Does efficiency really matter?

[Duranson]

So im thinking about picking up an NZXT H1 case for my first build. It comes with an AIO and a 600w 80+ gold PSU, which is a fairly low rating. Is it worth upgrading to a higher efficiency? It may be ignorant but I thought that both PSUs are delivering sufficient power to my PC, so whats the point in upgrading to a higher efficiency? Can anyone help me out? Thanks 

[narrdarr]

what psu do you currently have?

[bmx6454]

80+ gold is a good rating, who told you it's low? higher than that would be platinum and titanium.

[zeusthemoose]

Efficiency is not as important as the model itself. It’s mostly that the higher end models have a higher efficiency.

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, duranson said:

So im thinking about picking up an NZXT H1 case for my first build. It comes with an AIO and a 600w 80+ gold PSU, which is a fairly low rating. Is it worth upgrading to a higher efficiency? It may be ignorant but I thought that both PSUs are delivering sufficient power to my PC, so whats the point in upgrading to a higher efficiency? Can anyone help me out? Thanks 

A PSU is going to deliver what is demanded of it... regardless of efficiency.

 

You seem to have missed the point of this post.  80 PLUS efficiency is just a measure of how much AC power it takes to output a certain amount of DC power.  The DC load doesn't change.  The output capability of the PSU doesn't change.  The only thing that changes is how much AC power is drawn from the wall.

 

[SnowyMus]

First off, the label is determined by the efficiency, not the quality. Good efficiency does not necessarily equate to good quality. There are a lot of decent 80+ Bronze units that will work well with most systems, and a good example is the Corsair CX550 (the one with the gray label instead of green). There are also some 80+ Gold units that are not so good, even if they run more efficiently.

 

Second, the main benefit a better 80+ rating is a cheaper power bill.

 

Let's say your PC draws 400 W and you have a 600 W power supply rated for 80+ Gold efficiency. At 80+ Gold at that utilization, you're going to get around 90% efficiency (if on 120 V AC, assuming your PSU at least barely meets 80+ Gold criteria). This means that, to output 400 W, your PSU must draw 444 W (400 / 0.9), with the extra 44 W lost (typically to heat).

 

If you were to upgrade to 80+ Platinum, then the efficiency will only be another 2% approximately. So, instead of 444 W required to supply 400 W to your PC components, it requires only 435 W (400 / 0.92). That means you save 9 W, and you only do so when your PC is under load (which likely isn't 24/7). When you use less, you save less.

 

So, let's say that you decided to upgrade to an 80+ Platinum PSU, paying a total of $130. You sell your existing PSU for $80, so the sum total spent is $50.

 

The average power bill in the U.S. is around 13.28 cents ($0.1328) per kWh, meaning that running a 1000 W appliance for one hour costs $0.1328. Saving 9 W means you only save $0.0012 per hour, and if you run it under load for four hours a day, you save $1.74 per year. It will take you over 28 years before you manage to save a total of $50.

 

tl;dr - It's not worth it for you. Don't worry about it. Of course, if your PSU is actually bad, you should upgrade especially if you're considering getting more powerful hardware, but don't worry about efficiency.

[Duranson]

2 minutes ago, Kavawuvi said:

First off, the label is determined by the efficiency, not the quality. Good efficiency does not necessarily equate to good quality. There are a lot of decent 80+ Bronze units that will work well with most systems, and a good example is the Corsair CX550 (the one with the gray label instead of green). There are also some 80+ Gold units that are not so good, even if they run more efficiently.

 

Second, the main benefit a better 80+ rating is a cheaper power bill.

 

Let's say your PC draws 400 W and you have a 600 W power supply rated for 80+ Gold efficiency. At 80+ Gold at that utilization, you're going to get around 90% efficiency (if on 120 V AC, assuming your PSU at least barely meets 80+ Gold criteria). This means that, to output 400 W, your PSU must draw 444 W (400 / 0.9), with the extra 44 W lost (typically to heat).

 

If you were to upgrade to 80+ Platinum, then the efficiency will only be another 2% approximately. So, instead of 444 W required to supply 400 W to your PC components, it requires only 435 W (400 / 0.92). That means you save 9 W, and you only do so when your PC is under load (which likely isn't 24/7).

 

So, let's say that you decided to upgrade to an 80+ Platinum PSU, paying a total of $130. You sell your existing PSU for $80, so the sum total spent is $50.

 

The average power bill in the U.S. is around 13.28 cents ($0.1328) per kWh, meaning that running a 1000 W appliance for one hour costs $0.1328. Saving 9 W means you only save $0.0012 per hour, and if you run it under load for four hours a day, you save $1.74 per year. It will take you over 28 years before you manage to save a total of $50.

 

tl;dr - It's not worth it for you. Don't worry about it. Of course, if your PSU is actually bad, you should upgrade, but don't worry about efficiency.

Thanks for the detailed response! For a system that is estimated to be about 498w, what wattage power supply would you recommend?

[MrBrightSyde]

42 minutes ago, duranson said:

So im thinking about picking up an NZXT H1 case for my first build. It comes with an AIO and a 600w 80+ gold PSU, which is a fairly low rating. Is it worth upgrading to a higher efficiency? It may be ignorant but I thought that both PSUs are delivering sufficient power to my PC, so whats the point in upgrading to a higher efficiency? Can anyone help me out? Thanks 

First off, the H1 comes with a 650w PSU, not 600w. Second, 80+ Gold isn't a low efficiency rating at all, it's actually right in the middle as far as being 80+ certified goes. No it's not worth upgrading to a higher efficiency as you are saving literal pennies, even if you left your PC on for over 12 hours a day. It would take decades for you to see any savings. By then you would've change PCs and PSUs multiple times.

 

Besides, the PSU in the H1 is pretty good. It's labelled the NZXT S650, though it looks like it's a rebranded Focus SGX, though that is speculation based on external shots and no internal shots.

[BillNyeThecommieSpy]

of course, you should tell us which psu you have, as the efficiency is not a measure of it's quality

 

[BillNyeThecommieSpy]

2 minutes ago, MrBrightSyde said:

First off, the H1 comes with a 650w PSU, not 600w. Second, 80+ Gold isn't a low efficiency rating at all, it's actually right in the middle as far as being 80+ certified goes. No it's not worth upgrading to a higher efficiency as you are saving literal pennies, even if you left your PC on for over 12 hours a day. It would take decades for you to see any savings. By then you would've change PCs and PSUs multiple times.

 

Besides, the PSU in the H1 is pretty good. It's labelled the NZXT S650, though it looks like it's a rebranded Focus SGX, though that is speculation based on external shots and no internal shots.

huh, SGX? it's fine then. I can't find much about the s psu either

[SnowyMus]

1 minute ago, duranson said:

Thanks for the detailed response! For a system that is estimated to be about 498w, what wattage power supply would you recommend?

Personally, I'd get something around 650-750 W PSU to account for major upgrades as well as things like overclocking, but that's just me. Note that most sites that estimate power consumption will go by TDP which is not always going to be equal to maximum power consumption, and the actual power usage can vary based on configurations.

 

Anyway, I took a look at the NZXT H1 manual (https://sta3-nzxtcorporation.netdna-ssl.com/uploads/download/attachment/863/H1_Manual_696x540_021920_V10-web.pdf) and it says it comes with a 650 W power supply, not a 600 W power supply. If this is true, then your PSU outputs up to 648 W on +12 V at 40 degrees Celsius. Assuming this is a good quality PSU (which other people are saying it may be a Seasonic Focus SGX - a good quality PSU), I really don't think you need to upgrade.

[Duranson]

10 hours ago, Kavawuvi said:

Personally, I'd get something around 650-750 W PSU to account for major upgrades as well as things like overclocking, but that's just me. Note that most sites that estimate power consumption will go by TDP which is not always going to be equal to maximum power consumption, and the actual power usage can vary based on configurations.

 

Anyway, I took a look at the NZXT H1 manual (https://sta3-nzxtcorporation.netdna-ssl.com/uploads/download/attachment/863/H1_Manual_696x540_021920_V10-web.pdf) and it says it comes with a 650 W power supply, not a 600 W power supply. If this is true, then your PSU outputs up to 648 W on +12 V at 40 degrees Celsius. Assuming this is a good quality PSU (which other people are saying it may be a Seasonic Focus SGX - a good quality PSU), I really don't think you need to upgrade.

Great, so that psu would be fine with a 3950x 2080ti and 32gb of RAM with 4 drives and a mini itx mb with the NZXT cooler? Just want to make absolutely sure.

[SnowyMus]

17 hours ago, duranson said:

Great, so that psu would be fine with a 3950x 2080ti and 32gb of RAM with 4 drives and a mini itx mb with the NZXT cooler? Just want to make absolutely sure.

I suppose it may get a little toasty in there, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't or shouldn't do that. 650 W is fine for this build.