Capacitor aging

[blueeon]

I'll just get to it. I have a 5 year old Corsair 750TX PSU. Hasn't given me any problems whatsoever. Yet, I have done a LOT of heavy gaming on it (in a pretty hot room) and it's been through 2 different builds. It's still going strong and for all I know, will keep going strong.

Should I be looking to replace it, however, as the capacitors have aged or am I fine for a while?

I know there are tons of variables and it's difficult to give a concrete answer, but any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Knufire]

I think you'd still be fine for two, maybe three more years with a PSU of that quality.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I would just take a flashlight and look in where the fan is to make sure you see no bulging capacitors.

That said, I agree with Knu, its a hell of a unit and should keep going for a few more years.

 

[dostov]

How much do you ask from it? What's your system config?

It may not be able to deliver its full rated power anymore but a lot of people have massive overkill PSUs to start with anyway.

 

[Bobnova]

External heat matters less than load does for the most part, if you've been drawing ~750w from it for that long it's probably due for replacement. If you've been drawing 400w, it's probably fine.

 

[blueeon]

Thanks guys.

My config right now is i5 3570@ 4.0 GHz (Hyper 212 Evo cooler)
Asrock Z77 Extreme4 mobo
8GB DDR3 1600
Geforce 570
128gb SSD
750gb 7200 RPM drive
Coolermaster HAF case
3 120mm case fans
1 optical drive


I doubt I've stressed it to the full 750w very much, even though I do play a lot of games.

 

[Bobnova]

That's a ~200w GPU, you haven't stressed it much.

 

[Knufire]

220W TDP on the GPU, maybe 90W on the CPU with that mild OC, 40W for everything else...you're only looking at 350W, probably less while gaming. Not stressing it at all really.

 

[blueeon]

Good to hear I have nothing to worry about for a while. Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

 

[larrymoencurly]

The 13-year-old PSU I'm using now has all its original capacitors (Japanese), and less than a year ago they measured fine for capacitance and ESR. I believe your Corsair also has only Japanese caps.

 

[Bobnova]

The amount of load and the amount of airflow over the caps makes a huuuuge difference in lifespan, too.

 

[NiHaoMike]

The amount of load and the amount of airflow over the caps makes a huuuuge difference in lifespan, too.

And to defeat that "smart" fan without voiding the warranty, just install a fan to pressurize the case. Or install a more powerful fan over the existing one in the PSU.

 

[larrymoencurly]

The amount of load and the amount of airflow over the caps makes a huuuuge difference in lifespan, too.

I saw several cheapo PSUs that ran their fans at full speed all the time and probably probably averaged only 100W output, never over 150W, yet their JEE or HEC brand caps bloated in 2 years, while Antecs with super slow fans and higher average loads were fine after 4 years of having their original Fuhjyyu caps replaced with Japanese caps.

 

[Bobnova]

Not sure why you'd think I meant that a fast fan will make crap caps last longer than japanese caps. That's not what I was saying.
Plus, fan speed != cooling anyway. You can have a fast as hell fan and terrible cooling (read: CM 1500w thing).