Interesting. Do you say this due to the possibility of a difference in the pinout on the PS end?

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Most of the time, yes.

That is intersting and i have to admit i never considered that, i always assumed that whatever the cable output was in (8 or 6 pin etc) then it would be a standard for that size/type of connector... the only cables i didn't swap out were the power outlet from the wall socket to the PSU and the GPU cable because the former is pretty much fool proof in the UK and the latter i always (maybe stupidly) thought if the cable matches the sockets they're designed for then you can't go wrong.

In any case i'm on day 2 now without a single crash, i even re-installed Command and Conquer and Red Alert that i bought years ago (but haven't played since the pandemic began) in an effort to try and push the limits of my PC with every setting i could turned up to the highest available, and i'm happy to say it runs perfectly.
Not exactly a scientific test but i got the urge to play it last night and thought why not use it as a simple test because it'll push the graphics, cpu, and memory all at the same time which is something i rarely do these days.

That said one thing i did do when i installed the new PSU, i installed it upside down so it wasn't venting out the bottom of the case so i could see (and feel) what the PSU fan was doing (or not)... what i thought was the CPU fan screaming at me turns out to have been the PSU fan which is very interesting because after i replaced the CPU thermal paste i could barely hear any fans running at all so that kind of indicates the PSU fan by coincidence was in the process of dying and likely did (I know the CPU fan was spinning as expected because the BIOS and Speccy etc show the fan speed rising and dropping depending on usage) ... it certainly squares with the fact that when i took the side of the case off a few days before, i could hear a low level mechanical grinding coming from the bottom of the case, even though i wasn't entirely sure where it was coming from it did highlight the PSU even though i couldn't see how the fan was spinning (if at all).

At some point i'll site the PSU in the correct way so it's not blowing hot air into the case but i want to run it like this for a couple of weeks to make sure the issue is resolved by being able to see what ALL the fans are up to if it does crash again.

Actually a game with high level graphics is a decent stress test.

As to the up-side-down PS you are pumping a lot of heat into the case. The reason the case is designed to output the air from the PS out the bottom is to prevent extra heat being added inside. If you are going to run the PS in reverse position for a while I suggest that you leave the case's side cover off. Actually I run both my desktops without the side covers as a normal practice.

As to the possibility of old cables messing with a new power supply remember when Dell switched wires on their PS leads to the mother board? It got them more money as, if you needed to replace the PS you had to buy it from Dell unless you knew the proper pin out and switched the two wires back to standard. This was such a known issue some outfit even made an adapter to do the job. Personally I think such propitiatory measures to force a user to buy exclusively from the original vendor should be outlawed but that isn't likely to happen

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Good to know running a game with high level graphics is a decent stress test, i always thought it might be but i didn't know for sure.

The side of my case looking at the front of the motherboard is already off, it seemed pointless to put it on when i need to see what's happening inside and i know that soon i'll have to remove it to resit the PSU... the side behind the motherboard i did replace because i knew it would be a pain to fit given the risk of dislodging a power connector... not all my Sata cables have a clip that fixes them in place and there is not a lot of room for error if a cable gets snagged.

I much preferred when PSU's sucked air from inside the case and vented it out the back of the case but i guess someone who knows more than i do thought that that was no longer a good idea.
An obvious compromise would be (in my mind) to have it suck air from underneath and vent it through the back with the fan at the top of the PSU visible via some form of perspex cover, but what do i know... maybe we don't have the technology to route air anymore?

As for 'propriety' systems like Dell and Apple etc messing with 'standards' to maximise profit, each to their own but that is the reason i don't and probably never will buy any of their products.

I don't often agree with the EU but they got this one right and if memory serves me right, it won't stop there:

Long-awaited common charger for mobile devices will be a reality in 2024
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20220930IPR41928/long-awaited-common-charger-for-mobile-devices-will-be-a-reality-in-2024

The cord from socket to the plug itself is normally OK to reuse, but I always us the new one anyways. The modular cables might be wired the same, BUT you never know. Even power supplies from the same manufacturers can have little differences. Better to be safe than sorry with cables.

I think the EU is the reason Apple stuff is all coming with USB-C connectors now instead of the Lightning ones.

It is, and like i said it won't stop there...

Right to repair: Commission introduces new consumer rights for easy and attractive repairs
Press release 22 March 2023
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_1794

To close this out, it's now four days without any issues so i pulled the PSU and positioned it the correct way up (or down) today... it's so annoying that PSU's don't have some sort of alert when they are failing or beginning to fail.

Aside from replacing the Graphics card, the PSU, reverting back to the onboard LAN chip, along with some new thermal paste... it didn't cost me anything except lots and lots of frustration and head scratching but it could have been a lot more expensive if i'd done what many people would have done and just replaced the whole system.

Computers when they work are great, but when they don't... omg! -->

Glad to hear.

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