I was ordering parts for my new build, and read the review here on the SeaSonic X-SERIES X-1050 1050W ; lots of great things said about it, and I went ahead and ordered it before I really thought about it.

There is no way I will EVER need that much power. Not even half that, really. I don't think the current build will use anything but integrated graphics - basically very little in the way of add-in cards. It's a Z87 motherboard with an Intel i7-4771 cpu, 32gb of memory, 4 SSDs, 2 hot-swap hard drives in the front and maybe 2 DVD drives in the front.

At most, really, I'd maybe need 500W - 650W, if that.

But here I have this massive power supply; the reviews say it's pretty quiet, and the fan doesn't even turn on except when a lot more load is needed.

I'll mostly be using it for software development (IDE, lots of VMs, Java server, database server, etc), some multimedia editing/processing, and everyday use. The software development needs just are to have fast disk access, lots of threads, and lots of memory.

Will using such a massive PSU do anything "bad" to my new build? Or just be rather silent, since it won't need the fan much?

- Tim

You'll be using less than 200W. While you've done nothing bad for your system it won't be as quiet as a 400W passive PSU which would also suffice plus it'll be far less efficient running at these low load levels and I'm afraid to say you've spent rather more than you needed.

You will be idling <40W, and top load will be around 150W max. So you will be in 4-15% usage range of your PSU, which means you won't know the efficiency of your PSU, as 80Plus is rated from 20%. It is possible that it could be a lot less efficient than a passive 400W Seasonic X, which is still a overkill, but at least you are in 10-38% range, thus being in the defined efficiency range for most time.

Having looked a little more in depth, here's the PSCR review listing the X1050 power efficiency at low power:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1239-page4.html

For the actual power consumption, it obviously depends a lot upon individual components like hard disks and motherboard as they do vary, hence why I just picked 200W out of the air but a 150W max as also suggested is probably quite accurate. Maybe a 150W PicoPSU would be a bit too tight but 400W would be more than enough.

Accepting that power efficiency will be about 5% worse at load and maybe 15% worse at idle than a smaller PSU, there is a lot of electricity being wasted here. It really would make sense to sell the X1050 and buy something smaller for less money than the X1050 will get you 2nd hand!

How much does that come to as far as wasted electricity, assuming the computer were being used, say, 4 day's worth per week? Are we talking incredible power waste, or is it just *relative* waste (and I wouldn't see a big jump in my electric bill, for example)?

I ask, because I got this unit for about $169 on NewEgg, and I can return it to them with restocking fee, but I just want to make sure I don't get any of the famous fanless electronic whine/squeal some people have reported (and I'm very sensitive to those kinds of sounds).

- Tim

We talk about sub-10W values.

Ok, so it's really even less than moving from a 100 watt lightbulb to a 90 watt bulb - i.e. negligible.

Why the worry about such small inefficiencies?

- Tim

150/0.9 = 166.66W (90% efficiency of small PSU)
150/0.85 = 176.47W (85% efficiency of big PSU, -5% worse according to the numbers provided before)

30/0.9 = 33.33W (90% efficiency of small PSU)
30/0.75 = 40W (75% efficiency of big PSU, -15% worse according to the numbers provided before)

And well, if you run your PC a lot, every watt counts. 7W / 1000 * 365 days * 24 hours = 61,32 kWh used up by that 7W difference through a year when computer runs 24/7. In my case when the price per kWh is 0.135156€/kWh equals to 8.28€ saved in one year - so i can have one more good lunch at restaurant . Do your math this way (power difference / 1000 * average number of days computer is used in year * average number of hours computer is used in day when it is on) and you will get your power consumption difference, multiply it by your kWh rate and you will see how much more you pay.

Excellent computations there!

I'm not as frugal, though, and pay top dollar for all the components, generally, an extra $20/year is as unto nothing in my mind.

But in any case, I went out and bought a fanless SeaSonic as per the above (520W model, tho', in case I someday want more oomph).

Of course, this is going into a Corsair Obsidian 550D, which has bad airflow and the PSU is mounted on the bottom (which has 2 vents to vent fanned PSUs immediately), so I have worries the rising heat from this fanless model will have nowhere to do and pool around the CPU, which ain't good.

- Tim

I have a 460W model powering a 14-drive system with i5-3570K inside Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 case, trust me, it won't produce that much heat - it will produce exactly that 7-10W heat we computed .

I have it all put together now, and it seems to be pretty cool (tho' I have kept the doors off of it for now ).

I'll report back if I have any issues - thanks for all your suggestions!

- Tim