Important question regarding high power PSUs

[krille]

Let's take the Zalman ZM850-HP 850W PSU. It's supposed to be very quiet at even 400w loads, but it costs maybe three times as much as your ordinary SPCR PSU (Enermax Pro/Modu82+, Seasonic and Corsair).
[ Link to Zalman ZM850-HP ]

This PSU (like most contemporary PSUs) is ATX12V v2.2 compliant. And it's obviously got enough power for almost any rig. The question is, if one invested in such a formidable (but expensive!) PSU, for how long would this investment last?

I suppose it will become obsolete eventually when ATX12V v2.3 comes around (probably with some new fancy graphics cards or something, grr...), but I doubt any tangibly quieter PSUs will come around any time soon (so the only reason to upgrade from it would probably be to stay ATX12V v2.3 compliant). But when will v2.3 or v3.0 come around?

The bottom line
For how long would the Zalman ZM850-HP be update?
For how many years will one be able to enjoy this ATX12V v2.2 beast coupled with the latest in hardware?

(I'm trying to justify making such an investment.)

[Suosaaski]

Let's take the Zalman ZM850-HP 850W PSU. It's supposed to be very quiet at even 400w loads, but it costs maybe three times as much as your ordinary SPCR PSU (Enermax Pro/Modu82+, Seasonic and Corsair).

Well, it is not three times as pricey as for example Corsair HX520 for example. In fact, at least in Finland, it costs less than twice as much. It is still a lot of money for a PSU though.

[jaganath]

The question is, if one invested in such a formidable (but expensive!) PSU, for how long would this investment last?

personally, i find the "investment" argument much more persuasive when the warranty is 5 years, not 3 years like on the ZM850HP (because you are amortising the cost over a longer time period). let's say you get something like Corsair HX1000W; this is enough power for anything, even Intel's highest performing CPUs only take ~100W and this does not look like it will change much over the next 5 years: Intel has learnt the lessons of Prescott. however the GPU makers don't appear to have learned this lesson; however once you start putting out 200W+ of heat, you are pushing the thermal limits of ATX cases. so even if you want dual VGA, this is not much more than 500W, plenty of headroom, PSU should stay quiet.

considering the fact that a PSU is not a user-repairable part, a 5-year warranty is much more valuable than a 3-year one.

[krille]

I buy most of my stuff from Komplett. They do charge three times as much for the Zalman 850 as the Corsair 550.

Five years would be nice, sure. But unless the Corsair 1kW has the terrific noise levels of the Zalman 850W (and I really doubt it does), it doesn't really improve the situation.

All the same, any ideas when the next ATX12V revision is due? Sure, the warranty is three years, but will it still be compatible with the latest hardware three years from now?