5punk

As per the title.

4th one in my family to release the magic blue smoke of its own accord.

Total tally so far: 1x 520w, 1x 620w, 1x 650w and now, 1x 750.
All from the HX modular series.

I'm going have to say that you should avoid them at all costs now, or at least avoid the UK models of PSU's. Bit of a shame really as their memory has been/is seemingly flawless.

Strange, mines been fine so far, touch wood.

Hmm, weird that. Since they started with PSUs they've had some of the best reputation going. FJ certainly vouched for them in the compilation thread, and based off my research when I bought my last one a couple of years ago I would have easily recommended them. Can't really argue with four melting on you though.

I've put them in many machines I've built for people and not had one go yet - a variety of models over the last five years. Is this a recent thing, or have they gone over a period of time and in different computers? Perhaps they have an issue with some component common between them, or there's been a lapse of late in their quality control.

Of course you can pop any PSU by plugging the cables in the wrong holes damaging the motherboard in such a way as any PSUs connected afterwards will blow, but I'm sure that's not what has happened here, if it were all the same machine I'd suspect a short circuit.

Seperate machines, seperate locations, different hardware, all mostly assembled by me and correctly wired, kept ventilated and clean.

Time frame varies:
520w was the first, lasted ~4.5 years across two, maybe three machines. Only sent back because of the 5 year guarantee.
620w was the RMA'd replacement for the 520w. Lasted 18 months in the same machine iirc. Replaced with a 650w (~Christmas 2010 I think) which is ok and is running this machine.
650w belongs to brother A, bought in Sept 2009. Went foomph about 5-6 weeks ago. RMA'd today as I'm lazy and hadn't got around to it
750w belongs to brother B. It's 18 months old and the newest one. Has been gracefully releasing the magic smoke over the last week or so, only to stop working last night.

The only one I'm not fussed about is the first, but the rest have all gone in quite a short time span, especially as the 650w and 750w have 7 year guarantees.

Not had any blue smoke on me, running a load of them in various machines.

Maybe I've been lucky, or you've been unlucky. How many non-Corsair PSUs have you used over the same timespan?

While I've favoured Corsair, budget constraints have sometimes led to me having to fit cheapos like CIT 500Ws. As you might expect I've lost three of those over the same five-year span, though two of those went straight away on first-fitting.

My Dad, always eager to save a few pennies against my advice, has some gaudy blue-LED'd 500W PSU I can't remember the make of which is still ticking over after five years, but does sound as if a squadron of furious bees is attempting to escape from within the enclosure. It's also worth noting that almost every other component inside his PC has failed in that time, only to be replaced with my (top of-the-line-at-the-time) spare bits, like my E6600.

I know with the situation with hard disks, that a few suppliers are being more lax than they used to about RMAs - supplying replacements which had previously been sent back or refurbished, as they either don't have the stock, or begrudge replacing items which cost £30 a year ago with ones that now sell for £80, but this shouldn't apply to PSUs. Perhaps their whole RMA system has now changed as a result, such that any returns are now given a cursory check and placed in a replacements pool upon passing. I've certainly had a slightly higher percentage of DOAs and RMA-replacement DOAs in the last six months than I've experienced before, but then I have been buying in greater volumes.

Corsair rebrands SeaSonic ODMs. SeaSonic is one of the most respected PSU manufacturers with a long history of reliability. I'm not sure what the problem is with the units you & your family have but the general consensus of hardware review sites and the internets in general is that Corsair/SeaSonic units are top quality.

Especially to have that many go bad, I'd be wary of blaming the PSUs themselves and I'd be looking for some form of external cause. That level of failure is highly unusual for all but the absolute shittiest units.

Deej, normally I'd agree with you on that as I did do my research before buying (hence kept buying after the first failed), but all the general culprits such as dodgy wiring, not surge protected, poor ventilation etc... have been excluded, and it's the *only* range I've had problems with.

For what it's worth, I've been running for the last 8 years or so...

Tagan 450w, powered my old athlon box, then tukkake for 2 years, died. (not, low grade consumer PSU in constant load in a server)

Enermax galaxy 1KW, since uh, 2006. now has modified cables, the dodgy power alarm goes off constantly, but a magnet on the button fixes that.

Corsair 550 something, went into tukkake when the tagan blue smoked, is currently strapped to the top on my dad's SFF machine.

Corsair 650 something, Powers the spare machine, has on occasion powered the gonk when stuff has been broken.

PSUs that have died: Cheapy ones, a tagan 450.


Short version: either you've randomly had really bad luck, or there's some weird factor connecting all these PSU problems. I'll call it the ginger paradox.

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Short version: either you've randomly had really bad luck, or there's some weird factor connecting all these PSU problems. I'll call it the ginger paradox.

This is kinda my point. I'm not saying it's your fault buzz, but if Corsair was really this bad everyone would know about it.

User error.

Well, Corsair closed the RMA for the 650w a couple of days ago after recieving it, and lo and behold, a brand spankin' new sealed 650w has just been delivered by UPS as a replacement.

They unfortunately haven't furnished me with details on the fault. Which is a shame.