life of a power supply

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:33 pm

what would you say is the life expectancy of a power supply in a desk top
this morning I had to R&R my 550 watt OCZ Fatality power supply .it died sometime overnight.
when I removed it from the computer case. I could hear something rattling around inside it. the computer was shut down and wouldn't power up .

Losbot · Post by **Losbot** » Thu Jul 31, 2014 8:11 am

I've had good quality PSUs last me over 6 years. I recently retire an 8yo box with its original PSU.

Brand & luck of the draw. ;-)

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Thu Jul 31, 2014 10:14 am

They go in different ways, the quality of the capacitors are normally what determines its usage life. It is kind of funny though, the laptop external power supplies seem to be more reliable than desktop ones.

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Thu Jul 31, 2014 1:49 pm

My old True Power that was used with my XP system for 6 years, never had a problem, but I did buy a new one with my new win7 setup.

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Thu Jul 31, 2014 7:50 pm

fyi if you didn't know it . OCZ Storage Solutions is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation.

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Thu Jul 31, 2014 11:43 pm

Which only applies to their SSD storage basically. Their PSU division has been acquired by Firepower Technology. There is suggestion that they might honor existing warranties as well.

Its a shame OCZ went that way. I won't be buying them anymore as I don't buy Toshiba products.

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Fri Aug 01, 2014 7:30 pm

lucky me -RMA has been approved !

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Sat Aug 02, 2014 10:54 pm

Good power supplies will go for over 5 years. If they are bad, you'll be lucky to get a year.

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Sun Aug 03, 2014 12:51 pm

The other reason is they might die an earlier death due to lighting or brownouts. A good UPS does wonders for these situations. Ofcourse the cheap garbage power supplies coming in OEM computers like HPs is a whole different category.

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Mon Aug 11, 2014 2:33 pm

the rma from OCZ was returned today -they sent a refurbished fatality 550 watt OCZ550Fty-B 90 day warranty unit . they sent a whole new set of cables less the power supply cord . I think im going to have to power it up and make sure all works seeing it only a 90 day warranty unit. even do there normal refurbished units are 1 year per the carton labels . they pasted a 90 day tag on my box.