PSU Blew up have I replaced it with another time-bomb?

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Andrew_203

Commendable
Nov 7, 2016
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So last night I was sitting playing Fallout 4 and all of a sudden there is a large bang and pile of smoke with some sparks comes out the back of my computer and it instantly powers off (safe to say I nearly sh*t myself) after sitting there in shock for a few seconds and processing what had just happened I jumped up and unplugged it, I didn't know for sure that it was the PSU however I had my suspicions as it ran quite hot, it was approaching 5 years old and was a budget model (Xigmatek NRP-VC603 600W) running a power hungry, OC'd system... So I went out today and bought a replacement, the grey label Corsair CX650 650W 80+ Bronze (CP-9020122) I chose this unit for many reasons.
It was within my budget, I got it on sale for £49... it was choice between that and an EVGA 600W for £74.99, which I just couldn't afford.
I trust Corsair in respect to their build quality especially when they are offering a 5 year warranty, and I only really know of EVGA doing graphics cards, so I naturally went for the Corsair.
Got it home plugged it all in and right enough, my system booted fine and thankfully it seems as if there is no damage to any other components.
However, to my shock and disappointment I have been reading lots of reviews and watching videos about how bad the CX series really is and a bunch more saying how great it is... SO as you can imagine I'm pretty confused... Can anyone please clear this up for me? Have I bought another PSU that is going to explode or what? Does anyone have experience with this PSU? Please help.
Thanks

EDIT*
SPECS:
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-970a-ud3
CPU: AMD FX-8350
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB
GPU: MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G
 
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DSzymborski


Good ones, no, but you had a bit of a garbage one in there previously. Certainly one I'd never run an overclocked gaming system on; you were playing with fire there and that it blew up and didn't apparently take anything out with it makes you lucky.

The new Corsair CXs are solid budget PSUs. It's the ones with the green label that were considerably worse. It's not a top-of-the-line by any means, but I'd...
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AniChatt

AniChatt

Distinguished
Apr 1, 2013
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Pls don't worry. Buy a decent model your wallet can afford. I have a top of the line Seasonic X-850 Gold PSU which costs 220 usd in my place. Once I was playing WD2 and hard a explosion no smoke though but my psu is gone. My system requirement was hardly 400W. It was so intense it shut down by rooms MCB.
So bottom line: shit happens. A good psu will not damage your components even they blew up. I replaced my psu as it was in warrenty everything else is fine.
But try to buy a good psu to max possible extent you can afford and don't worry. If you are running out of luck it will blow again but there is a good amount of assurance that your pc will remain fine if you have a good quality psu. regarding the CX, it is cheap but definitely not like cheap chinese one. Since you have bought it use it for now and try to buy a better one. Corsair mostly uses Seasonic as oem and evga uses FSP most of the time I don't know very clearly what they are using right now regarding oem but both these brands are good however it may fail and this is part of the story. So be cool. treat it like an accident man and again shit do happen sometimes when you don't want it. haha
 
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dontlistentome

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Sep 5, 2016
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People think of overclocking as a free performance boost but it really isn't. Ideally you'd have a high quality power supply to start with, then build from there. You want the power supply to have plenty of head room even after accounting for the extra power needed for overclocking.

Most people just buy the cheapest power supply they can get away with. So they risk blowing the PSU and maybe losing other components with it. I had a CX back when it was known as the cheap Corsair. It was for a very basic system though so it did alright. It did burn out after around 4 years. Now I understand they have a slightly better reputation, but it's still not one of the top of Corsair's lineup.
 
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Andrew_203

Commendable
Nov 7, 2016
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It has a 5 year warranty, says it right on the box :) Isn't the 750 part of the 1st Rev. of the CX with the green label? this one is the newer model with the grey/silver label.
 
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Andrew_203

Commendable
Nov 7, 2016
31
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To be honest I'm just pretty scared... Is it normal for power supplies to just explode like that when they are at the end of their life?
Could their be some fault on my ageing board that caused it to pop? could it do the same to this one? ... I don't want to put any demanding games on or try stress testing it, just in case :/
 
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DSzymborski

DSzymborski

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Nov 19, 2010
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Good ones, no, but you had a bit of a garbage one in there previously. Certainly one I'd never run an overclocked gaming system on; you were playing with fire there and that it blew up and didn't apparently take anything out with it makes you lucky.

The new Corsair CXs are solid budget PSUs. It's the ones with the green label that were considerably worse. It's not a top-of-the-line by any means, but I'd rather have that than the EVGAs available at 600W (none of the 600W EVGAs are recommendable, the good ones in that range are all 550W or 650W).

 
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Andrew_203

Commendable
Nov 7, 2016
31
0
1,540


This alleviates my worries a little, thank you.

Edit*
I assumed you meant PSUs and not GPUs... that would be an amusing experiment :D
 
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