ATX power supply

Quote

"There are two technical reasons to discourage the use of old PSUs:
First is the ageing of electrolytic capacitors. Specially the cheap electrolytic capacitors used in noname PSUs. They bulge, leak and eventually short. In the secondary circuit, they usually go out with a puff and some smoke, but the big bulk capacitors in the primary go out with a bang and a flame. In both cases they likely will kill the RepRap electronics, apart from possibly causing a more severe accident.
The second reason is the outdated design of the switching electronics in ATX PSUs older than 2~3 years. They are not only terribly inefficient compared to modern PSUs, they have less protections, have worse regulation, and have smaller/noisier fans. Of course if you have a high end Seasonic ATX PSUs from 3 years ago that you have only used for a couple of hours, all this does not apply!
imo, the savings achieved by reusing an old PSU are not worth the risks, the lower performance and the hassle. But again, that's my opinion. On the other hand, the technical reasons I just listed are facts, not opinion."