Is using 10-years old power supplies a concern?

Nightwing749 said:
Trust me. It's not worth the risk. I just built a new system with my 10 year old psu. Ran a benchmark, heard a pop, computer shut down, then I smelled smoke.

I fried my gtx 3080 and one of my ram sticks. Still running test to see if anything else is damaged.
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Manggggg,,,,,,whyyyyy?
 
Why did you use one that old to run high power components? I have a 10 years old psu however it runs a comparatively dainty computer that mostly has parts that were current when the psu was new within a couple of years except the gpu however it is the lowest power one I could get that would work with plex without niggles on the day that I needed one.
 
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Wade88 said:
Why did you use one that old to run high power components?
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While the age of a PSU can be a factor, I don't think it's the primary consideration here. Based on Nightwing749's spinoff thread, he was apparently running a 650w PSU. That's really a medium-sized PSU at best, and IMO not enough for a RTX 3080 especially along-side a power-hungry CPU.

My backup computer is still running a 1000w PSU from 2007. It's overclocked 5820k CPU uses more power than my 5900X and the 3x GTX680 combined probably uses more power than a single 3080, yet it's still doing fine. I was using a different 1000w PSU, also from 2007, in my main rig until last year when I got a deal on a Superflower 850w that I couldn't refuse.
 
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I''ve heard of people running such systems on 650w psus however not with rtx 30 series large gpus that are 10 years old until this past Friday. The system my 1000w psu from 2012 does is a 5930k that is not overclocked, and a 1050ti for plex plus 13 hdds. It is my understanding that the newer 30 series gpus use lots of power at fast inrush relative to prior gpus.
 
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I've been running my cooler master silent pro 1200 for over 7 years now who I got from my brother who probably ran it a few years before mining Crypto. Before that he probably got it used off ebay or somehting. My computer uses nowhere near 1200 watts, but I think the higher wattage power supplies with the gold/platinum/titanium ratings tend to be build with better components and last longer. Many years ago, I purchased a bunch of 400 and 500 watts power supply from a company call "ULTRA" and first one started acting up in only a few month of uses driving my AMD 1300 Thunderbird....a 60 watt cpu.
 
I had better luck with Ultra PSUs, I had 3 or 4 of them that lasted a decent amount before dying. I had one running 24/7 for around 5 years before I stopped using the system regularly. They all did die eventually, from I suspect is bad caps as they came out at the peak of that plague.
 
I till have a 400 and 500 watt Ultra. Gutted them to use the 5V and 12V to power battery devices! heck of a AC to DC converter!
 
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