Buying a used PSU: always a bad idea?

[magellan]

People here have convinced me that buying used HDD's is a bad idea, but what about used PSU's off reputable sellers (say on ebay or here)?

 

[JLK03F150]

I bought a review sample from Oklahoma Wolf back when he worked for jonnyguru.com. I'm still using the PSU & knew it came "as is, no warranty". There aren't too many other people I would buy a used PSU from, unless it was a unit with a transferable 7-10 year warranty on it.

 

[EarthDog]

HDDs aren't a bad thing to buy used... like anything used there is risk for it to fail. That's part of the reason why the price is a lot lower than new. Ask for power on/use hours and SMART info to mitigate that risk.

Nothing wrong with used PSUs... it's not like they are like mining cards and rode hard to be only left for others...unless it's a mining PSU, but who knows. With everything there is risk. The good thing about PSUs is they are black boxes and not messed with, generally, so, I don't see too big of a concern buying a used PSU, personally.

 

[Janus67]

HDDs aren't a bad thing to buy used... like anything used there is risk for it to fail. That's part of the reason why the price is a lot lower than new. Ask for power on/use hours and SMART info to mitigate that risk.

Nothing wrong with used PSUs... it's not like they are like mining cards and rode hard to be only left for others...unless it's a mining PSU, but who knows. With everything there is risk. The good thing about PSUs is they are black boxes and not messed with, generally, so, I don't see too big of a concern buying a used PSU, personally.

Ironically mining cards are generally pretty well taken care of and greatly undervolted for efficiency. I guess the only risk is if it was in an environment where even still the fans were at 100% 24/7 could lead to some early wear on the cooler.

 

[EarthDog]

I still imagine running full tilt for long lengths of time takes it's toll. Maybe I'm wrong, but I worry more about buying a card that was mined on for 1-2 years than a PSU that was run for 1-2 years (even mining/constant load).

 

[magellan]

Well I ended up buying a used Seasonic Gm-850 off ebay. The description says I should get all cables.

 

[dejo]

I bought 5 or 6 psu from OklahomaWolf. To my knowledge all but 1 are still running in pc's somewhere

 

[NiHaoMike]

Used/surplus server PSUs tend to go for the cost of new cheap generic PSUs or even less, while still having many years of service life left and top notch build quality. There's a reason those were particularly popular for use on modded CR-10 3D printers, the stock PSU on those is on the weak side and it tends to be one of the first upgrades along with changing the heated bed for a more powerful one.
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