We aren't supposed to get political in these forums so I'm just going to say that PSUs are being hit by some really bad Tariffs right now. Which is why they are so expensive.
Exactly. THIS is why power supplies are so expensive right now. A year ago, a unit that currently will cost you 100 dollars could probably have been obtained on sale for around 65 bucks if you factored in rebates or discounts. It's not a matter of ME being too discerning. It's a matter of the market being raped by politics and an ongoing trade war with a country that makes and ships 95% of the worlds electronics. Expect the current prices to GO WAY UP since the province in China responsible for the majority of manufacturing IS NOT CURRENTLY MANUFACTURING due to the fact that the country is largely shut down due to the rising fear and complications from the Wuhan Coronavirus. That means there is going to be a HUGE shortage of these electronics because not only is nobody making them, nobody is shipping them out, and even if somebody was shipping them out, nobody would be allowing them through customs for fear of spreading disease on our end. Prices are going to skyrocket and there will be price gouging. Mark my words.
If you think anything is expensive now, wait two months. Or four. Or six.
I have at least two systems using 10-year old Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D power supplies. I seldom shut the systems down and have had no issues with them.
That's great. It doesn't mean much, but it's great. The fact is, The EA-380D was an OK lower end power supply for it's time. It's a platform that is well over 10 years old, but for the price and for a system that needs less than 400w, it's fine in most cases. The majority of our user base is NOT looking for THAT kind of power supply however. Most of our visitors are enthusiasts or gamers looking for something that can handle the rigors of a mid to high end graphics card, or overclocking or that will have an extremely long lifespan, or that affords all of the expected protections, or all of the above. If you have no graphics card or a slot powered card with a very low demand system, then there is little reason to spend more than 30-60 dollars on a power supply unless you might be inclined to add upgrades at some point.
There is a difference between frugal and cheap, as I'm sure you can understand. Frugal is being as cheap as what is reasonably permissible. Cheap is being cheap beyond what common sense allows for.
Do power supplies “wear out”?
Yes, they wear out. Capacitors are not endlessly capable. The warranty is the length of time you should "expect" the unit to last. If it lasts longer, that's great. But if it does, I personally won't continue to use it with my high end hardware. It makes no sense to use a five or ten year old component that costs 100 to 150 bucks to replace every five to ten years, with hardware that cost me hundreds of dollars more than that. I currently have a Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium that cost me 164.99. It has a 12 year warranty. Whatever hardware I have at the time that warranty runs out will be worth a lot more to me than the cost of replacing that power supply, regardless that it was one of the very best ATX power supplies that money could buy at the time that I bought it, and regardless that it might still be running fine fine when the warranty expires. It is simply not worth the risk, and it IS a risk no matter how you want to look at it.
If a manufacturer says "this unit is expected to last five years" and that is how long we guarantee it to last, then THAT is how long YOU should expect it to have trouble free operation. Beyond that, you should NOT have expectations of it having trouble free operation and if you cannot expect it to have trouble free operation then you should not use it with a system that contains your primary, valued system hardware. A secondary system or as a temporary backup in case of a failure, ok. I can understand that.
Of course, the current trend is for all components to use LESS energy, so if I build a “new” system in a year or two, I might not need that many watts and my trusty 380s might be “good” enough. Any chance they will last 15 years?
See my last answer.
Based on Darkbreeze’s “recommendations”, there are NO “moderately” priced power supplies worth purchasing since pretty much every 4 and 5-star rated power supply on Newegg that is less than $75 is “not good” according to Darkbreeze.
Anybody with a modicum of common sense that's using their head realizes that ratings on Newegg and Amazon can't be taken seriously or even acknowledged, at all, EXCEPT when there is an obvious and common pattern that exists across a HIGH NUMBER of reviews, to show that a specific issues PROBABLY exists for a certain product. Other than that, the ratings are a fracking joke. Seriously? 4 and 5 star ratings on Newegg? You mean the ones that give a 5 star rating because it showed up? At all.
Or when expected? Or powered on the system? At all.
Or because the box wasn't damaged. Or because "this power supply looks nice installed".
Or four hundred other things, whether talking power supplies or ANY other kind of product on Newegg or Amazon, that have literally NOTHING AT ALL to do with whether or not the product has substantial quality, is fit for a particular use or has a significant expectation of performance when compared to other products, much less the fact that these "reviews" are not reviews and are just "opinions". If you want to see reviews, go here:
https://www.tomshardware.com/topics/power-supplies
Or here:
www.jonnyguru.com
Or here:
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/?category=Power+Supplies&manufacturer=&pp=25&order=date
The rest of what you posted, I'm not going to even address. If you want to run the cheapest crap possible, then that's fine. If you don't, that's fine too. I have never told anybody they needed to by ANY specific power supply AND I have NEVER told anybody that they SHOULDN'T buy any specific power supply either. I have only offered that some units are a better investment than others AND that there are some units out there that we KNOW for a FACT are known to be problematic. If you want to run one of the units or a unit sold by a brand that I've listed as problematic, be my guest. I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to offer guidance. What you do with it is up to you. Sometimes the horse will actually die of thirst while standing next to the trough.
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