[SOLVED] An old PSU for a new RIG?!

[Archive82]

Hey everyone,

So I am planning on building a new Ryzen 5 based rig, and I am thinking whether to use the current PSU which is 6 years old, or to buy a new one (I am new to PC building).
The PSU in question is Thermaltake Smart 730W 80+ (non modular) and it has been powering a rather obsolete rig (i5 3550p ; 8 Gb RAM 1600 Mhz ; GPU R9 280x).
I haven't had any problems with it so far, and even though my rig is mainly for gaming, I have used it fairly moderately (~2h gaming daily) and rarely was the PC turned ON overnight.

My future rig is going to be:
MoBo: MSI Tomahawk B450 MAX
CPU: R5 3600
RAM: 2x8 Gb Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200 Mhz
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1660 GAMING OC (3 fans)
1xSSD
1xHDD

So what should i do, keep this one or go with the new PSU? Also, what would be the worst scenario if PSU fails? Will there be any indicators if it starts to gradually deteriorate/fail?

Any advice will be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Lutfij]

First off, that PSU shouldn't be labelled a PSU. Second how old is that unit? Third, please get a reliably built unit from brands like Seasonic, Corsair and Fractal-Design.

Worst case, for that PSU? It'll bust a cap and leak all over or catch fire or all of the prior mention and then take out other components that are connected to it. I can't paste a picture here but my colleagues have seen what that exact same unit(you have) looks when it's on it's way out.

Edit:

The PSU you have was in the image above. The case had a top mounting PSU location. The fan was facing down. The cap leaked and it spilled it's guts all over the board, the GPU and then some more on the case. I remembered I took this picture. Just realized I had an imgur link to it as well.

So worst case...? You tell me.

 

[Archive82]

First off, that PSU shouldn't be labelled a PSU. Second how old is that unit? Third, please get a reliably built unit from brands like Seasonic, Corsair and Fractal-Design.

Worst case, for that PSU? It'll bust a cap and leak all over or catch fire or all of the prior mention and then take out other components that are connected to it. I can't paste a picture here but my colleagues have seen what that exact same unit(you have) looks when it's on it's way out.

Edit:

The PSU you have was in the image above. The case had a top mounting PSU location. The fan was facing down. The cap leaked and it spilled it's guts all over the board, the GPU and then some more on the case. I remembered I took this picture. Just realized I had an imgur link to it as well.

So worst case...? You tell me.

O M G! This scared the living <Mod Edit> out of me! Wow!
Thank you for saving my future rig, omg...

 

[Archive82]

@Lutfij I am definitely going for a new PSU, so can you please recommend the PSU (in Watts that is) for the above-mentioned rig?
Is 500W gonna be enough?
I don't need any overkill since this rig is gonna serve for another 3-4 years without changes... Thanks!

 

[Archive82]

Is this PSU any good? https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-WHITE-W...goFMIpmcNKZ8g&slotNum=14&tag=akshatblog198-20

 

[John Chesterfield]

Not really. If that's your budget, spend 7 more quid and get:

this

But make sure it's a grey label model you get and not a green. These grey label ones are reasonable for the price.

 

[John Chesterfield]

Actually, try and find the 550w model with your proposed set up.

 

[IntelTurtleFan]

Try to find a decent unit. Please or else it could damage your new gear. Quality is way more important than wattage or efficiency. For your graphics card a 500W+ PSU will do just fine. Something around 550 would be the sweet spot.

I am a big fan of EVGA G2 or G3 units and used them extensively in friends builds and my own (though my own generally have P2 built on a similar platform). In the past 4-5 years I have used the EVGA G2/P2 units probably (100+ builds) more than any other in friends/customers PC's and never had any issue at all with them.

A quote on Corsair PSU's also "Aside from that, any of the TX, RM, RMx, RMi, HX, HXi, AX or AXi units are good. Those are listed from good to best, with the best of these Corsair models being the AX and AXi units. "

I don't recommend the CX/CM/CXm in any form while they are probably fine in a budget build I would prefer to spend a bit more and know it wont break or damage the rest of my parts (also being more efficient).

 

[Archive82]

Hey, thank you all guys for your suggestions!
The fact is that i have a pretty tight budget, so I might be able to stretch to 70$ (I am from Serbia, so the Amazon prices in USD are usually in EUR here)...
So, any decent PSU 50-70$? Thanks!