PSU lifespan?

avrc

avrc

avrc

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I've always bought cheap PSU's simply because when I've needed to replace one i.e. it's died I've not had much spare cash. This time I need to buy an decent/expensive one to power a new gfx card. The cheap ones seem to last between 1 and 2 years in my experience.

How long could I expect a decent one (PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610) to last?
 
Well that one comes with a 3year warranty, so its guaranteed to last that at least, if you get the 750 thats got a 5year warranty, and the 860Turbocool has 7years. Id say with pretty much any decent PSU you can expect 5 years
 
The first 'good' brand PSU I bought was a Corsair HX520 and it's still going strong some 3 and a bit years later :)
 
It's partly luck of the draw I think.

I had a top of the range enermax bought around 2001 which failed after 2 years. I replaced it with something from the land of the purple shirts, can't remember the brand but it wasn't the cheapest and wasn't in the same quality category as enermax, and I'm still using it 6 years later.

EDIT: incidentally I have heard it said that power supplies "AGE" over time. Components drift out of spec causing voltages and power outputs to start to drift. I have seen this cited as a reason why older machines can start to blue screen and crash after years of faithful service. Don't know what the truth is, but I suspect it is a good idea to buy a power supply form a company using top quality components and to buy a power supply which will not be operating at its limits on day one.
 
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Sticking with PC Power & Cooling, ideally I'd like to get as much life out of it as possible. So it's either £68 and a 3 year guaranteed life or £103 and a 5 year guaranteed life. Decisions, decisions!

I'm thinking the PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad-Crossfire PCI-E 750W will future proof me as it's got 60A on the +12v and quad PCI-E's as well as having the 5 year guarantee.
 
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I've ordered the PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad-Crossfire PCI-E 750W (in red). Cheers for the replies :)
 
EffBee said:
EDIT: incidentally I have heard it said that power supplies "AGE" over time. Components drift out of spec causing voltages and power outputs to start to drift.
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Without exceeding specs like current/power dissipation/temperature ratings of semiconductors/resistors electrolytic capacitors are about only component whose life time is such that it can be considered as limit.
After manufacturing electrolyte starts to slowly evaporate and capacitors have certain specified lifespan. (often different series with different specs) This evaporation is very heavily temperature dependant so in hot temperature life is always short but in cool/storage temperatures it's magnitudes longer.
Also this is where quality matters, low quality capacitors have often short lifespan because of general lower quality of everything and worser electrolyte which is lot more temperature sensitive. Good example of that was Antec SmartPower and earlier TruePowers which had lot of failures because of using cheap random quality Fuhjyyu capacitors.
Japanese capacitors are considered to have best overal quality/consistency of quality so that's why some of the more expensive manufacturers use always those.

That temperature dependance is the reason why I'm recommending forgetting cases which put PSU on top where it has to suck in heat from CPU and other components.
Also silence requirement is adverse to capacitors because of lower fan speed equals less cooling and higher temperature.


Another feature of electrolytic capacitors is gradual weakening of aluminium oxide layer if it's been stored for long time. Seriousness of this depends on leakage current. Low leakage current (like one in healthy capacitor) is actually useful because it keeps rebuilding oxide layer during use but too high leakage current causes excessive heating which increases electrolyte evaporation and rises internal pressure (that bulged top in failing caps) and can even make capacitor explode/burst in serious cases:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=68
(long stored capacitor can be "resusciated" by limiting current using serial resistor which allows oxide layer to get rebuild)
 
EsaT said:
Also silence requirement is adverse to capacitors because of lower fan speed equals less cooling and higher temperature.
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I'd ignore that, it may have been correct 5-6 years ago.

A good PSU won't need a lot of cooling if it has good efficency rating, as it's the power that is lost that converts to heat.
 
There's a new 860W pc power and cooling with the 7 year warranty in MM for the price you paid for that one, daresay there's still time to cancel if you want the better psu.

Good post EsaT, that might explain why the above psu lets you vary the voltage on the main rails by turning a dial on the casing. Cheers
 
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avrc said:
I've always bought cheap PSU's simply because when I've needed to replace one i.e. it's died I've not had much spare cash. This time I need to buy an decent/expensive one to power a new gfx card. The cheap ones seem to last between 1 and 2 years in my experience.

How long could I expect a decent one (PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610) to last?
Click to expand...

I have a PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 850 SSI with PFC bought at vast expense from the US. Still going strong in my main server. I bought it back in 2006 so it's not that old. I mod'd the exhaust fan: taking out the existing 80mm fan and fitting an external 90mm fan (w/ 80mm-90mm alu. fan adapter). The PSU doesn't have a lower intake fan but simply draws air in from a grill at other (front) end. The PSU is mounted just below my PA120.3 rad., at top a Lian Li 7077 case, so the internal end of the PSU gets a stream of cool air from the rad. intake fan = sweet!!

The PSU is on 24/7 and is very stable, inc. over the summer with hot weather. Although I run the PSU off a UPS I like the fact that the PC Power & Cooling PSU can withstand a 10% brownout. :cool:

Basically I wanted a Tier 1 PSU that I could rely on.

Bob
 
I had a fairly decent enermax liberty about £130 ish at the time, it didnt make it to the 3 year warrenty. But i got a new free one so what do i care if they keep going with a bang lol. depends on how much you use it. my pcs on almost 5 days solid in a week so 2.5years if your like me.
 
Sasahara said:
A good PSU won't need a lot of cooling if it has good efficency rating, as it's the power that is lost that converts to heat.
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Only when PSU doesn't have to suck in heat of components its powering.
Then there are still lot of old design junks around, and typically in cheap class with "approriate" components selection so in those low speed fan can well be the final nail in the coffin of reliability.


JonJ678 said:
Good post EsaT, that might explain why the above psu lets you vary the voltage on the main rails by turning a dial on the casing. Cheers
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Outputs are always monitored by IC controlling PWM so when capacitors get old adjustment couldn't help any.

Bob Wya Jnr said:
Although I run the PSU off a UPS I like the fact that the PC Power & Cooling PSU can withstand a 10% brownout. :cool:
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Most PSUs could handle 50% brownout on this side of Atlantic.
Active PFC is step up switcher charging primary capacitor... which allows also that automatic use with various line voltages.
 
I bought a Nexus NX4090 (400W) PSU about 4-5 years ago, and its still working great in the system I built it with!

The PSU has probably never really been stressed much as the most it powered was a OC'd P4 Northwood C and a 7900GS, with a max of 4 hard drives.

The PSU cost me £65 at the time, I tend not to spend more than that on a PSU, although my HX520 cost £75, but I wanted modular. I should add that whilst it was my main PC (about 3 1/2 years), it stayed on 24/7.
 
EsaT said:
Most PSUs could handle 50% brownout on this side of Atlantic.
Active PFC is step up switcher charging primary capacitor... which allows also that automatic use with various line voltages.
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I checked that out as you had an interesting point there... Just me being stupid again!!

I see a Corsair HX1000 also specifies an input voltage of 90-264V (AC)... So 10% brownouts in the USA are handled as well... :cool:

My PSU is running off a UPS - so it's all a bit academic anyway :D

Bob
 
EsaT said:
Only when PSU doesn't have to suck in heat of components its powering.
Then there are still lot of old design junks around, and typically in cheap class with "approriate" components selection so in those low speed fan can well be the final nail in the coffin of reliability.
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Well I taking in the context of buying from OC, they don't do really cheap.

Most quality "Quiet" PSUs will become loud if overheated, but that will only happen if you have a badly layed out system.

If you have a badly layed out system, the PSU is gonna get hot even with a fast fan (hot air doesn't cool very well even if you have a lot of it).

If avrc is using the Antec Skeleton in his sig, overheating should not be a problem. :p
 
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