As sky-high prices from the AI-driven RAMpocalypse cascade through everything with a chip in it, the last thing anybody wants to do right now is to buy a replacement memory kit, graphics card, or even an entire new desktop or laptop. And with today’s lengthening upgrade cycles, many of us are already using older systems that could now be facing down several more years of service before a new build is economical.
No sweat, you might think. A PC is mostly built from solid-state components these days. Sure, a fan might start rattling every once in a while, but that’s a cheap fix. And if a closed-loop liquid CPU cooler starts gurgling because of low coolant levels, it’ll hardly break the bank to slap on a replacement.
Don’t forget about your power supply, though. The caps and other components inside slowly and invisibly wear out with time and use, and the quality of power that the unit delivers can degrade in turn. Since the PSU is connected to every part of a system, it presents a risk of downstream failures that other components don’t.
That system has served its owner well during that time, but I recently got the call you dread most as a friendly neighborhood system builder: that the PSU had made a weird noise and the system is suddenly stone-cold dead. Yes, it had been connected to a surge protector and UPS; no, there hadn’t been any thunderstorms or weird weather beforehand. Just dead.
No such luck here. The motherboard was clearly not well. Its RGB LED lighting only slowly came on when connected to power, and it made an unhealthy electronic ticking sound that I’ve never heard a PC make in all my years of building. Everything just blinked off the moment I pressed the power button.
Even if your PSU comes with a 10-year (or longer) manufacturer warranty like this one did, that protection usually only extends to the unit itself, not any of the components connected to it. You might be able to get a new unit from the OEM if a failure does occur, but that’s cold comfort if you’re suddenly facing hundreds or thousands of dollars in replacement parts.
None of this is anything you should need to worry about from a build that’s only a couple years old, but if you’re using a five-year-old or even older system, or you’re thinking about pulling a box of that age off the shelf for a kid or friend to use, it might be time for a proactive PSU replacement—especially if you carried over a unit from an even older parts list. And all that goes double if you’ve run your system under heavy continuous loads or in a hot environment during that time.
And if you’re thinking about a graphics card upgrade, a new PSU has benefits beyond stability and reliability. If you’re eyeing a used RTX 4070 or RTX 5070 or better graphics card on the Nvidia side, and you don’t want to deal with bulky adapters and cable management challenges, you’ll probably want a brand-new PSU anyway for the native 12V-2x6 cable it’ll include.
Even if you need to save a few bucks, you can find well-reviewed 850W units from Montech and ASRock for as little as $90. If you need more power, 1000W versions of those units are only a few bucks more.
Check out our list of the best PSUs for more suggestions across a wide range of wattage ratings and form factors. Regardless of the unit you choose, you can rest easier knowing that you’ve reset the clock on a critical point of failure in your system. And be sure to invest in a good surge protector or UPS upstream of your PC to add an extra layer of protection for your increasingly valuable components.
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