Unless you want to replace your power supply on a whim or to prepare your equipment for future upgrades that require more and better power, the scenarios in which it is advisable to change your power supply are as follows:
- Age (more than 5-7 years although this is relative), as components degrade. Some brands promise, or rather suggest by warranty, 10 years of service life and many achieve or even exceed a decade and beyond.
- Abnormal noises (coil whine, clicking, rattling or defective and irreplaceable fan).
- System instability (reboots, various error screens or random crashes).
- Hardware upgrade (if power is not sufficient for the new GPU/CPU).
- Electrical problems (irregular voltages measured with HWInfo and/or multimeter).
- Burning smell or swollen components (damaged capacitors). Excessive temperature with good ventilation may also be a signal to consider replacement.
Well, the day has come to retire my power supply.
The one that will be retired to rest in the limbo of unplugged gadgets is an LC-Power LC8850 II V2.3 Arkangel 850W.
Although it has no voltage delivery problems, it is over 13 years old and is now making a constant humming noise that is starting to become very annoying. Until recently, the quiet box I was using, an ANTEC P183 V3, isolated this noise well, but after a series of changes to the equipment that required more power, the noise increased a lot.
We do not usually pay the attention that the source deserves. We don't even pay attention to its minimum maintenance. We plant it there and as long as the computer is switched on we don't look at it again. This is a big mistake.
The power supply unit (PSU) is a vital element of our machine as it converts alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) and supplies stable voltages (+12V, +5V, +3.3V) to the PC components. It also protects the system against voltage spikes, short circuits and overloads to ensure safe and efficient operation.
In short, the lifespan, or possible sudden and unexpected death, of our components will depend directly on the condition of the power supply. Although nowadays it is difficult for a defective power supply to take out your board or anything else before it shuts down, the risk is always there. Even so, you should not obsess about an impending catastrophe.
Your components should be cleaned regularly to prevent the build-up of dust, lint and other debris that can even stop your fan. PSU fans are usually located at the bottom of the PSU, and although most cases that incorporate a bottom space for the PSU have grilles to keep dust out, it is inevitable that it will get dirty over time.
Don't be afraid to remove it, open it and clean it, but always use caution. After turning off the PC and unplugging it from the mains, make sure to turn off the power supply (with its 1/0 button) then disconnect it completely from the board and anything else it is connected to and handle it with great caution, making sure it no longer has any charge on it.
It is not very complicated to learn what each cable in the power supply is for and where to connect them. Even so, if you are not yet familiar with them, label them before disconnecting them. Then draw a diagram to be on the safe side when it comes to plugging them back in.
This is what my old fountain looked like. The last cleaning was less than a year ago. As you can see, I had enough shit to stop two trains.
And that's how it looked after a good cleaning, first with air and then with a soft brush and a small brush to finish the job with a smooth microfibre cloth.
Thanks to this cleaning I discovered that the permanent hum of the power supply was not caused by the fan, an old Yate Loon D14BH-12 (L-SSS) 140mm two-pin fan. Once it was checked, cleaned, greased and tested out of the PSU, although it is not the quietest, as it is quite worn out, it did not make an alarming noise.
This noise, called coil whine, is a more or less high-pitched hum or squeal caused by electromagnetic vibrations in components such as inductors or transformers. Although it is not usually an indication of a serious problem, it can be annoying and in an older source it can indicate the degradation of inductors and/or capacitors or other elements.
At this point, the smartest decision is to replace the source now rather than wait and risk a scare the day you least expect it.
Moreover, it is the only disturbing noise in the new box, so the change will guarantee the almost absolute silence of the whole.
The power supply chosen for the replacement was the Corsair RMx Series RM750x. A 750W modular PSU with a Zero RPM fan mode that ensures near-silent operation at low loads. More than enough to power the components and would even be compatible with future GPU upgrades (up to RTX 4080), which I completely rule out due to its still abusive price.
And as I 've already told you here, I'm going to build my first PC from scratch (spoiler: it's already done), but I'll tell you about that some other time.
