How serious PSU aging is?
Aging occurs and this will affect the power supply.

1) How serious is aging? How much percentage of power supply will be lost after, say, 5 years of usage? Is there any article which research the aging effect?

2) For whatever reasons, BSOD has been triggered. Doe BSOD hurts any physical component?

3) If it somewhat falls below the maximum watt required by my system, what will happen? Will my other components be physically damaged?

4) When it is old or weak or next to death, is there any sign I can notice before tragedy occurs (eg fire, damaged CPU/RAM/mobo etc.)?

Thanks.

For less than $20 you can go to radio shack or order from radio shack a ThermalTake Dr. Power "edited/added which is a power supply tester"

yeshuas wrote:

For less than $20 you can go to radio shack or order from radio shack a Thermatak Dr. Power

LOL, sounds like a cheap man's ThermalTake TruePower who can't spell, of which I have a 420W. I belive yeshuas is tired as I would never recommend a noname piece of crap like that.

PSU's do degrade over time, I did some research last year on PSU degradation and I found that they degrade at about %10 a year. What I have always done was use a PSU calculator, using the higher of the options and adding %50 and it's doing well so far with a decent namebrand PSU.

We have a thread back in the DB as we discussed this at length last year IIRC. I'll try to find it again. One of our hardware guys will be by to give you extra info.

augie wrote:

yeshuas wrote: For less than $20 you can go to radio shack or order from radio shack a Thermatak Dr. Power LOL, sounds like a cheap man's ThermalTake TruePower who can't spell, of which I have a 420W. I belive yeshuas is tired as I would never recommend a noname piece of crap like that. PSU's do degrade over time, I did some research last year on PSU degradation and I found that they degrade at about %10 a year. What I have always done was use a PSU calculator, using the higher of the options and adding %50 and it's doing well so far with a decent namebrand PSU. We have a thread back in the DB as we discussed this at length last year IIRC. I'll try to find it again. One of our hardware guys will be by to give you extra info.

It's not a power supply it is a Power Supply tester

Quote:

It's not a power supply it is a Power Supply tester

Oopsie, hehe.

I should have checked my post better, I was typing in a hurry.
Trying to figure out a problem with a laptop. Can't figure out if it has a bad battery, charger or what. Even with the charger plugged in it won't start. My guess would be the battery, is not holding a charge, but it seems that it would still work as long as the charger is plugged in, but laptops are not my area of expertise.

yeshuas wrote:

For less than $20 you can go to radio shack or order from radio shack a ThermalTake Dr. Power "edited/added which is a power supply tester"

First is it accurate? I heard that we need to buy something more expensive. A $20 is not good enough. I'm not certain though.

It doesn't help unless I keep checking my PSU but I know I won't. Who has the time to keep checking every component?

So is it the only way to detect possible failure or fall-below before disaster?

augie wrote:

PSU's do degrade over time, I did some research last year on PSU degradation and I found that they degrade at about %10 a year. What I have always done was use a PSU calculator, using the higher of the options and adding %50 and it's doing well so far with a decent namebrand PSU.

WOW. That's a big degradation. If the degradation is linear, the power supply will be halved after 5 years. Is that really the case after 5 years?

It seems a good brand of PSU with proper care can last more than 5 years.

If I need max 250W (normally >100W), I need to buy 500W.
But it will cause inefficiency problem since my PSU is underloading.
Inefficiency => more heat => faster aging.

Quote:

We have a thread back in the DB as we discussed this at length last year IIRC. I'll try to find it again. One of our hardware guys will be by to give you extra info.

Any clues about the subject heading, or any special words you have used in the discussion? I searched a bit but couldn't find it.

Degradation of a PSU depends on two things and they're directly related IMO.
1, the capacitors being used in a power supply
2, the amount of heat going through the power supply which causes the capacitors to lose efficiency.

Bad, cheap caps = lower life because they will "pop" faster from what I've looked online.

PSU aging is serious in this case. I would assume inefficient caps would give off more heat than they normally do... and you know what this could lead to.

Wai_Wai wrote:

yeshuas wrote: For less than $20 you can go to radio shack or order from radio shack a ThermalTake Dr. Power "edited/added which is a power supply tester" First is it accurate? I heard that we need to buy something more expensive. A $20 is not good enough. I'm not certain though. It doesn't help unless I keep checking my PSU but I know I won't. Who has the time to keep checking every component? So is it the only way to detect possible failure or fall-below before disaster?

I use it in my business, it may not be the best, but does work.