Should we only use Gold rated PSUs?

[ultimatebob]

Does it really need to be a Gold rated power supply? Wouldn't a Silver rated one be enough to filter out all of the rubbish off-brand power supplies out there?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Does it really need to be a Gold rated power supply? Wouldn't a Silver rated one be enough to filter out all of the rubbish off-brand power supplies out there?

I honestly haven't seen an 80Plus Silver -rated PSU in years. "80Plus GOLD" has the market cachet.

 

[DrMrLordX]

I honestly haven't seen an 80Plus Silver -rated PSU in years. "80Plus GOLD" has the market cachet.

Ditto. It's nearly impossible to find Silver-rated PSUs. Usually it's unrated, then Bronze, then Gold, then Platinum, and then (varely rarely) Titanium.

 

[whm1974]

Nvidia and AMD have had plenty of chances to kill multi-gpu in their product lines and it has happened yet.

I think that the only thing keeping CossFire/SLI alive is 4K and 144Mhz gaming, and that is only what less then 1% of gamers?

 

[whm1974]

I honestly haven't seen an 80Plus Silver -rated PSU in years. "80Plus GOLD" has the market cachet.

Does anyone even produce or sell 80Plus Silver PSUs?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Does anyone even produce or sell 80Plus Silver PSUs?

Only a few:

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/power-supply/#e=3&sort=price&page=1

And they are expensive!

 

[whm1974]

Only a few:

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/power-supply/#e=3&sort=price&page=1

And they are expensive!

In which case, why not just buy Gold?

 

[thecoolnessrune]

In which case, why not just buy Gold?

Why buy the GTX 590 listed on NewEgg for $725? Alot of those listings are low stock or essentially abandoned products from the early 2010s. Big e-tailers don't usually do clearance price tracking to try to move them, so they'll sit there at that price, maybe fetching an ill-informed buyer once in a great while until they're liquidated.

 

[DrMrLordX]

In which case, why not just buy Gold?

Probably better to just go Gold. There may be specific reasons why those units cost so much. Notice that a lot of them are BeQuiets.

 

[bob4432]

For the price of a Gold unit, especially if you have the time to catch one w/ a rebate, no reason not to go gold.

 

[CP5670]

here is mine in the rig in my sig:

Corsair TX 650

I used this for many years. I have it on sale here now only because I got a second hand TX850M for free, and it has modular cables. It's still good enough for any single video card system.

 

[Torn Mind]

The efficiency target has always been one-half of the PSU's wattage. That's to save money.

Some people go the other extreme and treat PSUs supplied by Dell as lower quality than they actually are, throwing them away immediately and buying a brand new Seasonic or whatever.

Me. I believe I have the most hassle free way of getting quality supplies for less. They have to be USED for about 2-3 years and be advertised as flawless or part of a part out. That’s because that means someone else ate the cost and risk of having a premature failure, which has different causes than failures due to old age or cooling failure (fans). They also need to be from a quality manufacturer.

 

[tommo1982]

Speaking of Gold rated PSU's. How to choose power rating for a custom build PC?
I want to buy:
Ryzen 5 2400G; MSI B450M Pro-VDH V2; 8GB RAM; Crucial M500 M.2

That's about it. I don't plan to add discrete GPU. I wouldn't be buying APU otherwise.
I was looking through a list of Gold rated PSU's and the lowest power rating was 400W, which I think is way over what the system needs. Efficiency is stated at 50% as well, so won't I be wasting energy by underutilising my power supply? I will use microATX case with ATX standard PSU.

 

[UsandThem]

A 400w gold will be fine for that build. You won't lose that much in efficiency. A 400w might be a little too big, but it's a lot better than many people who have a 1000w unit with a system that only uses 250 - 300w maximum.

Review sites like JonnyGuru and Tom's show what the efficiency is when using very low wattage, and that's really where a lot of manufacturers can differ. Just pick one that is say that is around 82% or above efficient when using 60 - 80w low loads.

 

[tommo1982]

I'm convinced now it's worth paying more for a good PSU. I checked JohnnyGuru's website. It seems cheap power supplies won't provide stable current, possibly reducing other components life span. Building a PC is not cheap, so I better do it properly the first time.

 

[Flayed]

Maybe an overclocked 9900k with a 2080ti or Vega VII would pull more than 550W but for the vast majority of builds, it would suffice.

 

[VirtualLarry]

My newly-updated "main" rig, has 2x RX 570 cards, and a Ryzen 6C/12T CPU, and 16GB of DDR4. I pull 460W at the wall according to my KAW, while mining. That's WITH an EVGA G1+ 650W Gold ATX PSU.

 

[Flayed]

My newly-updated "main" rig, has 2x RX 570 cards, and a Ryzen 6C/12T CPU, and 16GB of DDR4. I pull 460W at the wall according to my KAW, while mining. That's WITH an EVGA G1+ 650W Gold ATX PSU.

That's more than I would have thought, although 250W worth of gpu I guess it starts to add up. The thing with psu's rating, I suppose it doesn't really matter too much to the individual saving 10% power usage, well in the US anyway as you have cheap electricity.

I wonder how much energy would be saved if every pc in the US switched to a gold rated unit though? I'm guessing it would be a lot.

 

[hayhayhayday]

Even with 450watt usage improving gold vs bronze is ~5% or 22 watts . If you use 4 hours a day save 90 watt = $0.01 so will take 6 years to recoup $20 price increase for medium usage but only 1 year for 24\7 use

 

[Flayed]

Yes, that's why I said it doesn't matter to the individual.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Even with 450watt usage improving gold vs bronze is ~5% or 22 watts . If you use 4 hours a day save 90 watt = $0.01 so will take 6 years to recoup $20 price increase for medium usage but only 1 year for 24\7 use

I buy gold units (or platinum units) for improved component quality and improved power delivery for stable overclocking. The cost savings from efficiency rarely come into play.

 

[Johnny Lucky]

A well built 500 watt power supply with 40 amps on a rock solid 12 volt rail is usually sufficient for general mainstream use, casual gaming, and mild overclocking in a desktop system with one graphics card. There are some exceptions such as hardcore gaming with multiple graphics cards, extreme overclocking, and crypto mining.

The efficiency ratings are more difficult to evaluate. Currently the gold certification is right in the middle with silver and bronze below it and platinum and titanium above it. I guess you could say the gold certification is average. There are variables to consider such as the initial cost of the psu; the local cost of electricity; and amount of actual use. The savings in electricity are usually partially offset by the higher price of titanium psu's. It may take years to break even.

There was mention of power supplies that are pre-installed in pc cases. Here is a link to newegg's list of 113 pc cases that have power supplies pre-installed:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007583 600029807&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&PageSize=96&order=BESTMATCH

Personally I would not purchase a case with an installed power supply.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Less to do with efficiency, and more to do with Gold-rated PSUs and even Platinum ones are already so cheap these days, you might as well just get them instead of the inferior models. Most of the time the Gold or better units have much longer warranties to boot which already more than justifies the price of admission.

 

[JRzoid]

No...My Older CoolerMaster GXii Pro 750w...is an EXELLENT Bronze Unit...about one of the Best.
That's ABOVE Corsair's CX like Junk....

That Unit is a Dual Primary...and 420uf Rubycon's. a little light on the secondary but it IS Chemicon KZE's and a Rubycon 3300uf on the 3.3v.

Very STRONG Unit for 750w....

We can Build Good Bronze Unit's...That's not the Question...and it gonna Hurt if you wanted to Recap one later.

You want a GOLD Unit that is Guaranteed 10 years. And in that Time Frame no Electrolytic deterioration. Or anything Else at that.

 

[dainthomas]

Crap, I just bought a Corsair CX 550 and didn't realize it was a bronze unit until I got the shipping alert. Hopefully the brand itself is good enough to not matter too much (this system has integrated graphics). '

I would have definitely clicked the gold option if I'd noticed. :-(