Is It Okay To Buy A Used Power Supply? 4 Reasons Why You Should Avoid It
Building your own PC means you get to choose every component to perfectly suit your needs, including one of the most important components, the power supply (PSU). Is it okay to buy a used power supply? Though some people may say yes, we'd argue that buying new is the better choice here. There are some PC components you never want to buy secondhand, and the power supply is one of them — after all, it literally powers your computer, and if it's defective, the consequences could be disastrous, not to mention costly.
It's worth investing in the best power supply you can afford and avoiding that tempting, cut-price used PSU you keep seeing for sale on Facebook Marketplace. There are several reasons why you should avoid buying a used power supply and below we'll dive into five of them, from being unaware of the PSU's history to the fact it could fry other PC components if it's faulty.
You don't know its history
When buying a used power supply (PSU), you have no idea of the part's history, including its age, how it's been used, and how well it has been maintained. If you're buying from a reputable supplier, such as a used PC components store, this might be less of an issue. However, even then, you never really know who has owned the PSU and whether or not they've taken care of it, and need to take the store at face value.
Buying online from a seller — for example on sites like Facebook Marketplace — is even more risky. That PSU you've been told is only six months old could have years of wear and tear. It might only last a few more weeks or months, and there's no way to tell. Even worse, when it does finally pack in, it could fry your other PC components on its way out.
Even if you're buying a used power supply from someone you know and trust, there's still an element of risk involved compared to purchasing a brand-new power supply directly from the manufacturer or a PC store or website.
It's hard to tell if it's in good condition
You can't tell the condition of a used power supply just by looking at it. It seems to be working fine and is powering the PC as you expect — so it must be fine, right? Wrong. Yes, you could carry out a visual inspection for any signs of damage, use a PSU tester or multimeter to check the voltage output, verify that the fan is functioning, and watch out for any unusual behavior, but there are still no guarantees that you're getting a good deal.
The main problem here is that every component in your PC requires a certain amount of power to operate optimally, and a brand-new PSU is optimized to ensure that each component gets the power it needs. Though things can and do go wrong with new power supplies, buying a used PSU puts your PC at increased risk in the event it's faulty.
As we mentioned earlier, delivering the wrong amounts of power to other components is bad news. If a PSU delivers too low an output, the PSU itself could fail. This could cause your PC to shut down and damage hardware, leaving you with a costly bill for a new PSU and other parts. When a faulty PSU delivers the incorrect amperage or voltage to components such as the CPU or Motherboard, they could compensate by drawing more power to continue functioning, leading to overheating that could cause them to fry. In the most extreme cases, this could cause a fire hazard.
Warranties generally aren't transferrable
When you're building a PC, most components you purchase will generally come with a warranty. Power supply OEMs such as Corsair generally offer a warranty of around ten years. However, if you're buying used parts, those warranties are unlikely to be transferrable. The warranty is issued to the original purchaser, but even if it's transferrable, it may have expired by the time you buy your second-hand PSU.
If the PSU is defective and sends incorrect amounts of power to other components, or if it dies and fries components on its way out, the chances of you getting any compensation for damages from the power supply manufacturer are slim to none. In order to claim, you need to know when and how the PSU is being used. Because you probably won't know the full history of a used PSU, a manufacturer is unlikely to pay out on a claim.
Saving money isn't worth the risk
The cost of a new PSU can be anywhere from $50 to over $700, depending on the wattage, the manufacturer, and the type of PC it will be powering — for example, a gaming PC with a powerful graphics card will likely require a more expensive power supply. But saving money by picking up a used PSU isn't worth the risk. You could save 50% or even more, but there's always the risk of the PSU being faulty and damaging other components in your PC, or even frying your system entirely. A used PSU could cost you rather than saving you money.
Picking up a new PSU with a ten- or twelve-year warranty means you could future-proof your gaming PC build, allowing you to use the PSU across multiple builds, provided your next PC requires a similar amount of power, saving you money in the long run.
There are some other pieces of PC tech that you could consider buying used, like graphics cards or RAM, but a power supply definitely isn't one of them.