How old is too old?

[WildW]

Dear all,

I have an older power supply that I'm considering reusing, but since the manufacturer (Hiper) stopped making PSU's long ago now I know that it's getting old.

The PSU in question got a reasonable looking review at the time ( http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=102 ), but that was 7 years ago.

It's had a lot of use, probably literally years of power-on time at idle load...but if it's still good it's plenty for the machine I have in mind for it. At this age does it all come down to capacitor aging or similar? Could I tell anything by opening it up and looking at components. Should I just bin it?

 

[Charlie98]

What kind of load are you planning to put on it?

At first glance, I would say ditch it and get a new one, sized appropriately for your intended load...

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Well, you could check if any caps are bulging or leaking inside. And check the voltages with a voltmeter and heat generation under load. If those checked out and it was going in something that wouldn't stress it much I'd give it a shot.

I ran a slightly older, lesser quality PS up until last month. It started throwing out too much heat (a concerning amount actually) after overclocking the Q6600 it was pushing.

 

[WildW]

Intended load is around 400W at full load, so it would be giving it a reasonable workout. The size of this one feels pretty appropriate, just concerned about the age.

 

[Magic Carpet]

It won't set your house on fire, re-use it. But if you are being concerned this much, buy a new one for piece of mind.

 

[cholley]

beat it until it fails

 

[WildW]

beat it until it fails

I am inclined to go with this approach, so long as it's not likely to eventually fail in a fireball.

 

[Charlie98]

I am inclined to go with this approach, so long as it's not likely to eventually fail in a fireball.

Well... either it will or it won't... there's no predicting.

 

[Blue_Max]

...it's a gamble. A failed power supply will sometimes take other components with it when it dies. (likely motherboards, but especially RAM!)

I've had bad luck with power supplies lately and they've gotten way more expensive here in Canada! Way more than the dollar change...

 

[C1]

I suppose one definition for "too old" could be that if its age bothers you, then it's too old.

Recently I pulled out an old Antec 430 True Power that was an RMA return from like 9 years ago (box never opened till now) and it works fine. (Even sports the infamous Fuhjyyu capacitors too.)

 

[SparkyJJO]

A decent PSU won't take anything with it when it finally quits. It'll just quit.

In my experience even many crap PSUs don't take anything with them when they die, including the one that did shoot a fireball out the exhaust.

I'm still rocking my 2007-era Corsair HX620.

 

[Blain]

IMO, it's false economy to run an old PS to feed new components.
If you're running it to feed old components, have at it.

BTW, Has the PS been running behind a good quality AVR type UPS?

 

[john3850]

I am still running a original PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad in a spare or backup i7-930.
In its day it ran 3 5870s without any problems.

 

[Joepublic2]

Well, caps do age, especially big high voltage/current electrolytic ones. I doubt a 7 year old 400W supply could deliver more than say 300W and keep the waveform clean/not go pop. Not worth chancing it imo.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

A 7yr old 400 watt PSU shouldn't be used for more than 200-250 watts tops.