considered it's probably better to get a new one.

I've read about coil wine on Corsair psu's, including the HX850, is that in the past or luck of the draw / not very common now?
 
I've had coil whine on a few Corsair PSUs.

It was never persistent, but when it happened, it would be amusing in a 3D game - you would turn to face a set area (i.e. a sky) and it would whine-up, then you'd look away, and it'd stop. You'd turn back, and it'd whine again...

I'm still not 100% convinced it was definitely the PSU over the GFX, but it happened so infrequently I never cared to investigate further.
 
Mean Time Between Failures isn't particularly good for general users. This link help to explain the issue.

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/174791en?language=en_US

In short 100,000 hours doesn't mean the average PSU will last for 11 years 24/7 usage, not even close.

AFR does look like a better standard for most people, just need more manufacturers to use it. (Again it's not perfect as it's based on samples run for a short time period) Both at best are a best guess.
 
I got a Qtec Gold 450Watt PSU that I grabbed from my mothers old PC.

I bought that when I had my Cyrix 333 in my old Flat, and I moved in here 13 years ago, so thats fairly old.

I checked the PSU out on my tester and its still giving me a near perfect output on all lines.

I dont think its going to fail any time soon.

And its a bloody QTEC !!!
 
I say if it still works don't change it. Maybe give it a little dust down/clean and should be good for a while longer.


Running the same psu here.:)
 
I have great faith in Corsair PSUs but my only niggling doubt is that if the PSU dies, it can potentially take everything else with it. That leads to a fairly expensive PSU replacement...
 
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