[SOLVED] Unused 10 year old Seasonic still good?

[WalterIC]

I found a never-used Seasonic SS-460FL sitting inside its velvet bag at the bottom of a box of miscellaneous stuff. I had forgotten all about it. It still had the "Please REMOVE this label before use" paper wrapped around it, with the small but thick manual also inside the bag. It could use a few shots of compressed air but otherwise looks fine. Is it likely to still be safe and still working correctly? Is there anything I should check? If it matters, the climate here is hot and humid 10 months out of the year.

I just checked and it was advertised as being Haswell ready, and I have a build coming up for which the power supply calculator recommends 353 watts so this would be perfect even though I don't really need fanless operation. It will be going inside a bottom shroud in a mesh-front case, so I'll install a 120mm fan in the front bottom slot just to be safe.

Edit: I got to thinking about the timeline and did a bit more research (i.e. I looked at a picture of the two different layouts). This is the 2010 model not the 2013 and therefore is NOT Haswell-ready. I changed the title to reflect that. How important will that be for a computer that is generally left running 24 hours a day? It will get about 10 hours per day of use, and some of the time it will have downloads or other background processes running, but it will be in sleep mode much of the time.

 

[rickypicky5]

If it hasn't been used at all, I would think it'll work just fine and last quite awhile. In its day, it had really good reviews.

 

[thefxgamingrules]

If it hasn't been used at all, I would think it'll work just fine and last quite awhile. In its day, it had really good reviews.

Either this or not. I'm not an expert on electrolytic capacitors but from what I've heard, they degrade over time... Though since it's unused, I really don't think they would've gone that bad.

 

[jonnyguru]

The PSU would have been better off under 24/7 use rather than sitting on a shelf forever.

Get the lowdown on shelf life and storage of capacitors

Source: Capacitor Faks blog In many electronic devices, the capacitors are the life-limiting components. Whereas the operational life of a

passive-components.eu

 

[WalterIC]

The PSU would have been better off under 24/7 use rather than sitting on a shelf forever.

That was exactly what I feared. What would you suggest? Give it a try, get the capacitors replaced, or junk it? And do I even want to be using a PSU that does not support the C6/C7 low power states? I have so far been unable to find the cables. If they don't turn up, that will be an additional $35 or so before I will be able to test it.

 

[jonnyguru]

That was exactly what I feared. What would you suggest? Give it a try, get the capacitors replaced, or junk it? And do I even want to be using a PSU that does not support the C6/C7 low power states? I have so far been unable to find the cables. If they don't turn up, that will be an additional $35 or so before I will be able to test it.

Oh, well, if you don't even have the cables, I'd say forget it.

 

[WalterIC]

Oh, well, if you don't even have the cables, I'd say forget it.

Thank you for the advice. I know that the demands on your time and knowledge are quite large, and I have learned quite a bit from your writings and your site, so thanks for that, as well.

I live in Cambodia, where labor costs are very low (a key fact that I failed to mention--sorry), so I'll probably go ahead and get it recapped. My soldering skills were never that great and have not been put to use in over 20 years, but a quick check indicates that I'll be looking at probably $10 in labor and $20 in parts. Heck, maybe I'll even buy the parts to make custom cables, and let my kids earn their allowance for a change. I've checked every remaining box and the cables are nowhere to be found. I doubt that good quality capacitors are available here--pretty much everything is Chinese--so I'll most likely order it from somewhere like Mouser. They are showing a 14+ week lead time, but since I'll probably have to wait for the COVID-19 travel restrictions to ease before anyone I know will be coming to visit and can bring them over, along with replacement cables, that is not an issue. I'll just buy the cheapest PSU that seems unlikely to blow up, in the meantime--most likely either an MWE 450w (230v) 80+ White for $40 or a CV450 for $45.