The Power Supply Chart

[Sennett]

In the earlier years, many known good brands do unstate their power ratings. With a hefty price tag of course. But when the performance or tests or reviews turn out to be overwhelming and the results is beyond the specified ratings, the only comments were, 'good', 'solid', 'true power'. That's part of the marketing strategy, it works well. What folllows after I leave to speculation.

I vivdly remember when I first knew about 80plus certification, ToughPower from TT, (ya Thermaltake) was out on the market first. My friends reading this will know I am not exactly a fan of TT, but I am amazed by the quality of the make. Before, I was always looking at brands like PCP & Cooling, but they seemed to be left behind. I was trying to play FSP for the variable pots they have hidden inside, but then OCZ came out with the PowerStream series, it's like Godsend. . Having blew 3 branded PSUs before.....well at least 2 of them literally, thru OC, I can really appreciate what good PSUs are. There are a few brands that I'd like to get my hands on now. Don't think I'll blow them up this time......

 

[epos]

i recently got hold of a power/energy monitor/meter. to my surprise, none of my system exceed 300W in 100% load! in fact, other than the C2D system, all other never touch the 200W mark.

E6750@3.6GHz with U120X@120mm, Asus P5K-E, 2x 1GB, C3D X1950PRO, 5xHDD, DVDRW and 2x 120mm case fan. Orthos only ~285W, max is 3Dmark@315W--and these are including Dell 2407WFC-HC! the Dell alone suck ~45W, that mean the system is drawing only 270W and idle at 130W.

the other systems include a M2NPV+X2@3800+; A8N-SLI+3200+@2.5GHz with 7600GST; P4P800+P42.6C@3GHz with Ti4200 and NF7-S+AXP2100+. all of them idle at less than 100W and never go over 200W at max load. in fact the most power hungry hardware is the CRT monitor--my G520 draw ~100W and E230 draw ~70W.

maybe the energy monitor may not be 100% accurate, i did use some other electrical applicances to check like the vacuums cleaner, it state ~800W and true enough, the meter shown ~800W power drawn.

 

[ghaleonn]

i recently got hold of a power/energy monitor/meter. to my surprise, none of my system exceed 300W in 100% load! in fact, other than the C2D system, all other never touch the 200W mark.

E6750@3.6GHz with U120X@120mm, Asus P5K-E, 2x 1GB, C3D X1950PRO, 5xHDD, DVDRW and 2x 120mm case fan. Orthos only ~285W, max is 3Dmark@315W--and these are including Dell 2407WFC-HC! the Dell alone suck ~45W, that mean the system is drawing only 270W and idle at 130W.

the other systems include a M2NPV+X2@3800+; A8N-SLI+3200+@2.5GHz with 7600GST; P4P800+P42.6C@3GHz with Ti4200 and NF7-S+AXP2100+. all of them idle at less than 100W and never go over 200W at max load. in fact the most power hungry hardware is the CRT monitor--my G520 draw ~100W and E230 draw ~70W.

maybe the energy monitor may not be 100% accurate, i did use some other electrical applicances to check like the vacuums cleaner, it state ~800W and true enough, the meter shown ~800W power drawn.

WOW..ur rig and it only draw 270W!!!

 

[Fatfool]

WOW..ur rig and it only draw 270W!!!

i'm not surprised.

my QX6700 and 8800GTX rig would draw like 350-450W or so I believe.

Those kilowatt PSUs are really drawing all the hype about how the power consumption is out of control. I just use a Seasonic 650W Energy+

 

[ER]

Ultra High-End PSU Roundup

PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 1200W vs Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1250W vs Tagan ITZ 1300W
http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3132&p=1

 

[aLKayeL]

i recently got hold of a power/energy monitor/meter. to my surprise, none of my system exceed 300W in 100% load! in fact, other than the C2D system, all other never touch the 200W mark.

E6750@3.6GHz with U120X@120mm, Asus P5K-E, 2x 1GB, C3D X1950PRO, 5xHDD, DVDRW and 2x 120mm case fan. Orthos only ~285W, max is 3Dmark@315W--and these are including Dell 2407WFC-HC! the Dell alone suck ~45W, that mean the system is drawing only 270W and idle at 130W.

the other systems include a M2NPV+X2@3800+; A8N-SLI+3200+@2.5GHz with 7600GST; P4P800+P42.6C@3GHz with Ti4200 and NF7-S+AXP2100+. all of them idle at less than 100W and never go over 200W at max load. in fact the most power hungry hardware is the CRT monitor--my G520 draw ~100W and E230 draw ~70W.

maybe the energy monitor may not be 100% accurate, i did use some other electrical applicances to check like the vacuums cleaner, it state ~800W and true enough, the meter shown ~800W power drawn.

Are u using ur current Enermax PSU? Where did you purchase it from?

 

[Sennett]

i recently got hold of a power/energy monitor/meter. to my surprise, none of my system exceed 300W in 100% load! in fact, other than the C2D system, all other never touch the 200W mark.

E6750@3.6GHz with U120X@120mm, Asus P5K-E, 2x 1GB, C3D X1950PRO, 5xHDD, DVDRW and 2x 120mm case fan. Orthos only ~285W, max is 3Dmark@315W--and these are including Dell 2407WFC-HC! the Dell alone suck ~45W, that mean the system is drawing only 270W and idle at 130W.

the other systems include a M2NPV+X2@3800+; A8N-SLI+3200+@2.5GHz with 7600GST; P4P800+P42.6C@3GHz with Ti4200 and NF7-S+AXP2100+. all of them idle at less than 100W and never go over 200W at max load. in fact the most power hungry hardware is the CRT monitor--my G520 draw ~100W and E230 draw ~70W.

maybe the energy monitor may not be 100% accurate, i did use some other electrical applicances to check like the vacuums cleaner, it state ~800W and true enough, the meter shown ~800W power drawn.

Did you try with everything on full load? CPU, CPU, HDD, DVDs, Sound, etc etc....

 

[epos]

Are u using ur current Enermax PSU? Where did you purchase it from?

years ago, distribute under ***. 431W powering S939 A64, 350W for P4 2.6C.

 

[epos]

i recently got hold of a power/energy monitor/meter. to my surprise, none of my system exceed 300W in 100% load! in fact, other than the C2D system, all other never touch the 200W mark.

E6750@3.6GHz with U120X@120mm, Asus P5K-E, 2x 1GB, C3D X1950PRO, 5xHDD, DVDRW and 2x 120mm case fan. Orthos only ~285W, max is 3Dmark@315W--and these are including Dell 2407WFC-HC! the Dell alone suck ~45W, that mean the system is drawing only 270W and idle at 130W.

the other systems include a M2NPV+X2@3800+; A8N-SLI+3200+@2.5GHz with 7600GST; P4P800+P42.6C@3GHz with Ti4200 and NF7-S+AXP2100+. all of them idle at less than 100W and never go over 200W at max load. in fact the most power hungry hardware is the CRT monitor--my G520 draw ~100W and E230 draw ~70W.

maybe the energy monitor may not be 100% accurate, i did use some other electrical applicances to check like the vacuums cleaner, it state ~800W and true enough, the meter shown ~800W power drawn.

some mistake for the idling figure for C2D, should be ~170W instead of 130W. minus the DELL consumption twice...the same power strip is also plug with Linksys WRT54G and speaker, the latter is not turn on, router doesnt add too much number.

take note that the figure is taken from the wall socket, meaning its the AC power draw by the PSU, the actual DC power drawn is lower. how much lower depends on the PSU efficiency, I'm using Antec Neo HE 550W. assuming its efficiency is ~80%, 270W AC from wall is only 216W DC<--the actual power consumption. even a decent 300W PSU is more than enough.

 

[MichaelTan]

my loadless is 90W. However, under full load, totally different story.

 

[jtchoy]

i recently got hold of a power/energy monitor/meter. to my surprise, none of my system exceed 300W in 100% load! in fact, other than the C2D system, all other never touch the 200W mark.

E6750@3.6GHz with U120X@120mm, Asus P5K-E, 2x 1GB, C3D X1950PRO, 5xHDD, DVDRW and 2x 120mm case fan. Orthos only ~285W, max is 3Dmark@315W--and these are including Dell 2407WFC-HC! the Dell alone suck ~45W, that mean the system is drawing only 270W and idle at 130W.

the other systems include a M2NPV+X2@3800+; A8N-SLI+3200+@2.5GHz with 7600GST; P4P800+P42.6C@3GHz with Ti4200 and NF7-S+AXP2100+. all of them idle at less than 100W and never go over 200W at max load. in fact the most power hungry hardware is the CRT monitor--my G520 draw ~100W and E230 draw ~70W.

maybe the energy monitor may not be 100% accurate, i did use some other electrical applicances to check like the vacuums cleaner, it state ~800W and true enough, the meter shown ~800W power drawn.

Load is really much lower than what people think... Those with 1000kw PSU really overkill...

 

[PC_Dreamer]

Most systems (non-oc) dun go over 100+W. However, it is recommended to get a psu so that the actual load is ard half its max capacity. Moreover, the psu might not give stable electric currents near its max capacity. If your car can reach 200km/h, running it 200km/h 24/7 is not going make your car last very long.

 

[epos]

Most systems (non-oc) dun go over 100+W. However, it is recommended to get a psu so that the actual load is ard half its max capacity. Moreover, the psu might not give stable electric currents near its max capacity. If your car can reach 200km/h, running it 200km/h 24/7 is not going make your car last very long.

if a car can reach 200km/h, doing it continuously wont shorten its life, it just need maintenance...eventually, its top speed will drop due to wear and tear--there are too many mechanical part in a car that will fail overtime. not a good analogy compare to a electronic device like PSU.

thats what the manufacturer want us to believe, to justify their kilowatt PSU. its like saying we shouldn't run 100% of the CPU speed or motherboard FSB/HTT speed, doing so will shorten its life...

as said, less decent PSU will drop its voltage and efficiency will suffer overtime. but except for very intense gaming with quad core and SLI/X-fire, how many system actually need 500W, let alone kilowatt. the 8800 Ultra SLI with C2X6800 consume 586W from wall socket which translate to 468W DC power drawn by the system. that go back to what manufacturer/distributor like to claim--how often are we running the system to its max? most of the time the system is idling, the 8800U SLI is idling at ~300W DC, about the 60% mark of 500W PSU.

most user would be running C2D/X2 with single GFX and they never go over 150W DC and max at ~230W DC. at this figure, even a 500W might seems overkill as most of the time its idling at ~30% of its rating output and max at less than 50%. even the power hungry 8800 Ultra dont go over 250W DC.

 

[PC_Dreamer]

if a car can reach 200km/h, doing it continuously wont shorten its life, it just need maintenance...eventually, its top speed will drop due to wear and tear--there are too many mechanical part in a car that will fail overtime. not a good analogy compare to a electronic device like PSU.

thats what the manufacturer want us to believe, to justify their kilowatt PSU. its like saying we shouldn't run 100% of the CPU speed or motherboard FSB/HTT speed, doing so will shorten its life...

as said, less decent PSU will drop its voltage and efficiency will suffer overtime. but except for very intense gaming with quad core and SLI/X-fire, how many system actually need 500W, let alone kilowatt. the 8800 Ultra SLI with C2X6800 consume 586W from wall socket which translate to 468W DC power drawn by the system. that go back to what manufacturer/distributor like to claim--how often are we running the system to its max? most of the time the system is idling, the 8800U SLI is idling at ~300W DC, about the 60% mark of 500W PSU.

most user would be running C2D/X2 with single GFX and they never go over 150W DC and max at ~230W DC. at this figure, even a 500W might seems overkill as most of the time its idling at ~30% of its rating output and max at less than 50%. even the power hungry 8800 Ultra dont go over 250W DC.

Precisely. Like car maintenance, there's still the aging capacitors to take into account. Not too off, the analogy I feel. 1000W is ridiculous. What I was saying is that a good 500W is more than enough for most people liaoz. But dun get a 250W-300W PSU just becos of the wattage I mentioned that most system consumed.

 

[satayxp]

nice chart ~~

 

[VenomX2]

nice but does the list get updated regularly or will it include more brands?

 

[Phiphosopher]

How come the thermaltake PSUs say no under "80 Plus" but they all have 85% efficiency stated?

I don't know maybe I'm too noob but that confuses me.

 

[jtchoy]

How come the thermaltake PSUs say no under "80 Plus" but they all have 85% efficiency stated?

I don't know maybe I'm too noob but that confuses me.

I think its because they didn't apply for the certification...

 

[cnt]

How come the thermaltake PSUs say no under "80 Plus" but they all have 85% efficiency stated?

I don't know maybe I'm too noob but that confuses me.

need to pay $$ to get 80 plus certified

 

[ER]

How come the thermaltake PSUs say no under "80 Plus" but they all have 85% efficiency stated?

I don't know maybe I'm too noob but that confuses me.

Take the efficiency with a pitch of salt because actual efficiency might not be what is stated on the box. Anyway I have also corrected some errors with the thermaltake psu on the 12V max wattage.

Another point to take note is SLI-Ready does not necessary mean SLI certified.