simple psu question

markoboyo11 · 21 Sep 2013 at 08:24

I have a 520w corsair psu that has been perfect since day one, but that was about 8years ago.
Looking to get a new card in a few months when prices settle on new amd or if NVidia drop a bit to compete.
my question is should I replace my psu? cant bare the thought of it blowing and taking things with it.
How long would you keep a psu? its no shame to it to chuck it out now, but would leave it if people think it would be fine and powerful enough for the next gen.

Thanks mark

keenan · 21 Sep 2013 at 08:29

All depends on the amps supplied to the +12v rail..

You've got a modern system and a 520W PSU is probably meeting it's limits with the components in your sig..

Just get a new quality one and hope you'll be just as lucky with it lasting another 8 years ..

pastymuncher · 21 Sep 2013 at 08:55

I really wish people would do their homework before posting rubbish on these forums.

I presume your psu is the original HX520 in which case it has 480w on the 12v rail. It is more than enough for a single card setup. With your current spec i doubt if you are pulling more than 250-280w. If you want piece of mind then replace it but it's gone on this long and has'nt packed up yet. Even if does fail it's highly unlikely that it will take anything with it as it's a quality unit built by Seasonic.

markoboyo11 · 21 Sep 2013 at 08:58

pastymuncher said:
I really wish people would do their homework before posting rubbish on these forums.

I presume your psu is the original HX520 in which case it has 480w on the 12v rail. It is more than enough for a single card setup. With your current spec i doubt if you are pulling more than 250-280w.

Out of bed on the wrong side?

Anyway it was more the age of it. I know its absolutely fine for what ive got the now but thanks for clarifying that.

markoboyo11 · 21 Sep 2013 at 09:07

keenan said:
All depends on the amps supplied to the +12v rail..

You've got a modern system and a 520W PSU is probably meeting it's limits with the components in your sig..

Just get a new quality one and hope you'll be just as lucky with it lasting another 8 years ..

Cheers was exactly my line of thought, thinking of the cx750 now.

pastymuncher · 21 Sep 2013 at 09:12

markoboyo11 said:
Out of bed on the wrong side?

Anyway it was more the age of it. I know its absolutely fine for what ive got the now but thanks for clarifying that.

Not out of bed on the wrong side at all. I am fed up with people posting rubbish about psu's and giving people bad advice. It was aimed at Keenan saying you are just about on the limit with your current spec. What complete and utter rubbish.

If you had already made your mind up about a new psu why even create the thread?

markoboyo11 · 21 Sep 2013 at 09:26

pastymuncher said:
Not out of bed on the wrong side at all. I am fed up with people posting rubbish about psu's and giving people bad advice. It was aimed at Keenan saying you are just about on the limit with your current spec. What complete and utter rubbish.

If you had already made your mind up about a new psu why even create the thread?

yeh I know there is plenty left in it the now, im worried about its age and if it went what I might lose. If someone said its absolutely fine and would still be able to push it with a next gen card I would keep it.
No point buying a new one if that was the case.
Guess I will never know, would you put say a overclocked 780 on it?

I wasn't looking for a argument just some advice, if you think its not a question upto youre standards then you don't need to replie.

pastymuncher · 21 Sep 2013 at 10:08

My Zalman is 7 years old now. Ok it's 750w but it's still quite old by psu standards and aside from probably losing a bit of efficiency due to capacitor aging has'nt missed a beat and won't be replaced anytime soon.

A Asus GTX780 DirectCU ll in a Z77 rig with a i7 3770k @4.8Ghz pulls 393w at the wall with the gpu fully loaded. See this review. As the power is measured at the wall the components in the pc will be pulling less than that from the actual psu so theoretically you could indeed run a overclocked 780 on your current psu. Haswell is even more energy efficient than Ivybridge as well.

Personally i would'nt run a 780 on it. It's likely to get hot and the fan will probably ramp up making it noisey. I would happily run a 7950/GTX670/GTX760 off it though.

If it did go bang you are unlikely to lose anything as it's a quality Seasonic built unit. It's really only the cheapo generic psu's that take other components with them.

markoboyo11 · 21 Sep 2013 at 11:40

Thanks for that replie, think I might hold off just now then unless I see a cheap one on offer.
Its working perfectly fine, was just worried that if it goes what it could take with it.
If the chances are it will just die on its own, I will take that.