The 'Hiper-Explosive' Club

I still have a Hiper 780W Type-M in my PC. I purchased it in January 2010, so it appears I've been very fortunate. That being said... is it time for a replacement? It's by far the oldest component in this system.
 
Saundie said:
I still have a Hiper 780W Type-M in my PC. I purchased it in January 2010, so it appears I've been very fortunate. That being said... is it time for a replacement? It's by far the oldest component in this system.
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I would replace it. Like myself, it hasn't gone pop but may be causing issues or at least performance drop
 
Solus said:
I would replace it. Like myself, it hasn't gone pop but may be causing issues or at least performance drop
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Yeah, I think you're right. At least it'll be one less thing to worry about when I do my next upgrade. I was concerned it would go pop when I upgraded to the Xeon & 1070, and I'd rather not have that hassle next time. It'll also be nice to have a fully modular PSU. Now it's time to fall down the rabbit hole of choosing a replacement.
 
Assimilator1 said:
Or you could check the voltage output under load & visually check the caps (after appropriate discharging). Still no guarantee mind you.
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I would have no idea what I'm looking for, so it probably wouldn't be a very effective test. Also, it turns out that I got the PSU in 2008, not 2010 as I thought, so it's getting on for 12 years old now - I think it's done well and can now be retired with some dignity!
 
Saundie said:
Yeah, I think you're right. At least it'll be one less thing to worry about when I do my next upgrade. I was concerned it would go pop when I upgraded to the Xeon & 1070, and I'd rather not have that hassle next time. It'll also be nice to have a fully modular PSU. Now it's time to fall down the rabbit hole of choosing a replacement.
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Don't build another gaming rig around that PSU, you've done well at 12 years alreaady, plenty of good fully modular options - Seasonic would be the most highly reccomended, though other good options too. PSU's are much more efficient and reliable than they were when you bouhght that one. Unless you're building something extreme a good quality 650W PSU will be plenty, I built last year with a Seasonic Prime Gold 750W and that was a bit overkill, but I like PSU overkill!

:D
 
That would have been the basic 80+ rating back then. The newest TX650 is Gold rated so to qualify for Gold rating has to be a minimum of 87% efficiency at 20% load, 90% at 50% load, and 87% at 100% load although many Gold rated units come very close to 92% efficiency. Anyone looking to buy a new psu right now should be aiming for at least a Gold rated psu in my opinion. Efficiency ratings range from the basic 80+ White (worthless rating in my opinion) through to Titanium. The efficiency that psu's need to hit for each rating are as follows:-

The basic 80 Plus rating means that the PSU is rated for at least 80% efficiency at 20%, 50% and 100% loads.

The 80 Plus Bronze rating means that the PSU is rated for at least 82% efficiency at 20% load, 85% at 50% load, and 82% at 100% load.

The 80 Plus Silver rating means that the PSU is rated for at least 85% efficiency at 20% load, 88% at 50% load, and 85% at 100% load.

The 80 Plus Gold rating means that the PSU is rated for at least 87% efficiency at 20% load, 90% at 50% load, and 87% at 100% load.

The 80 Plus Platinum rating means that the PSU is rated for at least 90% efficiency at 20% load, 92% at 50% load, and 89% at 100% load.

The 80 Plus Titanium rating means that the PSU is rated for at least 92% efficiency at 20% load, 94% at 50% load, and 90% at 100% load.

Keep in mind that these are the minimum targets that a psu has to hit for each rating and that many psu's actually exceed the minimums, sometimes by quite a margin and almost qualify for the next rating up.

Before buying a new psu always do some research into the ones that have caught your eye. Don't pay any attention to user reviews or shop reviews as they are worthless plus many retailers, OCUK included, filter all submitted reviews and bin the negative ones so all you see are good reviews. Why are they worthless I hear you ask? The main reason is that the average end user has no way to properly test a psu as you need proper testing equipment which can easily run into £1000's. All the end user can do is install the psu, connect everything up and say that it works on their particular system with no problems. You also have no way of knowing if "reviews" on the likes of Amazon or other sites are genuine or if the "reviewer" has had some incentive to publish a "review". For proper reviews go to tech sites such as Jonnyguru, Techpowerup, Kitguru, Guru3D and many others who do full reviews including a strip down and component analysis. The PSU database over at RealHardTechx is a excellent source of information on PSU's with links to reviews and details such as warranty length, strength of the 12v rail(s) and who the oem for the psu is. Many companies such as Corsair, EVGA, Bitfenix, Antec and a great many others do not build their own psu's and instead have psu's built to their own specifications by oem's such as Seasonic, Superflower, CWT, Delta and Great Wall just to name a few. Even oem's such as Seasonic and Superflower use a third party oem for their own cheaper PSU's (the new Seasonic S12 III is a prime example). At the end of the day do your homework before buying which is something you should be doing before buying any PC components anyway. Just because a PSU looks good on paper doesn't mean that it is actually a good unit. Same with efficiency rating. Just because a PSU is (for example) Gold rated don't assume that it is a good PSU because quite often the reverse is true.
 
Wow! An extensive reply! Thanks :), was expecting only a broad answer, but it'll certainly be useful to anyone coming here later too.

Agreed about shop/user reviews, bar for simple things (it was useful for looking into preformed ponds ;)). I didn't know OcUK filtered out negative posts!! At least Amazon doesn't appear to do that.
And yea I have a rough idea of what's needed to properly test a PSU, I have looked into it before, which is why I bought my PSU in the 1st place, it had a very stable voltage level & very low levels of voltage ripple. A long warrantee helped :).
I've been building my own (& for others) PCs for ~21yrs, so yea I do research h/w before I buy it :thumbsup:.

Btw, do you have a rough idea of the price difference between the basic rated PSU & a Titanium PSU amongst the top rated PSU companies? (of the same wattage of course).
I'm wondering how much electricity I'd save vs the cost of an upgrade (I run DC apps 24/7, with a current full CPU load of ~140w, plus ~100w on the rare occasions I run DC on the GPU).

PS Your name seems familiar, were/are you part of the OcUK distributed computing team?
 
As a general rule the normal prices of higher rated PSU's means that the energy savings will never get anywhere near the extra price paid for a Platinum/Titanium rated unit over a good quality Gold rated unit. The only thing that makes it worthwhile from a energy saving point of view is when they are on offer and there have been some very attractive offers on higher efficiency PSU's from time to time. Another way to look at it is that the higher the efficiency rating the better quality the internals should be although it doesn't always follow that logic (Kolink junk, Corsair CS series and a few others are rubbish) which is why it's always important to check reviews that do component analysis. Personally I would aim for a minimum of a qood quality Gold rated PSU.

I have been on here for quite a while now but have never been in the distributed computing team.
 
pastymuncher said:
That would have been the basic 80+ rating back then. The newest TX650 is Gold rated so to qualify for Gold rating has to be a minimum of 87% efficiency at 20% load, 90% at 50% load, and 87% at 100% load although many Gold rated units come very close to 92% efficiency. Anyone looking to buy a new psu right now should be aiming for at least a Gold rated psu in my opinion. Efficiency ratings range from the basic 80+ White (worthless rating in my opinion) through to Titanium. The efficiency that psu's need to hit for each rating are as follows:-

The basic 80 Plus rating means that the PSU is rated for at least 80% efficiency at 20%, 50% and 100% loads.

The 80 Plus Bronze rating means that the PSU is rated for at least 82% efficiency at 20% load, 85% at 50% load, and 82% at 100% load.

The 80 Plus Silver rating means that the PSU is rated for at least 85% efficiency at 20% load, 88% at 50% load, and 85% at 100% load.

The 80 Plus Gold rating means that the PSU is rated for at least 87% efficiency at 20% load, 90% at 50% load, and 87% at 100% load.

The 80 Plus Platinum rating means that the PSU is rated for at least 90% efficiency at 20% load, 92% at 50% load, and 89% at 100% load.

The 80 Plus Titanium rating means that the PSU is rated for at least 92% efficiency at 20% load, 94% at 50% load, and 90% at 100% load.

Keep in mind that these are the minimum targets that a psu has to hit for each rating and that many psu's actually exceed the minimums, sometimes by quite a margin and almost qualify for the next rating up.

Before buying a new psu always do some research into the ones that have caught your eye. Don't pay any attention to user reviews or shop reviews as they are worthless plus many retailers, OCUK included, filter all submitted reviews and bin the negative ones so all you see are good reviews. Why are they worthless I hear you ask? The main reason is that the average end user has no way to properly test a psu as you need proper testing equipment which can easily run into £1000's. All the end user can do is install the psu, connect everything up and say that it works on their particular system with no problems. You also have no way of knowing if "reviews" on the likes of Amazon or other sites are genuine or if the "reviewer" has had some incentive to publish a "review". For proper reviews go to tech sites such as Jonnyguru, Techpowerup, Kitguru, Guru3D and many others who do full reviews including a strip down and component analysis. The PSU database over at RealHardTechx is a excellent source of information on PSU's with links to reviews and details such as warranty length, strength of the 12v rail(s) and who the oem for the psu is. Many companies such as Corsair, EVGA, Bitfenix, Antec and a great many others do not build their own psu's and instead have psu's built to their own specifications by oem's such as Seasonic, Superflower, CWT, Delta and Great Wall just to name a few. Even oem's such as Seasonic and Superflower use a third party oem for their own cheaper PSU's (the new Seasonic S12 III is a prime example). At the end of the day do your homework before buying which is something you should be doing before buying any PC components anyway. Just because a PSU looks good on paper doesn't mean that it is actually a good unit. Same with efficiency rating. Just because a PSU is (for example) Gold rated don't assume that it is a good PSU because quite often the reverse is true.
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Wow, amazing answer! You are a credit to this community.
 
Joe42 said:
Welcome to The 'Hiper-Explosive' Club

1p4ssz7.jpg


============================================

Following on from this thread ;

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17694486

and the constant exploding, dieing, and component frying of the Hiper 580 Modular, this exclusive club has been formed.

===========================================

Membership criteria:

-To have owned said PSU or any other Hiper PSU and had it fail, explode, or kill components.

==========================================

Current Members List [ 14 ]
-Nickg (1)
-elfy (1)
-pastymuncher (1)
-Justintime (2)
-rafster (2)
-waveydave79 (3)
-Solaris (1)
-Zefan (1)
-jellybeard999 (1)
-Raymond Lin (1)
-dante6491 (1)
-eggcup (1)
-collisster (1)
-sugoi (1)

Hiper PSU Census
-Total PSUs Failed: [ 17 ]
-Total Failed PSUs that took out components: [ 1 ]
-Total PSUs still working(members of The Hiper active club): [ 22 ]

Please make sure you include in your post if the psu killed components when it died or not. If several have died, list them all. Also please say what model of PSU it was, the 580 modular or another Hiper.

==========================================

This is not supposed to be finger up at those who have Hiper psus and have no problems btw, just a bit of fun, and it is genuinely interesing to know how many people have actually had one of these die, explode, or kill some components.

Thank You :p
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Yep, I had one of these and it failed. Didn't kill any other components though. I thought these were good at the time, gutted to see how many people have had problems.
 
pastymuncher said:
As a general rule the normal prices of higher rated PSU's means that the energy savings will never get anywhere near the extra price paid for a Platinum/Titanium rated unit over a good quality Gold rated unit. The only thing that makes it worthwhile from a energy saving point of view is when they are on offer and there have been some very attractive offers on higher efficiency PSU's from time to time. Another way to look at it is that the higher the efficiency rating the better quality the internals should be although it doesn't always follow that logic (Kolink junk, Corsair CS series and a few others are rubbish) which is why it's always important to check reviews that do component analysis. Personally I would aim for a minimum of a good quality Gold rated PSU.

I have been on here for quite a while now but have never been in the distributed computing team.
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Forgot to say previously, I was also thinking of my current PSU vs a gold rated one, the potential power savings vs the cost, & how long it would take to pay itself back.
 
Forget about the power savings vs the cost because at normal prices it will be life expired before it pays itself back. Think along the lines of you will be getting a much better quality psu with a longer warranty and the extra efficiency is a bonus.

I have some controversial thoughts when it comes to psu efficiency rating and not everybody will agree with me. What I would like to see is the basic 80+ rating to disappear because it's meaningless. It's just a crap psu that the manufacturer couldn't be bothered to build to 80+ Bronze. With everything moving toward efficiency and a greener environment I would like to see the 80+ Bronze rating phased out as well. Most Bronze psu's are not particularly good and a lot are just rubbish that are built from ancient designs. The 80+ Silver rating has just about vanished after not really taking off in the first place. I would like to see 80+ Gold as the new minimum. The majority are built to a modern design, are more efficient, have better quality internal components (although not always the case, see Corsair CS series, Kolink junk and others) and have longer warranties (again, not always the case, see Kolink, BeQuiet and a lot of Silverstone units). As a bonus a more efficient psu should run cooler and so run quieter. Many have fans that don't even turn on below 50-60 degrees C.

I completely understand that many will not see things from my point of view and mainly down to a single reason, cost. Yes, it will add to the cost of building a pc but with the psu being argueably the most important single component in a pc you shouldn't be skimping on one anyway. The exception may be in a budget build but personally I would always want a quality psu in any pc I build no matter if it's a basic pc used for browsing, Facebook etc or a gaming beast. Using OCUK prices as a example you can buy a perfectly good Gold rated psu around the 450w range which is more than a basic pc will ever need and could even power a budget gaming pc easily in the £50-60 range. For a gaming pc you can buy a quality 550w Gold rated psu for £67 and even a Gold rated 750w psu for £83 both (Bitfenix Formula Series) of which have fixed cables but it doesn't take away from the fact that they are very affordable quality psu's. If someone wants modular then the good quality Gold rated 550w ones start at £83 for the Bitfenix Whisper Series 550w and several 650w Gold rated psu's coming in at £99 and is enough power for the majority of gaming pc's. Just another tenner will get you one of several 750w fully modular Gold rated psu's. Very often there are deals on that give big savings and quite often drops Platinum rated psu's down to or even below Gold rated psu prices. You can also save money by shopping around. I got my new psu, a Aerocool Project 7 650w Platinum which is dead silent (fan is off below 60% load), fully modular and has a 7 year warranty for £86. Normally I wouldn't even look at a Aerocool psu but the Project 7 series was developed in association with TechPowerUp and between them have turned out a very high quality psu that recieved excellent reviews. You don't have to spend a fortune to get a high quality psu.
 
Agreed on environmental and quality grounds. It would make life easier when selecting a PSU and bring down the overall cost of better PSUs because that will be the standard that is mass produced and consumed.
 
Good points about making Gold the min PSU standard.

I guess you didn't see (or forgot) the name of the PSU I've got, it is a decent quality one (build wise), it's just an old one with relatively low efficiency.
I never said I needed a new PSU (if I did I would go for at least a gold rated one), but I would replace it if it paid itself back in a reasonable time frame, I wonder what my current ~140w (full CPU load only) wall draw would be reduced to with a gold rated one. I'll see if I can work it out......

Well, apparently the basic 80+ rating is at least 82, 85, 82% efficient for 230v at 20, 50 & 100% load.
With a 650w max output, 140w wall draw would translate to about 115w output (assuming 82% eff. although it will likely be slightly less, as a 115w output is only a ~18% load, but we don't have the eff. figures for that load).
With a gold rated PSU @230v, eff is 90, 92, 89% at 20, 50 & 100% load. A 115w output should translate to a ~128w wall draw (a 21% load for a 550w PSU).

My electricity unit charge is 13.44p/kWh, I run DC apps (near enough) 24/7/365.
12w for 24hrs = 0.288 kWh = 3.87p/day, so a 12w reduction in power draw would save me £14.13/yr. [edit] For 9mths that would be £10.62
Using Pastymuncher's price for the gold rated 550w Bitfenix Formula PSU of £67 (550w is still more than enough for my rig, including even if I doubled power consumption from a future GPU upgrade).
So it would pay itself back in about 4yrs 9mths, that's actually not bad! Especially considering that I usually game 1-2hrs/day, and I often run DC apps on the GPU 24/7 for 1-2 mths each year too (which pushes power consumption up to ~260w). Also that 4yrs 9 mths (CPU load only) time is going to drop seeing as electricity prices always(?) go up!

If I assume 3 solid months/yr of 100% GPU load (for DC & gaming).
260w wall draw is about 217w output for my TX650, ~33% load, estimating about 83.5% eff.
217w output for a 550w PSU is ~39% load (so about 91% eff.), so a gold rated one should draw about 239w. A 21w reduction would save me an additional £6.19/yr at current prices. So a total yearly saving of £16.81.
A £67 Gold rated 550w PSU would pay itself back in about 4yrs, definitely worthwhile! :) (£110 for the Corsair RM550x ~6yrs 6mths, not so good).
Looks like I've just talked myself into a PSU upgrade! lol


Unless I got the maths wrong somewhere?? (yes I had and no one spotted it :p, since corrected)
 
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You wont recoup the cost of purchase over the life of the PCU if you buy a new one over what you have. If yours is working fine, keep using it (but know it could blow and take other components with it; this is why you keep being told buy a new one). I'm currently testing my new build with a Corsair PSU that's probably from 2008 but has only been used for a year or so in that time.

When it comes time to buy a new PSU, make sure it's one of the big brands that have a very long warranty because they are very good at honouring them and this will save you money over having to buy another PSU should something go wrong.
 
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I've updated my previous post with some cost calculations, a gold rated 550W PSU of £67 could pay itself back in ~4yrs! :) [edit]corrected figure. (I run my PC 24/7 with near enough 100% CPU load through that time).
I already go for PSUs with long warrantees & a good name, re my aforementioned PSU fitted (Corsair TX650).
 
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