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Power Supply MOVs?

doubleagent214
By doubleagent214
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Go to solution Solved by Jurrunio,

Metal oxide varistor (MOV) are used for surge protection. I think there are other ways for doing surge protection but this is the most common way (if the PSU even has this function, maybe crappy ones remove it to cut cost)

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I am looking up a certain PSU, and I looked at several review sights that complain about no MOVs for that power supply. My question is not about which psu should I get, but what are MOVs, why are they important, and should I consider a decently rated 80+ Gold psu with no MOVs?

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Metal oxide varistor (MOV) are used for surge protection. I think there are other ways for doing surge protection but this is the most common way (if the PSU even has this function, maybe crappy ones remove it to cut cost)

CPU: i7-2600K 4751MHz 1.44V (software) --> 1.47V at the back of the socket Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme4 (BCLK: 103.3MHz) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 RAM: Adata XPG 2x8GB DDR3 (XMP: 2133MHz 10-11-11-30 CR2, custom: 2203MHz 10-11-10-26 CR1 tRFC:230 tREFI:14000) GPU: Asus GTX 1070 Dual (Super Jetstream vbios, +70(2025-2088MHz)/+400(8.8Gbps)) SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB (main boot drive), Transcend SSD370 128GB PSU: Seasonic X-660 80+ Gold Case: Antec P110 Silent, 5 intakes 1 exhaust Monitor: AOC G2460PF 1080p 144Hz (150Hz max w/ DP, 121Hz max w/ HDMI) TN panel Keyboard: Logitech G610 Orion (Cherry MX Blue) with SteelSeries Apex M260 keycaps Mouse: BenQ Zowie FK1

 

Model: HP Omen 17 17-an110ca CPU: i7-8750H (0.125V core & cache, 50mV SA undervolt) GPU: GTX 1060 6GB Mobile (+80/+450, 1650MHz~1750MHz 0.78V~0.85V) RAM: 8+8GB DDR4-2400 18-17-17-39 2T Storage: HP EX920 1TB PCIe x4 M.2 SSD + Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD, 128GB Toshiba PCIe x2 M.2 SSD (KBG30ZMV128G) gone cooking externally, 1TB Seagate 7200RPM 2.5" HDD (ST1000LM049-2GH172) left outside Monitor: 1080p 126Hz IPS G-sync

 

Desktop benching:

Cinebench R15 Single thread:168 Multi-thread: 833 

SuperPi (v1.5 from Techpowerup, PI value output) 16K: 0.100s 1M: 8.255s 32M: 7m 45.93s

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a MOV is a varistor (metal-oxide)

basically what's inside of most surge protectors 

 

it's cheap to manufacture but the downside is that it degrades (loses efficiency) each time a surge or spike goes through it, too many spikes eventually make it trigger like a feminist seeing a white straight male on walmart

ASUS X470-PRO • R7 1700 4GHz • Corsair H110i GT P/P • 2x MSI RX 480 8G • Corsair DP 2x8 @3466 • EVGA 750 G2 • Corsair 730T • Crucial MX500 250GB • WD 4TB

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1 hour ago, Jurrunio said:

Metal oxide varistor (MOV) are used for surge protection. I think there are other ways for doing surge protection but this is the most common way (if the PSU even has this function, maybe crappy ones remove it to cut cost)

So it's something to consider but not a make or break thing right?

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10 minutes ago, doubleagent214 said:

So it's something to consider but not a make or break thing right?

MOV is not a make or break thing, but surge protection is.

CPU: i7-2600K 4751MHz 1.44V (software) --> 1.47V at the back of the socket Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme4 (BCLK: 103.3MHz) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 RAM: Adata XPG 2x8GB DDR3 (XMP: 2133MHz 10-11-11-30 CR2, custom: 2203MHz 10-11-10-26 CR1 tRFC:230 tREFI:14000) GPU: Asus GTX 1070 Dual (Super Jetstream vbios, +70(2025-2088MHz)/+400(8.8Gbps)) SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB (main boot drive), Transcend SSD370 128GB PSU: Seasonic X-660 80+ Gold Case: Antec P110 Silent, 5 intakes 1 exhaust Monitor: AOC G2460PF 1080p 144Hz (150Hz max w/ DP, 121Hz max w/ HDMI) TN panel Keyboard: Logitech G610 Orion (Cherry MX Blue) with SteelSeries Apex M260 keycaps Mouse: BenQ Zowie FK1

 

Model: HP Omen 17 17-an110ca CPU: i7-8750H (0.125V core & cache, 50mV SA undervolt) GPU: GTX 1060 6GB Mobile (+80/+450, 1650MHz~1750MHz 0.78V~0.85V) RAM: 8+8GB DDR4-2400 18-17-17-39 2T Storage: HP EX920 1TB PCIe x4 M.2 SSD + Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD, 128GB Toshiba PCIe x2 M.2 SSD (KBG30ZMV128G) gone cooking externally, 1TB Seagate 7200RPM 2.5" HDD (ST1000LM049-2GH172) left outside Monitor: 1080p 126Hz IPS G-sync

 

Desktop benching:

Cinebench R15 Single thread:168 Multi-thread: 833 

SuperPi (v1.5 from Techpowerup, PI value output) 16K: 0.100s 1M: 8.255s 32M: 7m 45.93s

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8 hours ago, doubleagent214 said:

I am looking up a certain PSU, and I looked at several review sights that complain about no MOVs for that power supply. My question is not about which psu should I get, but what are MOVs, why are they important, and should I consider a decently rated 80+ Gold psu with no MOVs?

And the MOV is just one part of the Surge Protection, the Filter Capacitors and Coils also do something about that.

 

It also depends on the design, if it is "Surge Hardened".

 

The MOV is one of those things that got overhyped and don't neccessarily have an effect on the PSU.

"Hell is full of good meanings, but Heaven is full of good works"

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6 hours ago, doubleagent214 said:

So it's something to consider but not a make or break thing right?

Depends

 

what PSU are you thinking about?

"Hell is full of good meanings, but Heaven is full of good works"

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3 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

Depends

 

what PSU are you thinking about?

Just a cheaper rosewill gold one.

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