Difference between full-range and non full-range (230V only) versions of my PSU

[emothxughts]

First of all, my PC specs:

Quote

PC specs:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 400 V2 64.5 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: ASRock B450M Steel Legend Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard, BIOS P4.60
Memory: PNY XLR8 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
Storage: HP EX900 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive, PNY CS900 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Video Card: Colorful Battleax RTX 2060 Super 8 GB + custom deshroud mod, driver 546.17
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Bronze V2 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11a/b/g/n PCIe x1 Wi-Fi Adapter
Monitor: Acer QG240Y S3 24.0" 1920 x 1080 180Hz Monitor

As stated, my PSU is the Cooler Master MWE Bronze V2 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply, specifically the 230V only version, which falls into tier C, low priority list in the PSU tier list. However there is another variant, the full range version, which is in tier B.

 

So what's the difference between the 230V only version and the full range version, and why is the 230V-only version lower tier? (If it's relevant, here in Malaysia our residential voltage is 230V, whereas looking up USA & Canada, you use 120V or 240V.)

 

Also another question, I'm planning to upgrade to an RTX 4070 (no Ti, no Super) sometime in the future, will my current PSU be able to handle it? Assuming all other components are the same. No sudden shutdowns with the current rig to this day.

[Eigenvektor]

36 minutes ago, emothxughts said:

So what's the difference between the 230V only version and the full range version

The difference would be that one can only accept input voltage of 230V, while the other can accept anything between 120V–240V. Not sure if that's the reason it is ranked lower or there are other differences between these variants.

 

Nvidia recommends a minimum of 650W for an RTX 4070 / 4070S, when paired with a Ryzen 9 5900X. So it should be fine.

[mariushm]

The 230v only version may be labeled like that, because they could only achieve bronze efficiency by locking the input voltage to a higher value.

 

Power supplies convert the incoming AC voltage to DC using a bridge rectifier, and then boost using using a Power Factor Correction circuit to 400-420v. Then, this high voltage goes through the transformer inside the power supply to produce the lower voltages.

 

With higher voltage that bridge rectifier can be cheaper, because the current is much lower - for example to get 700-750 watts into the power supply, that would be around 3-4A of current with 230v AC +/- 10%.  But with 110v AC +/- 10% , the same rectifier circuit has to handle 8-10A worth of current, so either you use a more expensive bridge rectifier component, or you use 2 in parallel, and you may have to add a heatsink to keep these components cool, which add cost. 

 

The power factor correction that boosts the rectified input voltage to that higher voltage can also be made cheaper if it only has to boosts around 350v (230v AC rectified to DC gives you that) to 400-420v, instead of boosting  150-175v all the way to 400-420v - they'd need bigger more expensive components, better quality ones.

 

So basically the fact that it's 230v only doesn't indicate it's not capable of providing the advertising power to the computer, the power supply is from a reputable manufacturer and I'm sure it can provide the watts.  It's just an indicator that the manufacturer may have chosen to make it 230v only because it chose to cut costs on some components.

 

But, a lot of modern video cards have a bad habit of taking power and sometimes pulling short bursts of high power, more than usual ... for example you'd have the card pull a constant 300 watts and suddenly pull 380-400w for something like 10 milliseconds.

 

Some of these older, lower efficiency designs, don't react so fast to such sudden demands or they may think there's a fault with the video card for consuming that much suddenly and the psu may decide to restart or shut down as a protection for the computer. Others just can't suddenly give 400w instead of the constant 300w that suddenly, and the output voltage may drop a bit below 12v, and that could cause the video card to have errors and you'd get driver crashes or game crashes.

 

Not saying it would happen with your power supply.

[Espresso48]

On 1/19/2024 at 12:49 AM, mariushm said:

The 230v only version may be labeled like that, because they could only achieve bronze efficiency by locking the input voltage to a higher value.

 

So basically the fact that it's 230v only doesn't indicate it's not capable of providing the advertising power to the computer, the power supply is from a reputable manufacturer and I'm sure it can provide the watts.  It's just an indicator that the manufacturer may have chosen to make it 230v only because it chose to cut costs on some components.

 

Yep, these two points are the most likely reason it is specc'ed for only 230Vac.

 

From a high-level design perspective, there was nothing limiting Cooler master from making this work with universal AC (110-240Vac); however they achieved cost reductions by making in only 230Vac and reducing the currents. They probably also changed the controller code to not operate on 110Vac (or thats what I hope they did...)

I personally avoid Fixed Vin PSUs because they cost-cut to make that happen; but I am also paranoid since I work in the PSU market and don't trust anyone's design