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Is the efficiency rating of a PSU any indication of quality?

Ripper7620

I was under the impression that the way the efficiency rating of a PSU is increased was by using higher quality parts, and therefore translated into higher level of quality. Is this just plain wrong? Thank you in advance. Someone posted some information about this very topic in one of my previous posts, however, the information was a little difficult for me personally to understand, and was somewhat unclear. Am I just completely misinformed in my understanding of what constitutes a quality PSU? Thank you in advance for any help with understanding of what constitutes a quality PSU. 

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Just now, Ripper7620 said:

I was under the impression that the way the efficiency rating of a PSU is increased was by using higher quality parts, and therefore translated into higher level of quality. Is this just plain wrong? Thank you in advance. Someone posted some information about this very topic in one of my previous posts, however, the information was a little difficult for me personally to understand, and was somewhat unclear. Am I just completely misinformed in my understanding of what constitutes a quality PSU? Thank you in advance for any help with understanding of what constitutes a quality PSU. 

It's not something that should be relied on as the components inside and the power quality it outputs is more important than anything else. 

 

 

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As far as I know is that the higher the efficency rating of a PSU is the less your energy cost will be. That also depends on your location and the kWh cost you will be saving like one or two bucks.

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19 minutes ago, W-L said:

It's not something that should be relied on as the components inside and the power quality it outputs is more important than anything else. 

Thank you, I attempted to dig into this posting, however my ability to understand and comprehend is sorely lacking, and the manner in which this information is laid out is a little difficult for me personally to understand. 

 

17 minutes ago, Ryuio said:

As far as I know is that the higher the efficency rating of a PSU is the less your energy cost will be. That also depends on your location and the kWh cost you will be saving like one or two bucks.

Thank you 

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yes and no, you generally cant make a 80+ titanium PSU with complete garbage, but just being something like gold dosent make it automatically good. the components inside matter the most and thats why we have the PSU teirlist already linked earlier thats based of the quality of that more.

I spent $2500 on building my PC and all i do with it is play no games atm & watch anime at 1080p(finally) watch YT and write essays...  nothing, it just sits there collecting dust...

Builds:

The Toaster Project! Northern Bee!

 

The original LAN PC build log! (Old, dead and replaced by The Toaster Project & 5.0)

Spoiler

"Here is some advice that might have gotten lost somewhere along the way in your life. 

 

#1. Treat others as you would like to be treated.

#2. It's best to keep your mouth shut; and appear to be stupid, rather than open it and remove all doubt.

#3. There is nothing "wrong" with being wrong. Learning from a mistake can be more valuable than not making one in the first place.

 

Follow these simple rules in life, and I promise you, things magically get easier. " - MageTank 31-10-2016

 

 

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1 minute ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

yes and no, you generally cant make a 80+ titanium PSU with complete garbage, but just being something like gold dosent make it automatically good. the components inside matter the most and thats why we have the PSU teirlist already linked earlier thats based of the quality of that more.

Thank you, I was able to understand and use the tier list, and will refer back to it often for my builds. What I had difficulty with was understanding the explanation of what makes a quality PSU. 

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1 minute ago, Ripper7620 said:

Thank you, I was able to understand and use the tier list, and will refer back to it often for my builds. What I had difficulty with was understanding the explanation of what makes a quality PSU. 

good MOSFETs and good capacitors along with well working protections are what place you high on that list, and those PSUs tend to be gold or higher rated

I spent $2500 on building my PC and all i do with it is play no games atm & watch anime at 1080p(finally) watch YT and write essays...  nothing, it just sits there collecting dust...

Builds:

The Toaster Project! Northern Bee!

 

The original LAN PC build log! (Old, dead and replaced by The Toaster Project & 5.0)

Spoiler

"Here is some advice that might have gotten lost somewhere along the way in your life. 

 

#1. Treat others as you would like to be treated.

#2. It's best to keep your mouth shut; and appear to be stupid, rather than open it and remove all doubt.

#3. There is nothing "wrong" with being wrong. Learning from a mistake can be more valuable than not making one in the first place.

 

Follow these simple rules in life, and I promise you, things magically get easier. " - MageTank 31-10-2016

 

 

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17 minutes ago, W-L said:

It's not something that should be relied on as the components inside and the power quality it outputs is more important than anything else. 

 

 

LMAO ANTEC

  • VP

SERIES IS TIER 6 YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME

 

This is so overrated and over care

 

 
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2 minutes ago, Ripper7620 said:

Thank you, I was able to understand and use the tier list, and will refer back to it often for my builds. What I had difficulty with was understanding the explanation of what makes a quality PSU. 

It has to do with multiple factors, the quality of the components inside, design of the circuity and quality of the power output which determines the quality of a PSU. Your best option is to look at reviews and ratings to judge which unit is best in terms of your specific application. 

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1 minute ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

good MOSFETs and good capacitors along with well working protections are what place you high on that list, and those PSUs tend to be gold or higher rated

Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

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Just now, Bananasplit_00 said:

good MOSFETs and good capacitors along with well working protections are what place you high on that list, and those PSUs tend to be gold or higher rated

Don't forget a good fan and DC-DC. And a billion other things that I'm not qualified to talk about

:)

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1 minute ago, Redicat said:

LMAO ANTEC P SERIES IS TIER 6 YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME

Thank you, makes sense. 

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2 minutes ago, W-L said:

It has to do with multiple factors, the quality of the components inside, design of the circuity and quality of the power output which determines the quality of a PSU. Your best option is to look at reviews and ratings to judge which unit is best in terms of your specific application. 

Thank you, reviews are what I've mainly been counting on for choices in PSU's. 

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There's a pinned post in the PSU and cases section.

Quote

 "A higher 80 PLUS rating correlates to better quality." Incorrect. Certain components in a PSU do need to be of a certain quality to achieve higher efficiency, however, quality of soldering, capacitors, etc, can be forgone in achieving an exemplary 80 PLUS rating. Electrical performance can be ditched as well. I like to use the EVGA G1 as an example of this. It's made of above average componentry, performs lackingly, and achieves gold efficiency. Then there's the EVGA B2, which is constructed about as well, performs better electrically, and advertises 80 PLUS Bronze efficiency (it actually achieves 80 PLUS Silver efficiency but that standard has been given up by and large). The EVGA B2 is a better PSU than the G1, yet it wastes slightly more electricity. This will correlate to a marginally more expensive power bill (pennies on the dollar for most home users) but ensures you a better power supply for your money. If, however, you plan to run a very power-hungry system for several hours on end then a more efficient power supply can save a more noticeable amount of money, especially if used heavily during hours of the day where electricity is more expensive.

 

On another note: some brands will undersell their unit's rated wattage if it can achieve higher efficiency at lower loads, I.E. a brand may sell a 550W 80 PLUS Platinum rated unit that can actually output 600W+ but would have to be advertised at a lower efficiency rating if they were to sell it at that rated wattage.

 

:)

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16 minutes ago, seon123 said:

Don't forget a good fan and DC-DC. And a billion other things that I'm not qualified to talk about

Thank you very much, I think I need to start at the bottom and work my way up. 

 

13 minutes ago, seon123 said:

There's a pinned post in the PSU and cases section.

Thank you very much, I'm gonna save this information. 

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17 minutes ago, Redicat said:

LMAO ANTEC

  • VP

SERIES IS TIER 6 YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME

 

This is so overrated and over care

Thank you 

 

9 minutes ago, seon123 said:

Tomshardware has this quite long crash course on PSUs. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supplies-101,4193.html

Thank you very much, I'm downloading and saving the information. 

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13 minutes ago, Redicat said:

LMAO ANTEC

  • VP

SERIES IS TIER 6 YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME

 

This is so overrated and over care

Care to elaborate?

Edited by seon123
Damn autocorrect

:)

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2 minutes ago, Redicat said:
  1. CAPACITORS: ampere and materials 
  2. MOSFETS: DESIGN AND VOLTAGE
  3. DC TO DC PROTECTION AND SECURITY VOLTAGE THROUGHPUT!
  4. AC TO DC Converters copper wire lenght and magnet rating care and Voltage rating (stability)
  5. MATERIALS
  6. Protection Design GROUND ETC
  7. RAIL DESIGN 
  8. Rail rating in (Ampere)
  9. RAILS
  10. Reserve cap

Thank you, I'm gonna have to take the time to dig into these things, and begin to get a more complete understanding. I lack a lot of very basic knowledge and need to get up to speed on these things. 

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1 minute ago, Redicat said:
  1. CAPACITORS: ampere and materials 
  2. MOSFETS: DESIGN AND VOLTAGE
  3. DC TO DC PROTECTION AND SECURITY VOLTAGE THROUGHPUT!
  4. AC TO DC Converters copper wire lenght and magnet ratingCare 
  5. MATERIALS
  6. Protection Design GROUND ETC
  7. RAIL DESIGN 
  8. Rail rating in (Ampere)
  9. RAILS
  10. Reserve cap

Uh... Did you copy paste some cheap Chinese eBay PSU's description?

Capacitors are rated in voltage, capacitance and lifespan, not ampere and materials (though there's a difference between electrolytics and polymers). 

MOSFETs are rated for current and lifespan, and have efficiency ratings. 

DC-DC has nothing to do with "PROTECTION AND SECURITY VOLTAGE THROUGHPUT!". It's referring to the minor rails being stepped down from the 12V rail, instead of from the mains. 

The PSU's job is converting AC to DC... Are you referring to the inductors?

A PSU has to be made from materials. It's more common to refer to the specific components, though. 

There's a lot more to protections than just having the PSU connected to ground. All PSUs should really be connected to ground...

"RAIL DESIGN" is incredibly unspecific. 

Rail ratings don't really say anything about a PSU, other than how much it can output on each of its rails. 

Not sure why you mention rails 3 times. Trains are cool, though. 

Reserve cap? Are you referring to the bulk cap or to the secondary caps...?

:)

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The 80+ rating itself technically has no relation to quality, but just to efficiency. However, in order to achieve higher efficiency, you do need higher quality components. Therefore, higher 80+ rating often means better quality as well. 

 

TL;DR: Don't rely on the 80+ rating to determine quality, although often times, it is an indication of quality as well.

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1 minute ago, whoisit1118 said:

The 80+ rating itself technically has no relation to quality, but just to efficiency. However, in order to achieve higher efficiency, you do need higher quality components. Therefore, higher 80+ rating often means better quality as well. 

 

TL;DR: Don't rely on the 80+ rating to determine quality, although often times, it is an indication of quality as well.

Thank you, this is helpful. 

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1 hour ago, Redicat said:

LMAO ANTEC

  • VP

SERIES IS TIER 6 YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME

 

This is so overrated and over care

The VP is pretty bad... 2-year warranty is really all you need to know to justify that, but if you want to learn something then here's a review.

http://www.razorman.net/reviewshardware/review-antec-vp-700p/

 

Only runs on a 230V AC, cheap fan, caps limited to 85C... one look at the PCB is really all you need.

|PSU Tier List /80 Plus Efficiency| PSU stuff if you need it. 

My system: PCPartPicker || For Corsair support tag @Corsair Josephor @Corsair Nick || My 5MT Legacy GT Wagon ||

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A good reference on the subject:  https://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/10/04/80_plus_irrelevant_to_you_when_buying_psu/

 

Better efficiency has more to do with better design than better components.

 

Every component power has to pass through in a PSU creates losses.  You can have the best capacitors, coils, transformer, etc. in the world, and have some of the best voltage regulation and ripple suppression of any other PSU on the market, but if the components used create too much loss, your efficiency drops.

 

I've seen plenty of high efficiency PSUs that perform like crap.  And I've seen plenty of Bronze PSUs that are as solid as a rock.  

 

Efficiency rating is only that:  An efficiency rating.  There's no correlation between efficiency and build quality.  PERIOD.

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