Let's Talk PC

[JLCitadel]

Hey everyone, so I was posting in another thread talking about tech which you're waiting to purchase, and it sort of dawned on me, that the power consumption of parts is trying to stay stagnant or go down, so then isn't the maximum wattage for PSU's (needed) already reached. What kind of improvements can be made from here?

 

Is the best we can hope for platinum modular psu 1000watts for 100$?

 

What kind of improvements could be made to a PSU?

Could we soon be looking at alternative ways to power a pc?

[JLCitadel]

-Snip- Quoted myself on accident 

 

( I put this into the general discussion section because the talk is not only limited to PSU's but to other peices of hardware that could experience this, for example Cases or Fans. )

 

(ex.)

How much better do we need cases to become at this point?

[AMICLG]

Is the best we can hope for platinum modular psu 1000watts for 100$?

For $100 on sale you'll be getting a good 500 watt 80 plus gold PSU.

[wng_kingsley7]

Platinum psu's are quite expensive. From the range of a 500w to about 1200w you could buy a cpu+motherboard combo bundle.

80+ Gold is still very efficient for most psu.

I doubt you would fit a solar panel to power your pc

[JLCitadel]

For $100 on sale you'll be getting a good 500 watt 80 plus gold PSU.

 

I think you misunderstood what I meant, it was more along the lines of, is the best we could ever hope to get from a psu (what i said above). What more do we need beyond that?

[JLCitadel]

Platinum psu's are quite expensive. From the range of a 500w to about 1200w you could buy a cpu+motherboard combo bundle.

80+ Gold is still very efficient for most psu.

I doubt you would fit a solar panel to power your pc

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/rosewill-power-supply-tachyon650

 

...

 

& Yeah I agree haha, but you could see something in the future possibly powering them, for example using the heat energy produced by the parts themselves to power it.

[AMICLG]

I think you misunderstood what I meant, it was more along the lines of, is the best we could ever hope to get from a psu (what i said above). What more do we need beyond that?

Ah OK, likely PSUs will get more efficient and smaller, do to the hardware doing the same thing so in 20 years 100 watts could be all it takes to power a super computer or something.

[JLCitadel]

Ah OK, likely PSUs will get more efficient and smaller, do to the hardware doing the same thing so in 20 years 100 watts could be all it takes to power a super computer or something.

 

but does this mean we deserve lower prices? or does having a smaller psu warrant stagnant prices (100$+ for a decent one)

as for the efficiency.. how much more efficient could they become at this point.. Platinum is 94% normally and 91% under max load. While Titanium is 96% and 91% respectively.

[wng_kingsley7]

I can think that maybe heat isn't any efficient method of product it that is close enough within your room. Geothermal technologies could be used however its difficult due to having to maintain it continuously. Solar energy or Wind power could be used but the weather is very undetermined unless the country you live in is 24/7 oriented around hot weather or ghastly winds.

 

The psu you linked is pretty great. I'm not so sure that Rosewill actually manufactured it, more of a rebrand maybe ...

[Izaya Orihara]

I think we won't need a more than a 550 to 600 Watt PSU to SLI 880's so PSU's will become smaller and with less wattage. (I like to compare the 660 with the 750ti and the 660 has a tdp of 140. The 750ti of 60. 140/60= 2.333. If we take the tdp of a titan black edition it's 250/2,333= Around 110.  That would be great. 400 Watt PSU's for the highest end single GPu systems? Anyone?) 

[prolemur]

I would like to see advancements in efficiency as well as the amount of power that can be had with an sfx power supply, which is currently only 450W.

[JLCitadel]

I can think that maybe heat isn't any efficient method of product it that is close enough within your room. Geothermal technologies could be used however its difficult due to having to maintain it continuously. Solar energy or Wind power could be used but the weather is very undetermined unless the country you live in is 24/7 oriented around hot weather or ghastly winds.

It's kind of sad how long it's taking earth tech (natural energy) to catch up to where fossil fuels are at. I wish we had just started with it in the first place

 

I think we won't need a more than a 550 to 600 Watt PSU to SLI 880's so PSU's will become smaller and with less wattage. (I like to compare the 660 with the 750ti and the 660 has a tdp of 140. The 750ti of 60. 140/60= 2.333. If we take the tdp of a titan black edition it's 250/2,333= Around 110.  That would be great. 400 Watt PSU's for the highest end single GPu systems? Anyone?) 

This would be awesome, but does that mean a price drop, because less material is needed? or will prices stay the same, because of 'smaller parts'

[AMICLG]

but does this mean we deserve lower prices? or does having a smaller psu warrant stagnant prices (100$+ for a decent one)

as for the efficiency.. how much more efficient could they become at this point.. Platinum is 94% normally and 91% under max load. While Titanium is 96% and 91% respectively.

Well it take a lot of money and R&D to shrink hardware even further so prices will likely stay the same for a long time.

[JLCitadel]

I would like to see advancements in efficiency as well as the amount of power that can be had with an sfx power supply, which is currently only 450W.

 

this made me think of something else..

 

So with more advancements, we're looking at smaller form factor psu's, lower wattage requirements, higher efficiency, as well as less noise.

[Izaya Orihara]

 

This would be awesome, but does that mean a price drop, because less material is needed? or will prices stay the same, because of 'smaller parts'

They will sure be become cheaper but we will have things like Titanium PSU's that will be more expensive and then come down in price untill the 80+ Gold becomes the new 80+. 

[JLCitadel]

They will sure be become cheaper but we will have things like Titanium PSU's that will be more expensive and then come down in price untill the 80+ Gold becomes the new 80+. 

Then when the new Diamandium comes out it'll go down even more. (Lol)

That's a good point, but will form factor shrinkage mean stagnant prices? even with the new titanium?

 

Well it take a lot of money and R&D to shrink hardware even further so prices will likely stay the same for a long time.

Does it necessarily mean hardware shrinkage if it's just lower wattage? does that just mean less parts?

[spwath]

750 watt titanium SFX PSU...

[prolemur]

this made me think of something else..

 

So with more advancements, we're looking at smaller form factor psu's, lower wattage requirements, higher efficiency, as well as less noise.

Ya, noise is mostly due to the inefficiency causing heat which need to be cooled by something like a fan. So with efficiency comes quiet, Corsair has also apparently been trying to reduce coil whine on their RM series which is also something I'd like to see more widely spread between manufacturers, at least on the high end products.

[JLCitadel]

Ya, noise is mostly due to the inefficiency causing heat which need to be cooled by something like a fan. So with efficiency comes quiet, Corsair has also apparently been trying to reduce coil whine on their RM series which is also something I'd like to see more widely spread between manufacturers, at least on the high end products.

 

do you think it's feasible to think we will have fan-less psu's in the near future?

[AMICLG]

Then when the new Diamandium comes out it'll go down even more. (Lol)

That's a good point, but will form factor shrinkage mean stagnant prices? even with the new titanium?

 

Does it necessarily mean hardware shrinkage if it's just lower wattage? does that just mean less parts?

Not necessarily less parts (doesn't mean it can't) just more efficient design with denser/small components.

[Izaya Orihara]

Then when the new Diamandium comes out it'll go down even more. (Lol)

That's a good point, but will form factor shrinkage mean stagnant prices? even with the new titanium?

 

Does it necessarily mean hardware shrinkage if it's just lower wattage? does that just mean less parts?

I think that the EVGA Hadron's PSU is a great way of showing of how small efficent PSU's can be. And welll PSU with a lower amount of wattage are generally smaller. And no i don't think that the prices will stay the same. They will come down that is for sure but it's going to be the who has the most efficent PSU game alll over again. Maybe, maybe once we will see 99% efficent PSU's. Pico PSU's. 

[Izaya Orihara]

do you think it's feasible to think we will have fan-less psu's in the near future?

We have fanless PSU's. Seasonic makes a 520 Watt 80+ Platinum fansless one lol. 

[Real_PhillBert]

I think you are going to see more of an emphasis placed on efficiency throughout the PC. Look at the few maxwell cards that have been released, or haswell for that matter. 

 

Some of the really nice PSU's I know are over 95% efficiency so that may not be the low hanging fruit anymore.

 

I do think you will see less and less 80+ bronze rated PSU's as the price of the more efficient units comes down.

[JLCitadel]

Not necessarily less parts (doesn't mean it can't) just more efficient design with denser/small components.

 

so lets say we get PSU's to be so efficient, they run fanless, the components are shrunk to half the size, and wattage is 500w (Equivilent to current 650)

Will we see the form factor of these parts to change SO much that the size of computers them selves will no longer be (mid to full towers)?

Are we going to be looking at Micro or Mini ATX being the next Mid Tower?

[prolemur]

do you think it's feasible to think we will have fan-less psu's in the near future?

There are already some psu's from seasonic that do not use fans and are 500W. However I think the psu is just over built and more like an 1000W psu that has the option to only turn on the fan after 50% load...

 

so lets say we get PSU's to be so efficient, they run fanless, the components are shrunk to half the size, and wattage is 500w (Equivilent to current 650)

Will we see the form factor of these parts to change SO much that the size of computers them selves will no longer be (mid to full towers)?

Are we going to be looking at Micro or Mini ATX being the next Mid Tower?

Well some people are still going to be wanting extreme performance for watercooling and sli/xfire rigs, but for the average consumer I think we have already started leaning towards smaller and smaller computers.