Poll: 80 Plus

[Marinatall_Ironside]

Does 80 Plus really make any difference in how much you have to pay your electric bill for your computer. We all know that a power supply's job is to convert AC power to DC power in order to power your computer, but that job can be done better with less electricity wasted as heat, thus reducing your electric bill for your computer.

[CoolaxGaming]

Can you make all your polls in one topic or keep it 1 topic per 20 minutes?
Thank you

[TheSLSAMG]

80 Plus certification does not necessarily matter, but it is usually indicative of a unit's quality. PSU manufacturers don't care about 80 Plus specifications because it helps you out with your electric bill, they care because it makes a unit seem more appealing to the consumer because of the preconceived notion that PSUs with higher ratings are better, which isn't always true.

[Comessy]

NEVER buy a power supply without 80+

[TheSLSAMG]

Can you make all your polls in one topic or keep it 1 topic per 20 minutes?

Thank you

I don't see why this matters that much. They have questions, we have answers. Two topics probably won't kill anyone here, and prior to this they haven't posted since the 10th.

[TheSLSAMG]

NEVER buy a power supply without 80+

You see? Proving my point flawlessly. This isn't necessarily the case, since there are solid non-80 Plus units, such as Antec's aging but still fine enough VP series. For most modern PSUs, this tends to be somewhat true, but 80 Plus doesn't guarantee a good PSU.

[TheKDub]

Does 80 Plus really make any difference in how much you have to pay your electric bill for your computer. We all know that a power supply's job is to convert AC power to DC power in order to power your computer, but that job can be done better with less electricity wasted as heat, thus reducing your electric bill for your computer.

 

The higher efficiency of a power supply, the lest energy is wasted, which means your bill will be lower, though the difference in your bill typically is not that significant in the difference between something such as 80+ bronze and 80+ platinum (Maybe like $10 a year on your electric bill)

Now something that typically does come with a higher efficiency power supply is lower heat generation, and less need for a fan.

[Notree]

You see? Proving my point flawlessly. This isn't necessarily the case, since there are solid non-80 Plus units, such as Antec's aging but still fine enough VP series. For most modern PSUs, this tends to be somewhat true, but 80 Plus doesn't guarantee a good PSU.

I explained this the other day to another user. 80+ cert is voluntary. By no means does it mean quality. There's plenty of crap power supplies that are 80+ certified.

[Enderman]

it will not make a significant difference on your power bill (only a few dollars)

but you STILL SHOULD buy 80+ certified power supplies because the ones that arent certified can be classified as dangerous pieces of shit that can break your PC

[Lays]

The higher efficiency of a power supply, the lest energy is wasted, which means your bill will be lower, though the difference in your bill typically is not that significant in the difference between something such as 80+ bronze and 80+ platinum (Maybe like $10 a year on your electric bill)

Now something that typically does come with a higher efficiency power supply is lower heat generation, and less need for a fan.

 

 

It wouldn't be all that much anyways, I think people vastly over-rate how much power things actually use & how much it costs to run PC's.

 

Here's what 500 watts would look like if it was 24/7 the entire month/week/day:   (Ignore the profit part)

 

[TheSLSAMG]

I explained this the other day to another user. 80+ cert is voluntary. By no means does it mean quality. There's plenty of crap power supplies that are 80+ certified.

Truth.

 

For example, the CoolMax ZX series, the ZU series, the Raidmax RX/Cobra series, the Logisys AT series, etc.

[Marinatall_Ironside]

Can you make all your polls in one topic or keep it 1 topic per 20 minutes?

Thank you

The community terms here at LinusTechTips clearly state that topics have to be posted in their appropriate categories, otherwise it will count as off-topic to the area you're making a forum.

[Godlygamer23]

Efficiency has nothing to do with the quality of a power supply. While higher quality power supplies tend to have a higher 80Plus rating, many power supplies have a lower 80Plus or no 80Plus certification that are high quality.

[TheKDub]

It wouldn't be all that much anyways, I think people vastly over-rate how much power things actually use & how much it costs to run PC's.

 

Here's what 500 watts would look like if it was 24/7 the entire month/week/day:   (Ignore the profit part)

 

 

 

Well damn.

 

80+ = ~20% wasted

80+ titanium = ~10% wasted

 

If the system used 500w for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at $0.10 per kWh, the costs would be around:

80+ = $43.80 x 12 = ~$525.66

80+ titanium = $40.15 x 12 = ~$481.81

Thats a difference of $43.85 a year

So I guess it could be worth going for a higher rating PSU if you'll be using a lot of power quite often with your PC.

[TheKDub]

Efficiency has nothing to do with the quality of a power supply. While higher quality power supplies tend to have a higher 80Plus rating, many power supplies have a lower 80Plus or no 80Plus certification that are high quality.

 

Efficiency has quite a bit to do with the quality of the power supply, A high quality power supply will use higher quality parts and materials, which will lead to a higher efficiency rating, whereas a lower quality power supply would commonly use lower quality parts and materials, leading to a lower efficiency rating.

 

I wouldn't want to use any power supply with an efficiency rating below 80+ bronze ever.

 

You can't use crappy quality parts and expect a high efficiency, and its pointless to use higher quality parts, but not try getting higher efficency.

[Godlygamer23]

Efficiency has quite a bit to do with the quality of the power supply, A high quality power supply will use higher quality parts and materials, which will lead to a higher efficiency rating, whereas a lower quality power supply would commonly use lower quality parts and materials, leading to a lower efficiency rating.

 

I wouldn't want to use any power supply with an efficiency rating below 80+ bronze ever.

Efficiency and effectiveness aren't the same thing. A power supply may be good at delivering clean power and tight voltages, while converting (comparatively) very little of the power to DC. Efficiency is not the only factor in determining how good something is.

[TheKDub]

Efficiency and effectiveness aren't the same thing. A power supply may be good at delivering clean power and tight voltages, while converting (comparatively) very little of the power to DC. Efficiency is not the only factor in determining how good something is.

 

I never said that it was the only factor, I was simply saying that it still is a factor, as your original statement made it sound like you were saying that it isn't a factor.

[quan289]

The Enermax Platimax 1500w / EPM1500EGT, technically, can achieve platinum efficiency; however, this specific model had never been certified for 80 Plus efficiency (only has their own "90 Plus Ready" badge as shown here). This is because at the time of release, Ecova (the company that test and gives these certification) only tested desktop PSUs at 115V. This particular model was a 230V only PSU (220-240VAC).

 

Now you may say there's a lot of 230V PSUs that was tested at Plug and Solutions, but those are server PSUs. It was only until May of 2014, that the first 230V desktop PSU was tested for 80 Plus EU.

 

Anyways, here's an interesting read for you: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/10/04/80_plus_irrelevant_to_you_when_buying_psu/#.VThsxpOSFZg

[W-L]

Having 80+ Efficiency doesn't necessarily mean a good PSU but is usually a good sign since they put in the effort for that. Many older OEM PSU's from Delta used to have around 70-75% efficiency which is perfectly fine given they provided good quality power that was well regulated. Only downside was those PSU's would get hot during operation where I've have some run at 50C on idle due to the lack of efficiency generating more heat and smaller fans which in turn can shorten the lifespan of the PSU. 

 

Overall a PSU can have a great efficiency rating but crap out on regulation and damage components over the long run which makes it a bad PSU.

[JAKEBAB]

Majority of psu's are some kind of 80plus these day's so may as well just get one, the power price difference probably won't be all that significant unless you are running your PC 24/7. Generally speaking the higher 80plus certified psu's use higher quality component's as it's easier to achieve better efficiency with them. (just like pretty much everything else in the world)

 

Edit: This is not to say non 80plus psu's aren't good there is a huge possibility some of these were made before 80plus was a thing and just hasn't been tested or the company didn't care to but if you can get 80plus you may as well imo.

[Marinatall_Ironside]

Efficiency has quite a bit to do with the quality of the power supply, A high quality power supply will use higher quality parts and materials, which will lead to a higher efficiency rating, whereas a lower quality power supply would commonly use lower quality parts and materials, leading to a lower efficiency rating.

 

I wouldn't want to use any power supply with an efficiency rating below 80+ bronze ever.

 

You can't use crappy quality parts and expect a high efficiency, and its pointless to use higher quality parts, but not try getting higher efficency.

Very good point TheKDub! That's another reason why some power supplies go as high as USD $450 because of the very high quality parts and efficiency rating just to achieve it

[quan289]

Very good point TheKDub! That's another reason why some power supplies go as high as USD $450 because of the very high quality parts and efficiency rating just to achieve it

 

Can a higher quality components yield higher efficiency? Sure. However, does that mean all high efficiency power supply will consist of high quality components? Not necessarily. The overall topology design of the power supply plays a large role in determining the efficiency (as well as other parameters of a PSU). By utilizing a very efficient design, it can allow manufacturers to cut back on the quality of the components to increase profit margins.

 

For example, the Antec Signature 650w (a high-end, bronze unit made by a server-grade company cost at least $150 back in 2008) is actually a better build unit than the Antec Earthwatt 650w Platinum (a budget Platinum unit that is based on a low-cost Aurum design from FSP that cost around $130 when it first release 2012-ish). The Signature is an overbuild power supply that can output at least 850wDC while still performing electrically better than the EwP when it is not overloaded.

 

Since efficiency rating is a lot more easy to understand than talking about the internals, companies will used it as a marketing point to make you think that an Antec EwP 550w for $90 USD is a better unit than the Seasonic S12G 550w for $80, when in actually, the S12G is a vastly superior unit. Basically, what I'm trying to say is, don't make assumptions on how well something is build based off of a rating, especially since there have been companies that cheated the 80 Plus system.

[SIGSEGV]

NEVER buy a power supply without 80+

My PSU is around 70% efficiency and it runs fine.