Psi*
Tech Monkey
A 2nd OCZ 600 W SLI PSU failed a about 1 1/2 months ago. Two identical OCZ PSUs were purchased at the same time 3+ years ago. The 1st OCZ PSU died 6 months ago. The systems they powered pulled 300 to 400 watts. These PSUs have 3 LEDs on the back indicating primary voltages. On mine, they never needed adjusting & have always been green. These were not performance systems tho they were rarely shut off. Yes, they failed very close together.
Another & my 1st PSU failed 1 1/2 years ago & I do not remember the brand, but it was not OCZ. Lets call that PSU "PSU X". PSU X was 3 years old at that time. With that failure I bought the FrozenCPU PSU Tester. It is cheap & how else do you tell whether the PSU or mother board is kaput? This system is my primary number cruncher with 2 Opteron 290s 16 GB RAM & will often be crunching with all 4 cores maxxed for hours to days ... a wonderous and very warming thing. (This is a system that will soon be augmented (not replaced) with a i7 920 or 975 .... still thinking about that.)
The PSU checker confirmed that the PSU had failed. As I vaguely recall it was completely dead with the checker. In getting the new PSU & the system back up, it turned out that the Supermicro Server mobo was not working right. It was a H8DC8. I replaced it with a H8DCE. The net seemed to be replete with many complaints abut the H8DC8 & the H8DCE is a little newer with better reviews. So that got that back up & with minimal reinstall of software given the similarity of the boards.
Back to OCZ PSUs. Coincidental with the OCZ system failure 6 mos ago, the motherboard also failed, completely. There are no coincidences in electronics and being the suspicious sort not to mention the H8DC8 problems, I wondered which one may have caused the other to fail ... not "if", but "which". In getting that system back up, the HDD failed ... mmmm.
On to the 2nd OCZ PSU failure. Actually this started with the HDD failing in this machine. At just the hint of it failing, I got a Samsung 1 TB HDD from NE. With it installed I started getting erratic power ups. Not erratic boots, just powering up ... finally almost nothing.
The OCZ idiot lights lit up (green), the system fans made a jolt (as normal), and the mobo LED lit. BUT, no tomale with the system power switch. I can't say how long I spent making sure that i had the correct front panel connections made correctly to the mother board (like I haven't been there before). I bought from Newegg an Antec TP-550 w/o even testing the installed OCZ PSU.
Finally after getting tired of seeing the new PSU sit on the desk collecting dust, 2 days ago I launched into diagnosing exactly what what was wrong with "OCZ #2 system". Unplugging all of the cables to test with the woopteedo PSU tester (this system had the Noctua 12U heatsink with 2 fans) and disassembling half the computer so I could get the CPU fans off the heatsink ... so I could get to the 2 connections under each fan, the PSU 5 V rail was fluctuating. Normally you plug the big connector into the tester & everything is rock solid. Not so with this PSU. For sanity check I plugged the new Antec into the tester, and YES, I am sane ... the 5 V line is rock solid. The OCZ PSU 5 V line varied from ~4 V to 5 V, FWIW.
Assembling everything with the Antec & things are now 100%. The old drive is recoverable & the data is getting xcopy-ed to the new drive as I write.
I used to have access to plenty of test equipment but not at the moment. Never-the-less, my conclusion from the experiences of the past 1 1/2 years, is that these PSUs have been killing my systems. In the last OCZ PSU I think the DC filtering failed on the 5V DC line & the fluctuation is an AC voltage which likely peaks somewhat over 5 V or even 6V ... high enough to start killing electronics in an older HD. The OCZ that failed 6 months ago is completely dead so no telling, but that system did not have a sudden death. It also behaved erratically before complete failure.
Relative to my sanity ... I have found that a friend that apparently only I can see is now answering many of the question I ask outloud.
Another & my 1st PSU failed 1 1/2 years ago & I do not remember the brand, but it was not OCZ. Lets call that PSU "PSU X". PSU X was 3 years old at that time. With that failure I bought the FrozenCPU PSU Tester. It is cheap & how else do you tell whether the PSU or mother board is kaput? This system is my primary number cruncher with 2 Opteron 290s 16 GB RAM & will often be crunching with all 4 cores maxxed for hours to days ... a wonderous and very warming thing. (This is a system that will soon be augmented (not replaced) with a i7 920 or 975 .... still thinking about that.)
The PSU checker confirmed that the PSU had failed. As I vaguely recall it was completely dead with the checker. In getting the new PSU & the system back up, it turned out that the Supermicro Server mobo was not working right. It was a H8DC8. I replaced it with a H8DCE. The net seemed to be replete with many complaints abut the H8DC8 & the H8DCE is a little newer with better reviews. So that got that back up & with minimal reinstall of software given the similarity of the boards.
Back to OCZ PSUs. Coincidental with the OCZ system failure 6 mos ago, the motherboard also failed, completely. There are no coincidences in electronics and being the suspicious sort not to mention the H8DC8 problems, I wondered which one may have caused the other to fail ... not "if", but "which". In getting that system back up, the HDD failed ... mmmm.
On to the 2nd OCZ PSU failure. Actually this started with the HDD failing in this machine. At just the hint of it failing, I got a Samsung 1 TB HDD from NE. With it installed I started getting erratic power ups. Not erratic boots, just powering up ... finally almost nothing.
The OCZ idiot lights lit up (green), the system fans made a jolt (as normal), and the mobo LED lit. BUT, no tomale with the system power switch. I can't say how long I spent making sure that i had the correct front panel connections made correctly to the mother board (like I haven't been there before). I bought from Newegg an Antec TP-550 w/o even testing the installed OCZ PSU.Finally after getting tired of seeing the new PSU sit on the desk collecting dust, 2 days ago I launched into diagnosing exactly what what was wrong with "OCZ #2 system". Unplugging all of the cables to test with the woopteedo PSU tester (this system had the Noctua 12U heatsink with 2 fans) and disassembling half the computer so I could get the CPU fans off the heatsink ... so I could get to the 2 connections under each fan, the PSU 5 V rail was fluctuating. Normally you plug the big connector into the tester & everything is rock solid. Not so with this PSU. For sanity check I plugged the new Antec into the tester, and YES, I am sane ... the 5 V line is rock solid. The OCZ PSU 5 V line varied from ~4 V to 5 V, FWIW.
Assembling everything with the Antec & things are now 100%. The old drive is recoverable & the data is getting xcopy-ed to the new drive as I write.
I used to have access to plenty of test equipment but not at the moment. Never-the-less, my conclusion from the experiences of the past 1 1/2 years, is that these PSUs have been killing my systems. In the last OCZ PSU I think the DC filtering failed on the 5V DC line & the fluctuation is an AC voltage which likely peaks somewhat over 5 V or even 6V ... high enough to start killing electronics in an older HD. The OCZ that failed 6 months ago is completely dead so no telling, but that system did not have a sudden death. It also behaved erratically before complete failure.
Relative to my sanity ... I have found that a friend that apparently only I can see is now answering many of the question I ask outloud.
