BFG LS1000 PSU Had a Good Run

[JLK03F150]

My BFG LS1000 1kW PSU died this week. I bought the review sample from @Oklahoma Wolf in 2009 and it served me well in several Xfire & other systems over the years. My PC with an FX8320 & GTX 970 started random rebooting so I swapped it with a spare Corsair 750W I have for "basement builds". The FS8320 is back & running, but when I opened the LS1000 up I saw 4-5 obviously blown capacitors.

 

[Nebulous]

Not too shabby! I remember BFG. They had some crazy graphics cards as well. I bought a crap ton of review samples from OW back in the day too. Last one was a Silverstone 1200 watter.

 

[Woomack]

I forgot this brand even existed. Back then, some other brands were still alive, and some good OEMs were supplying barely known brands. I had PCP&P 1200W PSU, which was working perfectly until BTC mining caused PSU prices to go up, and higher wattage units were hard to get. So I sold a 10 year old PSU for $250. I still have a 1200W Corsair, which has 6 years or something near (I don't even remember). It wasn't used much, and because it was running passively, it's still clean. I installed it in one of my test rigs this week.
14 years is a nice run. I wonder how long new units will work as many have 5-10 years of warranty.

 

[EarthDog]

Wooooooooooow. Yeah, remember BFG graphics cards?!!

 

[JLK03F150]

Wooooooooooow. Yeah, remember BFG graphics cards?!!

Yes, I saw one recently in the TPU Retro Hardware thread. It's an nVidia 6800 Ultra, I think.
I always thought BFG was such a meme & it seems a lot of people formed opinions of the company & their products because of that too.

 

[Nebulous]

Didn't BFG have a big arse dog with a spiked collar on the box?

*Edit* That wasn't BFG, that was XFX. I'm such a dumb 'ol man

 

[JLK03F150]

Didn't BFG have a big arse dog with a spiked collar on the box?

*Edit* That wasn't BFG, that was XFX. I'm such a dumb 'ol man

I though maybe you were thinking of Mad Dog Multimedia. I have a bunch of their fans & here's a vintage Mad Dog sound card on newegg.

 

[Nebulous]

I though maybe you were thinking of Mad Dog Multimedia. I have a bunch of their fans & here's a vintage Mad Dog sound card on newegg.

 

[JLK03F150]

View attachment 361981

I don't remember that dog at all, but that's a badass logo. Cool box too.
My Geforce 6800 U agp is an evga model with the odd looking guy in glasses on the cooler and Nalu (I had to google that to get the name) on the box. The only XFX card I had/have is an HD 7750 with a "Ghost" cooler.

 

[stompah]

Oh, that BFG. #New2MeCardNotMyDust

I'm glad you got some service out of it. Is cap replacement feasible?

 

[JLK03F150]

Oh, that BFG. #New2MeCardNotMyDust

I'm glad you got some service out of it. Is cap replacement feasible?

I thought about keeping it & seeing if I could replace the caps, but my soldering skills are far from up to the task. On top of that, 14 years was a good run considering it came without a warranty as a review unit.

 

[Nebulous]

It's easy to replace the caps, but given the age of the unit, other parts are prone to failure at some point. After fixing it, would you trust it to power a pc? I sure as hell wouldn't, unless it's a crapbox that you're willing to see explode for testing purposes and not one your home rigs.

But if you do, be sure to record a video of it

 

[JLK03F150]

Sorry Neb, no exploding video for you! It's already gone to the recycler. Many of the same points you're making are what made my decision for me. I couldn't imagine testing the (maybe) repaired PSU with my Sabertooth 990FX to see "what happens". lol

 

[freeagent]

R.I.P

 

[Nebulous]

Sorry Neb, no exploding video for you! It's already gone to the recycler. Many of the same points you're making are what made my decision for me. I couldn't imagine testing the (maybe) repaired PSU with my Sabertooth 990FX to see "what happens". lol

Awman, you're no fun! lol, j/k! Well I'm glad you gave it a proper burial, it did serve you well. *Plays Taps*

Hey maybe I can make a video of an exploding psu? Lemme see what I can find. Been a long time since I've had anything explode, you know, for fun

 

[JLK03F150]

I had a Seasonic S12 650w "blow up" years ago during a Forum Wars IIRC. It was unimpressive, just a loud pop & a little smoke. They turned around the replacement so quickly I was able to finish the FW Competition. I still have the RMA replacement too.

 

[JLK03F150]

Speaking of exploding PSUs, I forgot about the Gigabyte units from about a year ago & the Gamers Nexus video. Good news, you don't have to watch Steve's entire video (ain't nobody got time for that!). They show it happen during the opening segment (or @ 17:00).

 

[Woomack]

As I remember, there was a design flaw in Gigabyte and one more brand (the same OEM?, I don't remember). Most PSUs nowadays are great compared to what we could see 10+ years ago. Now you can pretty much trust everything that is 80+ Gold and has a "Japanese Caps label." Some years ago, we were picking recommended/reviewed by maybe 2-3 websites PSUs. It's mainly because most brands nowadays have the same OEMs, and there are 3-4 popular brands. They can fail fan curves or something, but stability and durability are pretty high for even less-known brands. I was testing brands like Abconcore, and inside were copies of Seasonic with the same specs, the same caps, and other things.
Of course, if you buy a "no-name" PSU not certified for anything, then you are asking for trouble.

The last PSU that died for me was Enermax Platimax, so their top series. I have no idea why, but I just heard loud "pop" and a lot of smoke. The PSU wasn't even loaded. Right now, I have an old Corsair 1200W, two Corsair SFX 600/750W, two newer FSP 850/1000W, one EVGA 650W, mentioned Abkoncore 850W, and Lian-Li 850W SFX. So far, all is fine. One FSP and Corsair are running 24/7. We will see how long they will live.

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

BFG? That's from the game DOOM BFG=Big F***** Gun
A about a week ago, I had to shut down 1 of my Folding @ Home PC's because of random reboots, lockups and Folding errors (dual GPUs), I know it was the PSU, it was about 5 years old (Corsair RM1000x). I just got a new PSU (same model) put in, that should take care of that.


You know, you can replace the blown caps and get the PSU working again good as new, just make sure you same type of caps (Voltage, Capacitance in uf, physical size) Digi-Key is a good place to order from. If you don't feel you can do the work of replacing the caps your self you get someone else that knows how.