PCA Forums

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 .

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. ;-)

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.

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.

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

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.

lucky me -RMA has been approved !

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

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.

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.