• Gold, silver, and bronze PSU's, Whats the difference?
    9 replies, posted
I've been wanting to get a new PSU for awhile now and I've been looking at the corsair 750w modular PSU's, I see that there is bronze, silver, and gold. I have no idea what this means, I would assume that the gold would be the best and then silver and bronze but the price differences are from $104 to $159. I've heard things about the gold being more energy efficient and then I've heard it means its actually going to put out the 750w it says it is. If anyone could just help me out here that would be great.
[QUOTE=Zerokateo;33701183]I've been wanting to get a new PSU for awhile now and I've been looking at the corsair 750w modular PSU's, I see that there is bronze, silver, and gold. I have no idea what this means, I would assume that the gold would be the best and then silver and bronze but the price differences are from $104 to $159. I've heard things about the gold being more energy efficient and then I've heard it means its actually going to put out the 750w it says it is. If anyone could just help me out here that would be great.[/QUOTE] 80 PLUS efficiency ratings. Goes from 80 PLUS standard, bronze, silver, gold, platinum and up to titainium. Doesn't effect what the power output is, more how much power it has to take in to output the required wattage.
it's just the efficiency - anything with the 80plus badge has at least 80% efficiency, and the ones with bronze, silver etc. have increasing efficiency
By efficieny I'm going to assume you mean its going to save money on my electric bill correct?
[QUOTE=Zerokateo;33701864]By efficieny I'm going to assume you mean its going to save money on my electric bill correct?[/QUOTE] By efficiency is meant that the psu always draws more power than it delivers to your computer, a lot is turned into heat. 80% efficiency means that more of 80% of the power it draws from your wall socket is gonna be usable to the computer. Furthermore, while 80+ ratings are not an indication of quality by themselves, they do indicate that it is at least of a somewhat modern design. Considering how easy it is to make an 80+ psu nowadays, basically any psu that doesn't have an 80+ cert is gonna be using an antiquated design which probably means it is of inferior quality to more modern psu's with an 80+ cert. Also beware of false 80+ certs, it's become a popular stratergy for shady companies to buy decade old design psu's from some old factory or storage and slap a fake 80+ cert on them, always check the official 80+ cert website if the psu you're buying has a legitimate certificate. Unless of course it's form a very well known brand, in which case you can be sure it's legit. So to answer your question, yes.
Well thanks for your help and I just realized I probably should've put this in the quick questions thread.
Generally you're safe with a bronze PSU from a respected brand that has good reviews. A PSU is most efficient when it's at 50% load (so you want to put a load of 300Watt on a 600Watt PSU).
[QUOTE=TommySprat;33768419]Generally you're safe with a bronze PSU from a respected brand that has good reviews. A PSU is most efficient when it's at 50% load (so you want to put a load of 300Watt on a 600Watt PSU).[/QUOTE] That's true, but running a PSU at 90% load doesn't mean efficiancy drops to like 20% My power supply is rated for 89% efficiency at 50% load and about 87% at 90% load.
[QUOTE=Brt5470;33768901]That's true, but running a PSU at 90% load doesn't mean efficiancy drops to like 20% My power supply is rated for 89% efficiency at 50% load and about 87% at 90% load.[/QUOTE] what kind of moron builds a system around loading at 90% PSU capability
[QUOTE=reapaninja;33768994]what kind of moron builds a system around loading at 90% PSU capability[/QUOTE] What does that have to do with what I said? I'm merely giving an example. My point is that on a good PSU, the efficiency doesn't wildly change depending on load.
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