Seasonic X-750 started buzzing

[dkm777]

Hi guys,

My old faithful X-750 Gold power supply started buzzing recently. The buzz is coming from somewhere close to the power cable socket and changes in volume and sometimes disappears for a few moments. The thing is old and out of warranty. Should I be concerned? Is this a sign that it will blow up soon and take some expensive (to replace) things along?

 

[dkm777]

Status update - looks like my good old X-750 is done for. A few days ago I started getting random BSODs and when playing games the PC would hang with a black screen. Thought, why not swap a lightly used X-660 from my other rig and bam - everything is back to normal. However I'm a little concerned whether I'm going to kill this one too, because my rig probably draws almost 600W under absolute maximum load.

 

[Sleepingforest]

I doubt it'll actually get that high. Anandtech used a Sandy Bridge-E i7-3960X overclocked to 4.3GHz and an overclocked 7970GHz and didn't even break 500W. Your chip and the i7-3960X have the same TDP and are overclocked roughly the same amount, so I expect them to draw roughly the same amount of power.

 

[sLAMAZAUR]

You'd be fine even with 600, while 660 gives you lil OC headroom

RIP X-750...

 

[dkm777]

OK, now this is beyond weird. I installed the X-750 in my AMD rig for shits and giggles. It runs a highly overclocked and overvolted Phenom II and a GTX 570. I ran F@H totally expecting to see a BSOD in a few minutes, but it just went on and on and on. I'm truly baffled, as if I have a combination that eats PSUs in my main rig.

 

[Sunny129]

does it run this other rig silently, or can you still hear some buzzing from the PSU even though you aren't getting BSODs?

 

[dkm777]

Yes, it still buzzes and I got a BSOD after all, so yeah, this PSU is really borked. What is a good PSU that is Gold or Platinum certified? So far I'm looking at Corsair HX850, Enermax Platimax and NZXT Hale90.

 

[meloz]

How old was your X-750? And how many hours / day (approximately) was the PC on?

I always thought Seasonic's X series to be one of the most reliable and trouble free units out there. Looks like I was misguided in that belief.

Also, AFAIK Seasonic PSUs come with 5-7 year warranties, have you tried contacting the company for replacement?

 

[Xtrem]

Yeah, Seasonic has at least 5 years warranty. You should check the power that your computer draws with a Kill-a-watt before buying a power supply.

 

[dkm777]

The problem with warranty is that I bought this thing abroad and I don't have the papers. I'm taking this as a lesson never to buy things abroad again to save a few bucks. I looked at the local pricing and warranties and I'm leaning towards a Corsair HX. 7 year warranty is nothing to sneeze at.

 

[Sleepingforest]

EDIT: Did not notice your location. >_< You are missing out on a killer deal, which always sucks. The Corsair HX is pretty good though.

 

[Sunny129]

I always thought Seasonic's X series to be one of the most reliable and trouble free units out there. Looks like I was misguided in that belief.

why? b/c out of the hundreds of thousands of SeaSonic PSUs sold every year, you read about one instance in which a SeaSonic PSU didn't hold up to its golden standard? how is this any different than any other PSU manufacturer, including all the top-tier ones? it doesn't matter how reputable the manufacturer is - there are bound to be at least some lemons that come off the production line and make it through quality control. i've had several SeaSonic PSUs over the last several years and never had a single problem...and i put much more stress on the PSU than the average user.

I looked at the local pricing and warranties and I'm leaning towards a Corsair HX. 7 year warranty is nothing to sneeze at.

Corsair's HX series isn't quite on the same level as SeaSonic's X series. for that you'll have to step up to a Corsair AX series PSU. don't get me wrong, the HX series is excellent, but the fans they use aren't nearly as quiet/silent as the AX series or SeaSonic's X series PSUs. there may be other differences as well...

 

[dkm777]

The Corsair AX'es are long sold out. Do they even make them anymore? I looked and found that the X-750 goes for slightly more than a Corsair HX850 and comes with a 5 year warranty. Maybe I should buy another X? As they say - the lightning never strikes twice in the same spot. And Sunny - you're right, my X'es were the quietest PSUs I ever used.

 

[Sunny129]

i see a number of Corsair AX units for sale on newegg right now...so i don't believe they've been discontinued or anything like that yet...

 

[dkm777]

Then that means they just aren't imported to my country anymore.

 

[dkm777]

OK guys, the plot thickens. I suspect this whole ordeal was caused by noise in the power delivery to my home. I noticed a couple days ago that my X-750 which now powers my backup rig as a test... no longer buzzes! And whatever I try I can no longer reproduce the instabilities that I suspected were caused by the power supply failing. Gonna put it back into may main rig to see if it has "fixed" itself. If it proves to be fine then I'm gonna buy a UPS or a power conditioner. Also do you know of some realtively inexpensive device that I could use to check the quality of electricity in the socket?

 

[Subyman]

I need to buy a good UPS as well. If you do end up purchasing, I would steer clear of Corsair and Seasonic at the moment. They have noise issues. Just go to their forums and read about it. Seasonic makes Corsiar's PSUs, so they seem to be related. Some people have isolated it to undampened chokes. I recently purchased a Seasonic Platinum 660 Watt that has a high pitched noise. My TX750V1 that I replaced was dead quiet for years.

 

[dkm777]

Well, I load tested my X-750 back in my main rig and... no problems whatsoever. No buzz, no whine, no crashes, no BSODs, no mysterious restarts. I talked to a guy in my favorite PC outfit and he reccomended me a line filter so I ordered one. Another thing that I noticed that surely indicates unclean power in my house - my LED lamps flicker sometimes. I'm going to complain to my power company. Good thing nothing blew up yet.