Are Silverstone PSUs worth a punt?

[cranky]

So I managed to go last Monday 13/5 to submit the PSU for RMA. Three weeks of 42C + temps and one week of recovery.

Received a call from the service center on Monday 20/5 that the supply was ready for pickup.

It ended being an upgrade to the 650W version (still Viva Bronze), which is good but I'm not sure of keeping it as it's already been replaced with something else (I think the Asus Tuf 550 Bronze - which has better warranty in spite of being an older platform).

Anyway, the whole saga comes to a close for the time being. The RMA experience was overall reasonably pleasant and once I could get in touch with them (which was the toughest part of the exercise), went off smoothly enough. I will probably test the supply and put it on the market next month along with maybe one or two more.

 

[rsaeon]

I still have my dead units, I just don't feel confident about RMA replacements from the Viva product line. I have dozens of power supplies in operation for the last 5 years and it's only the Viva ones that have died and they're all connected to the same phase/inverter.

I mean it could be because of the unreliable power I have in my area as we did lose a bunch of Everready/Philips LED bulbs at the same time (I replaced them with Corvi ones which appear to be more resilient).

Maybe instead I'll do a teardown and end up finding it was under-speeced MOV that blew out the fuse, ha

Metal Oxide Varistor (MOV)

Metal Oxide Varistor (MOV)

components101.com

 

[cranky]

I did also have a dead 2012 Seasonic X850 that was lying for about 3 years waiting for salvaging. Opened it up in April to have a look, and did some basic continuity tests.

It turned out the main input thermistor was blown open, and the standby circuit was getting no power at all. Probably the reservoir caps were too big, causing overcurrent/overheating. Shorting the pads allowed the supply to operate.

I didn't have the 5ohm/8A part required, so replaced with a 10 ohm/6A type which makes it almost impossible to use on 110/120V mains anymore, but no big loss. Runs a 4070Ti Super at full load for hours with nary a niggle now.