Retiring a 14 year old "legend"... and these new PSU's rock!!

Preytheon

Preytheon

Preytheon

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Joined
12 Jun 2021
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101
Location
London
No horror stories about hardware failing, I just decided my PSU from 2007 needed to retire gracefully as I have some plans to upgrade in 2022, so decided I might need some more headroom for a new GPU+CPU.

I used to run a lot of overclocked systems, so it was over-spec'd for the time and it has lasted really well... so the reason for upgrading early was just wanting something a little more efficient, quieter and more tidy (MASSIVE loom of "ketchup and mustard" SLI power rails, etc)... and so the next two upgrades would be quick swap-out, not entire chassis rebuilds.

Old device:
"PC Power and Cooling" 610W "Silencer" - the original Silencer, before there was a "mk ii","iii","iv"...
...and the original "80Plus" spec (before Bronze/Silver, etc) even existed.
Here's the "Legend" review for it from 2008 - note the 610W was the rated "continuous load" and it could run with significant bursts around 110%

New device:
Corsair HX850 (80Plus Platinum)
First impressions are just "WOW!":
Visuals: I do NOT do RGB/bling... and this is a very discreet, very clean install, I purchased the extra braided+combed loom as the stock cables looked like very hard plastic, so this is just so smart and tidy.... no more crushing the cable management behind the back of the case or into the HDD bays to gather dust!
Operation: unbelievably quiet... quite literally "silent" as the fan seldom spins due to it hardly being taxed at all: I think my little 2700X+GTX1660S require is probably <400W load at normal gaming "peak", although those predictor sites say it'll nudge close to 500W. I assume the noise will ramp up a little more with higher spec hardware being put through it's paces, but for now I'll enjoy the electricity bill savings and silence!

Sad to see the old PCP&C Silencer go.... 14 years of some pretty extreme usage (incl some 50% overclocks).... I'll be almightily impressed if the new one lasts this long!!
 
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PC Power and Cooling built excellent psu's right up until OCZ took them over and run them into the ground. Until then they were some of the best psu's around.

As far as I am concerned I completely agree and think that RGB has no place on a psu. Most psu's these days sit in their own compartment in a case or under a shroud so you can't see the lighting anyway. As most cases have a filtered vent in the bottom of the case for the psu, the fan should be facing down, so again you won't see any lighting. It just adds expense to a psu. As long as a quality psu does what it is supposed to do then it doesn't need any added "bling" or any other nonsense.
 
pastymuncher said:
PC Power and Cooling built excellent psu's right up until OCZ took them over and run them into the ground. Until then they were some of the best psu's around.
Click to expand...

Ah... that's what happened to them.... I know they're still around, but never "feature", especially in the UK market.

In their defence, OCZ made some of the best over-spec memory around.... they really should have just stuck to what they were good at!

You just reminded me that I've still got some OCZ RAM and that old "50%" OC-capable CPU lying around - it ran a spare downloads+file server until a few years ago and I even fired it up to test a few old SATA hard drives last summer that I didn't want anywhere near a new computer....

I was expecting capacitor pops and all sorts, but it ran fine. It's an Opteron 165 that was OC'd from 1800Mhz to 2700Mhz (with an overvolt and custom water loop - when it was used for gaming). When I replaced it with a Core2Quad, I repurposed the Opteron and stepped the OC back to 2250Mhz because it suited the OCZ PC4000 (500Mhz DDR) better. That was motherboard 200Mhz>>250Mhz, HyperTransport at 1Ghz (5:1 >> 4:1) and the CPU ran UNDER-volted to 1.25V (from 1.35V), so I could run it quieter - with an EVO120 "resistor"ed down to 500rpm, despite 2.25Ghz still being a 25% overclock on the CPU...
 
Preytheon said:
might need some more headroom for a new GPU+CPU.
Click to expand...

In hindsight, that statement was a little unfair to the new AMD CPU:
1) changing from an 8 core, 16 thread 2700X to the 12 core, 24 thread 5900X..... 50% higher IPC, 50% more cores.... zero increase in peak power requirements.
2) GTX1660SUPER to RTX3080Ti.... over 200W extra.
 
Guess it depends what you mean by new PSUs :)
They have been out a long while now at the sort of standard
You mention
Got a Corsair ax860i I think I might have bought in 2012
It's also been through my overclocking days
2600k at 5ghz etc:)
Still a great PSU :)

But yes nowadays it's not so uncommon
To see 7 or 10 year warranty on PSUs giving you the reassurance
They have faith in their product
 
Built my first ever rig with a PC P and P. 500 or 510W IIRC, still running fine after 6-7 years but needed more power for 2nd build. Then Corsair 850W, now onto Seasonic, after retiring Corsair after 12 years.
 
Preytheon said:
ha ha.... that might explain why it lasted forever... it's not being binned.... just retired from the front-line...
Click to expand...
That Silencer 610W is exactly same platform as in M12/S12.
That's also where that no artificially current limited 12V wire groups comes from.
UL Level 6 mark in spec sticker was indicator for earlier in Seasonic made PSUs. (like all early Corsairs)

Myself had M12 which I replaced with 80+ Gold Seasonic and then sold to neighbour when his crappy cooling Antec Sonata case (whose original PSU lasted ~5 months) had baked standard Chinese capacitor to cold boot problems stage in four years.
That M12 was then used like 5-6 years before I sold my 80+ Gold Seasonic to him to retire M12 at age of 13 years.
 
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