How often do you guys replace/upgrade your PSU?

[24601]

Right, but if you were going to upgrade anyways...

Yes, any valid excuse is good enough to give yourself to buy shiny new things

 

[LagunaX]

Exactly, I've been eyeing a 850w platinum modular psu, LOL...

 

[davC]

Capacitors and fans are the power supply components that tend to fail most often. Low quality capacitors, like Teapo and Capxon, should last 3 years, high quality brands at least 5 but will usually make it to 10.

Very true. Cheap Chinese caps and sleeve bearing fans seem to fail quickly. Even if a PSU is brand new and doesn't have Japanese capacitors, I instantly replace them all.

But then again it depends on the design. Crappy CapXon caps are going to last a lot longer in a two transistor forward design compared to a flyback converter. Delta seems to be able to design low end PSU's with single forward that last forever even with CapXon/Ltec/Taicon. Usually the ones on the 5VSB fail first, which makes sense.

I never trust a PSU with less than Japanese caps because some of the older PSU's will continue to run if for instance the capacitors go bad on the 3.3V rail. The PSU is still technically "working" but it is sending dangerous amounts of ripple to your RAM. The spec on the 3.3V rail for ripple is 50mV. I've seen some PSU's with just one bad cap cause up to 175mV of ripple on the rail with the bad capacitor. It can cause instability too

The scary thing is, a lot of the times caps don't show any visible symptoms of being bad, OR their capacitance could be fine but their ESR starts to rise. ESR also creates more ripple to the output and in general messes with the feedback circuit inside the PSU

 

[JimmiG]

How often do you replace/upgrade your PSU and why?

I'm wondering if most people just stick with their old PSU until they die. Or maybe it gets replaced after every x number of years.

Six since I started building my systems in 1997.

1. The AT PSU that came with my P-133 system, which I got in 1997. When I switched to a K6-2 400 Mhz I kept the PSU and case.

2. When I upgraded to an Athlon 900 MHz, I got a new case and a 250W PSU.

3. Got a 350W Enermax some years later for my Athlon XP system.

4. Switched to 430W Antec, mostly because the Enermax was quite loud.

5. My next system was an Athlon64 3500+ in a Shuttle SN95G5 SFF system with included 240W PSU

6. 450W Corsair VX bought in 2008. Originally used with Athlon X2 4800+, then Phenom I @ 2.6 GHz and Phenom II @ 3.7 GHz. Now using it with my current 4770K-based system.

No need for anything bigger unless you're running SLI/Titan or pushing extreme overclocks, as my current system uses just under 400W at max load (GPU+CPU) and around 200 - 250W during gaming, depending on the game.

 

[davC]

^ and that VX450 is still going strong because it uses all Japanese capacitors

 

[jpeyton]

Very rarely. My Corsair 520HX served me well for 6 years through a variety of rigs until I went dual-GPU, then I picked up a Cooler Master 1200W Silent Pro Gold. I expect the Cooler Master to last me for at least as long.

 

[Wuzup101]

I generally only upgrade / change when 1) the PSU dies or 2) the PSU is not sufficient for my power needs. I think the last PSU I had before the corsair in my main rig was an enermax 431w that was from the days of my athlon 2500+ overclocking days. I believe it's still at home under the spare bed (and best I know in working condition). It just didn't have the connections needed for my motherboard when I purchased a q6600.

I'll probably pick up a high quality modular unit when this one dies.

 

[mcbaes72]

I went from a non-modular to a semi-modular (and more wattage) PSU in the last two years. I don't have any plans switching out my 800w CM Silent Pro any time soon, especially since Maxwell GPUs are more energy efficient.

 

[bryanl]

Has anyone had a PSU die and take other components down as well?

I have seen the standby supply do that to devices that can wake up the computer, such as USB mice, but a common design for it is prone to failing in a way that causes high output voltage, and it has no overvoltage protection.

Failure of the main supply sometimes occurs in a way that makes the regulation overcompensate and very briefly put out excessive voltage, despite protection circuitry.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

I have upgraded when necessary to get more features/product support such as fully modular cables, numerous 6/8 pin connectors for video cards or color scheming. I doubt any quality PSU currently made will die before you will have replaced it for these reasons.

I am currently using a Seasonic 760 Platinum (And I have a 660 Platinum in the closet I can literally drop in and reconnect all the modular cables to in the event of a failure). I do not see any reason why I will need to upgrade my power supply in less than 7 years unless there are new power requirements or connector types I will need (10 pin graphics card connectors?).

 

[HeXen]

I start by buying a quality PSU and doing my research and replace it when it dies. A good quality one usually lasts me through several complete rebuilds which I do every few short years to make sure I can achieve top gaming performance with the newest games.
Usually when I do a rebuild, most of my time and research always seems to be spent on the motherboard.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Once it can't power my machine or every other build. I've only just started building though so I've only had to replace one. I guess I'd also replace it every 4-6 years since I run near 24/7 full load. I should look into server grade parts.

I actually might upgrade soon. 7970's are ~$120 each used. I could pick one up for CF but I doubt by 550w PSU would push them.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I find it pays to go server grade, at least for servers. I actually kind of regret not getting redundant psu for my last server build. I did get redundant psu for my big file server though. The beauty of that is not so much in case they fail but it allows you to "walk" the power to another source if you need to, such as cable rerouting or power upgrades etc.

 

[nemesismk2]

I always have a spare psu for my pc.

 

[guidinggod]

Two thumbs up for the afore-mentioned Corsair VX. Have a VX550 from 2009 or 2010 that is still going strong, not a single day's worth of trouble thankfully. Still remember emailing the jonnyguru people, after reading their review of it, and asking all sorts of silly questions

A question, as a matter of curiosity - If a system is plugged into a line interactive UPS at all times, does it affect the PSU's rate of deterioration in any way as opposed to if it was plugged in directly to the wall?