difference between 80 plus

[MarnixRS]

Hello,

What is the difference between a 80 plus psu, a 80 plus bronze psu and a 80 plus gold cpu? I want to build a pc over a week and i want to know with psu i need

 

Gr.

MarnixRS

[K i a r a]

"

It really depends on what units you are looking at how long it will take to pay off, some units also barely miss the next level up so they may be a better value. Overall, each higher level is about 2 percentage points more efficient than the one below it at 20/50/100.


Here is some quick math for you, lets suppose you have a 500 W power supply, a system that pulls 250 W at full load, and is on 8 hour a day running at full load all the time(unrealistic but makes for much easier math), that puts your PSU at 50% load so its going to be at peak efficiency.


Power drawn from the wall:
Basic - 312.5 W
Bronze - 304.9 W
Silver - 294.1 W
Gold - 277.8 W
Platinum - 271.7 W

That means that over basic you save 7.6 W/h with bronze, 18.4 W/h with silver, 34.7 W/h with gold, and 40.8 W/h with platinum. With 8 hours a day at full load that comes out to be 1.82 kWh, 4.42 kWh, 8.33 kWh, and 9.79 kWh saved per month with bronze, silver, gold, and platinum respectively. If you pay 15 cents per kWh that means that over the course of 1 year having a platinum rated PSU over basic saves you about $17.62 so it could take quite a while to pay for the difference with energy savings alone, but in general silver rated units and up are much better quality than basic rated units. " 

[STRMfrmXMN]

We have an entire topic pinned on this subforum about it. It's also in my signature.

[Jtalk4456]

personally, I'd say even at a budget 80+ bronze is a minimum, i'd prefer silver or gold, and platinum is overkill for most

[Stefan Payne]

1 hour ago, MarnixRS said:

Hello,

What is the difference between a 80 plus psu, a 80 plus bronze psu and a 80 plus gold cpu? I want to build a pc over a week and i want to know with psu i need

Its more efficient. That's about it.

Though with 80plus Bronze you have the "most diversity" of Topologys. 

 

But due to advancements in production and stuff like that, the price difference between Bronze and Gold is negligable, so that is why there aren't any good Bronze PSU at the moment.