PSU Warranty, yeah, What is it good for?

[dirtyferret]

Absolutely nothing! Say it again. OK, I'll stop with the Motown music and get back to PSU. In a recent PSU review the following was written about PSU warranties

Overall, the Rebel P20 1200W has a fair price, offering decent performance. Some of you might frown upon the 2-year warranty that Sharkoon offers, but I won’t since I am sick and tired of other brands’ totally unrealistic warranty periods. This is why I no longer list the warranty period in my pros or cons lists. Long warranties offer more problems than solutions; ultimately, they do not benefit consumers and the brands that offer them. You buy a new car, get a 5-6 years warranty, the best, and buy a new PSU and ask for ten or more! A PC part whose life is mainly dependent on the electricity network’s quality, so it is super easy for a brand to reject your RMA, and for a good reason! It is way better to have normal and not marketing-oriented warranty periods and be treated better, and the product prices won’t also be affected.

These comments carry some weight as they come from arguably the top PSU reviewer out there who's also the CEO of Cybenetics testing labs. I personally look as the warranty as it gives me a general idea if the brand is cutting corners with quality parts in particular the fan but also in other areas. That said I totally see the reviewers points as well in certain situations. This is why when people say only the OEM is important in a PSU rather than the brand, they are wrong. Brands play a major role in your PSU and are just as important as the OEM, in many cases more so.

Your thoughts? Does the PSU warranty play a part in your purchase or does it come to a point where three is just as good as five, seven is just as good as ten, etc., etc.,

 

[Vayra86]

If otherwise comparable products appear and one has a warranty of 5 years and the other 10, I'd take the one with 10. I would not pay $20.- extra for it though.

Far more important to me though is the unit's actual performance. Noise, too. Though usually, most of these features align, and high warranty period products also tend to be built on a solid platform, good component quality, etc. Because otherwise you'd never guarantee those long periods either. Reliability is everything in PSU land, in the end. So yeah, I think in practice warranty matters to me because it speaks of numerous qualities.

I have an EVGA Supernova and it is easily the best unit I've had, its hitting the 7 year mark now.

Its really as it is with most products you buy. Spend a little extra time and money to get something that really lasts, in the end you'll be spending less. Don't just buy some random PSU that's called good because a reviewer said so despite a 2 year warranty, I would add to that. This strategy does require a very strong marketing bullshit filter though and good reading skills. Also, its good to not be an early adopter of anything. Buy tried and tested technology.

 

[Double-Click]

To me the most important thing is the OEM and the quality of the unit, having a good warranty is always nice though.
Something like a 10-12 year warranty tells me the company has faith in their product, 2 years tells me they do not.

 

[Calenhad]

I got a brand new Corsair PSU when my 8 year old AX860i died. So I don't mind "unrealistic" warranty periods.
Also had a 6 year old PSU replaced on warranty before, I don't recall what brand that was though.

I would not touch a PSU with a 2 year warranty, given the choice of other products with orders of magnitude longer warranty periods. PSUs are often the component that stay the longest in a computer that is upgraded over time.

 

[64K]

Yes, I guess a 10 year warranty, like my current one, does affect my decision in a small way. The implication is that the company thinks their product is good enough to stand behind for a longer than average time.

 

[freeagent]

I tried to warranty my Prime GX-750 when it would shut down driving my 3070Ti and 5900X.

They pretty much told me to kick rocks.. it isn't pandemic time anymore so maybe they would hook me up now.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Back in 09' when 10 years was a long warranty period definitely had an effect in the purchase decision.

Needless to say, the PSU out lasted its warranty by a few years under much harsher than normal operating circumstances including and not limited to running extreme cooling and overclocking over several platforms.

The PSU was so good, the power cord melted while running 2x 290X GPUs during benchmarking.

PSU was an Antec continous power series 850w, which I believe was actually under rated.

If a company can stand behind a 10 year or longer warranty, that's a good thing to consider purchasing IMO.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I like to see long warranties because they typically imply or suggest the manufacturer has confidence it will last at least that long. No manufacturer wants to deal with warranty repairs and RMAs. The costs involved in processing the RMA 100% cuts into profits. In fact, it may even cut into profits more than that if the customer complains to his or her friends who then buy a different brand.

So IMO, I think it a mistake, perhaps even a disservice to their readers, to not list the warranty period.

That said, that reviewer said he will no longer list the warranty period in the Pros and Cons section. He did however list it under the units specs. That's fine with me. In fact, that makes sense to me because who gets to decide what is a pro and what is a con? For example, is a 5 year warranty good, or bad?

 

[Vayra86]

I like to see long warranties because they typically imply or suggest the manufacturer has confidence it will last at least that long. No manufacturer wants to deal with warranty repairs and RMAs. The costs involved in processing the RMA 100% cuts into profits. In fact, it may even cut into profits more than that if the customer complains to his or her friends who then buy a different brand.

So IMO, I think it a mistake, perhaps even a disservice to their readers, to not list the warranty period.

That said, that reviewer said he will no longer list the warranty period in the Pros and Cons section. He did however list it under the units specs. That's fine with me. In fact, that makes sense to me because who gets to decide what is a pro and what is a con? For example, is a 5 year warranty good, or bad?

Yeah I think that's the merit in the argument he makes too, it really depends entirely on the entire unit and its price whether an X years of warranty period is OK or not. Far more important is the warranty relative to what you get, warranty alone shouldn't be the primary or only guide for anyone.

 

[freeagent]

My Vertex GX-1000 has a 12 year warranty

 

[Tropick]

90% of my decision is directly based off of the OEM. I'll usually pull the trigger knowing that if the unit goes bad, they'll honor whatever warranty they provide. I stick to buying PSUs directly from the OEM, My old rig used a 750W Seasonic FOCUS GX-750 and my current uses a Super Flower Leadex Platinum SE 1200W.

 

[dirtyferret]

I tried to warranty my Prime GX-750 when it would shut down driving my 3070Ti and 5900X.

They pretty much told me to kick rocks.. it isn't pandemic time anymore so maybe they would hook me up now.

Out of curiosity, did you send it in? If so, to where and did they make you pay for shipping to them? I've seen come companies only have repair centers outside NA and they only cover return shipping making the warranty almost pointless.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Ive stopped bothering with warranties. They're useless to me. They take forever, companies dont want to support their products, and when they do, its a used product you get in return. I RMA'd a hard drive a number of years ago and when I received my replacement, it was a HDD someone else sent in god knows when and it had about 500GB of unallocated space you couldnt do anything with. It was locked in the firmware for whatever reason.

Never again. Ill just buy new. Hurts the wallet most times, but I get a new product either same day or at least within a day or two.

Only time warranties matter is on a car. And sometimes not even then.

 

[dirtyferret]

OEM. I'll usually pull the trigger knowing that if the unit goes bad, they'll honor whatever warranty they provide

OEMs don't cover warranties, brands do. In your case with seasonic, they are both the brand and oem. If Seasonic makes a PSU (backend) for Antec, it's Antec (front end) that covers the warranty and not Seasonic.

 

[Veseleil]

Longer warranty may or may not imply a high quality unit, just as the short warranty may or may not imply the opposite. It's a mixed bag really.
Personally I wouldn't agree that the warranty length is useless number when making a purchase decision, but it's absolutely not a deciding one.

 

[freeagent]

Out of curiosity, did you send it in? If so, to where and did they make you pay for shipping to them? I've seen come companies only have repair centers outside NA and they only cover return shipping making the warranty almost pointless.

No I didn't. They pretty much just told me to turn my GPU core clock way down. Pretty much the most BS answer I have ever gotten.

Luckily it works just fine with my 5600X and 5800X3D.

It was enough to put me off the brand.. but that was just one time. I usually give 2-3 tries before I write a company off and talk shit.

The EVGA 750 G+ I have was able to do it no problem.. but it started making weird sizzle noises.. and since they are on their way out I cannot support them

 

[dirtyferret]

Personally I wouldn't agree that the warranty length is useless number when making a purchase decision, but it's absolutely not a deciding one.

What are the warranty laws like on Azura's Coast?

 

[kapone32]

I don't know about that. The reason I bought a HX1200I was exactly the warranty and after 8 years I replaced it with another 10 year warranty Deepcool unit for half of what I paid for the Corsair. Of course both of those units are Fully modular and were the best each company provided. So yes I do look at the PSU warranty. I bought a Thermaltake White for my sister's PC about 6 years ago and it has started causing problems.

 

[Easy Rhino]

 

[Veseleil]

What are the warranty laws like on Azura's Coast?

They're nonexistent. Wizards aren't trustworthy to begin with.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

No I didn't. They pretty much just told me to turn my GPU core clock way down. Pretty much the most BS answer I have ever gotten.

Luckily it works just fine with my 5600X and 5800X3D.

It was enough to put me off the brand.. but that was just one time. I usually give 2-3 tries before I write a company off and talk shit.

The EVGA 750 G+ I have was able to do it no problem.. but it started making weird sizzle noises.. and since they are on their way out I cannot support them

I would try again they replaced a Prime TX850 that was shutting down for me with a 3080ti I failed to mention that 4 other PSU from other brands behaved identically with the card yolo.....

 

[Sithaer]

The only warranty that matters to me is the one I get from the E/Retailer I've bought it from cause of how our warranty system/laws work around here.
As long as a piece of hardware is under retail warranty all I have to do is send it back to where I bought it from and they will deal with the rest of the process.

For PSUs that is 60 months max here regardless of the unit, at least I'm yet to see any retailer giving out more so the 7 years written on the side of the PSU box is a moot point to me as I don't want to and straight out wont deal with the entire warranty process myself.

For example I've had a Cooler Master mwe 650W 'gold' with the same 60 months retail warranty, the damn thing ofc started developing issues after 2+ years so I've contacted the shop and they told me to send it back.
This was during the pandemic mind you, they told me that nah it would take too long to deal with this now and instead they gave me back my money and I got a new but different PSU in less than a week.

 

[dirtyferret]

I would try again they replaced a Prime TX850 that was shutting down for me with a 3080ti I failed to mention that 4 other PSU from other brands behaved identically with the card yolo.....

that was Corsair (made by CWT or Seasonic depending on version) and his was Seasonic. Corsair in my opinion does a very good job with customer service

 

[natr0n]

I honestly dont ever think about warranty. I look at reviews of purchasers and do research before buying. I also dont abuse my hardware.

 

[JohH]

I've had to get warranty replacements of power supplies from Corsair (who sent me a newer model that was even better) and SeaSonic who shipped me the same model. Neither put up any resistance to getting a replacement.

The warranty saved me from having to buy again. The SeaSonic was disappointing because it was only 3 yeas old 1000W Titanium PSU and even an RTX 3080 would trigger its OCP. But the replacement did fix that problem.

It would be ideal if I didn't have to get a warranty replacement but I would prefer to buy from brands that stand behind their products (even if they shouldn't).