Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post

CubicleGeek · 05-07-2008, 09:05 PM

Thanks for the props, Photon.

Another thing I would like to add is concerning Power Supply selection. Many people underestimate the benefits of a good power supply and go with the cheapest solution at the desired wattage. I recommend spending a little more in this area for a couple of reasons:

1) Cheap power supplies and even some recognized brands that are new to the game, such as OCZ, tend to have higher failure rate. I've personally experienced the death of several no-name brands and also had 2 OCZ power supplies (a 600W GameStream and a 600W PowerStream SLI, specifically) die on systems I've worked on for myself and friends and family. On the other hand, I've never experienced a single death on a long-time PSU manufacturer such as Enermax and I've used many over the 16 years or so I've been into this hobby, going back all the way to my 486SX. One brand that I notice that Memory Express now carries, PC Power & Cooling, is extremely highly touted by people in the enthusiast community. I'm actually very happy that a local vendor is now carrying the PSU and will seriously consider putting it in the next system I build for myself or others.

2) Higher end power supplies have much better efficiency than their cheaper peers. What I mean by efficiency is that the wattage pulled from the wall experiences a loss when applied to the system. So say a power supply with 70% efficiency will only supply 70W of usable energy for every 100W drawn from the grid. This inherit to all power supplies, not just those seen in computer systems and is a function of the loss realized by converting AC power from the wall to DC power for the system. The implications of this is 2-fold. A more efficient power supply will actually save you money in electric bills over the long run, as every watt pulled by the system equals less wattage drawn from the grid. It is not true that a 600W power supply always draws 600W from the wall, it only draws what it needs, so a 1000W and a 600W with the same efficiency graph running the same hardware under the same load will draw the same power from the wall. The 2nd point is that if you select a good power supply you can get away with powering more hardware with a smaller PSU, which usually translates to saving money as the big power supplies tend to cost more. From research I've done, I know that the Enermax Galaxy power supply, which I'm currently running in my main rig, have an 85% efficiency on full load, which is actually fantastic. You should really be looking for something that yields in the 80%-90% range. Many lesser power supplies are around 70% and some can be as low as 60%.

05-07-2008, 09:05 PM	#18
CubicleGeek Scoring Winger Join Date: Oct 2006 Exp:	Thanks for the props, Photon. Another thing I would like to add is concerning Power Supply selection. Many people underestimate the benefits of a good power supply and go with the cheapest solution at the desired wattage. I recommend spending a little more in this area for a couple of reasons: 1) Cheap power supplies and even some recognized brands that are new to the game, such as OCZ, tend to have higher failure rate. I've personally experienced the death of several no-name brands and also had 2 OCZ power supplies (a 600W GameStream and a 600W PowerStream SLI, specifically) die on systems I've worked on for myself and friends and family. On the other hand, I've never experienced a single death on a long-time PSU manufacturer such as Enermax and I've used many over the 16 years or so I've been into this hobby, going back all the way to my 486SX. One brand that I notice that Memory Express now carries, PC Power & Cooling, is extremely highly touted by people in the enthusiast community. I'm actually very happy that a local vendor is now carrying the PSU and will seriously consider putting it in the next system I build for myself or others. 2) Higher end power supplies have much better efficiency than their cheaper peers. What I mean by efficiency is that the wattage pulled from the wall experiences a loss when applied to the system. So say a power supply with 70% efficiency will only supply 70W of usable energy for every 100W drawn from the grid. This inherit to all power supplies, not just those seen in computer systems and is a function of the loss realized by converting AC power from the wall to DC power for the system. The implications of this is 2-fold. A more efficient power supply will actually save you money in electric bills over the long run, as every watt pulled by the system equals less wattage drawn from the grid. It is not true that a 600W power supply always draws 600W from the wall, it only draws what it needs, so a 1000W and a 600W with the same efficiency graph running the same hardware under the same load will draw the same power from the wall. The 2nd point is that if you select a good power supply you can get away with powering more hardware with a smaller PSU, which usually translates to saving money as the big power supplies tend to cost more. From research I've done, I know that the Enermax Galaxy power supply, which I'm currently running in my main rig, have an 85% efficiency on full load, which is actually fantastic. You should really be looking for something that yields in the 80%-90% range. Many lesser power supplies are around 70% and some can be as low as 60%.