Surprise! OCZ is first to announce 80plus gold retail psu

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 1:53 pm

http://www.hardware.info/en-US/extconte ... h_new_PSU/

I wasn't expecting ocz to be the first to announce a retail as there's a lot of oem/test 80plus psu's from other companies already. Anyways it's obviously far too large at 1000w for most of us. Now the question is when there will be a 500w model that isn't too pricey with an ultra quiet pwm fan.

Matija · Post by **Matija** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 1:56 pm

500W? Do you need two top-of-the-line graphics cards in SLI? Even 200W is overkill for non-gaming computers.

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 2:53 pm

Matija wrote:500W? Do you need two top-of-the-line graphics cards in SLI? Even 200W is overkill for non-gaming computers.

Less would be a nice choice too, except one big issue. High efficiency psus are expensive. I'm not sure about you, but most people wouldn't pay $120-150 for a 300w psu. Heck I'd have enough trouble paying that much for a 500w.

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 3:24 pm

Saw this news on March 4th:
Seasonic claims 80+ gold PSUs: 550W, 650W, and 750W.

Munters · Post by **Munters** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:38 am

Very interesting.
I just wonder: why do they think modular cables impose a slight handicap?

niels007 · Post by **niels007** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:12 am

Contact resistance perhaps? Probably not going to make a reasonable difference though unless the contact is bad and dirty..

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:10 pm

Matija wrote:500W? Do you need two top-of-the-line graphics cards in SLI? Even 200W is overkill for non-gaming computers.

You may only NEED 200w, but if you got a 200w psu your fan would be running at max speed all the time and wouldnt be quiet.

So while you may not need 500w, getting a 500w psu means it will run between 20-50% load, and your psu fan will never ramp up.

edh · Post by **edh** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:21 pm

Aris wrote:o while you may not need 500w, getting a 500w psu means it will run between 20-50% load, and your psu fan will never ramp up.

I'd rather go for a decent 350-450W unit instead though. What most people fail to consider when looking at power consumption figures for computers and judging power requirement is that you are measuring input power, not output power and a surprising number of people can't correctly work out what the output power is from a given efficiency.

The high power output doesn't surprise me. The 80+ branding is another marketing tool. To be the first to make something means you can sell it to the early adopters so it's also got to be big and expensive. There may also be a certain efficiency gain from upscaling as power conversion generally will be more efficient (by %) on a larger scale.

BillyBuerger · Post by **BillyBuerger** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:40 pm

Aris wrote:You may only NEED 200w, but if you got a 200w psu your fan would be running at max speed all the time and wouldnt be quiet.

So while you may not need 500w, getting a 500w psu means it will run between 20-50% load, and your psu fan will never ramp up.

In theory it doesn't have to be. If a 200W PSU is 85% at 100% load and a 1000W PSU is 85% at 20% load.... That would mean they would both use the same amount of power and therefore produce the same amount of heat and could then have their fans spin at the same speed.

Unfortunately in practice, that isn't what usually happens. I don't know if it's for safety reasons or what that most lower powered PSUs spin up their fans earlier than higher power models even when they are similarly efficient. I suppose probably because if this is true, then they could just put a bigger fan in it which will let it run at a higher wattage and then they can sell it for more money. It makes me sad

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:02 pm

Aris wrote:You may only NEED 200w, but if you got a 200w psu your fan would be running at max speed all the time and wouldnt be quiet.

Just a minute how efficient is 80+ Gold?

Let's say 80% so 200W load is 50W of waste energy--hardly needs much in the way of fan speed. It is not % of rated load that needs fan speed but waste heat.

FartingBob · Post by **FartingBob** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 3:21 am

QuietOC wrote: Just a minute how efficient is 80+ Gold?

Gold rating is for 87/90/87% efficiency at 20/50/100% load in their own (unrealistically cool) test methods.

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 4:09 am

FartingBob wrote:
QuietOC wrote: Just a minute how efficient is 80+ Gold?
Gold rating is for 87/90/87% efficiency at 20/50/100% load in their own (unrealistically cool) test methods.

So a 200W 80+ Gold would have only 30W of waste heat at 100% load. It looks like it would hardly even need a fan.

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 2:32 pm

An 80+ gold PSU of 200W will dissipate 230W of heat, not 30W.

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:03 pm

spookmineer wrote:An 80+ gold PSU of 200W will dissipate 230W of heat, not 30W.

No. That would mean no energy was going out of the power supply except heat. A 100% efficient PS produces NO waste heat.

lm · Post by lm » Fri Mar 13, 2009 6:01 am

spookmineer wrote:An 80+ gold PSU of 200W will dissipate 230W of heat, not 30W.

When the said PSU is running under 100% load, the whole system dissipates 230W of heat, of which 200W is dissipated elsewhere (any components powered by the said PSU) and 30W from the PSU itself.

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 5:34 pm

You are both right. Sorry for my mistake

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 9:58 pm

QuietOC wrote:
FartingBob wrote:
QuietOC wrote: Just a minute how efficient is 80+ Gold?
Gold rating is for 87/90/87% efficiency at 20/50/100% load in their own (unrealistically cool) test methods.
So a 200W 80+ Gold would have only 30W of waste heat at 100% load. It looks like it would hardly even need a fan.

Ya due to the really low temps used in 80plus tests, I'd generally decrease efficiency by 1% in realistic environments.
Yep, but it's all dependent on fan controller. It would be nice if companies were smart enough to not let the fan ramp up with such low heat

Also, to the other guys commenting, this topic was regarding retail supplies, not just all the ones already announced, but impossible to buy! I'll wait and see when that seasonic gold is actually available in retail form.

ex.treme · Post by **ex.treme** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 6:25 am

Nice, but i i don't need overkill 500w or more.
Make for me and underclocking fans 250-300w gold. Thank you.

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 8:32 am

I wouldn't hold my breath for something like Gold certified 800W as most PSU companies seem to use Gold to sell high-end/high-wattage models. I guess Seasonic 330W 80Plus Bronze will be more realistic when it is realeased.

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 4:54 pm

loimlo wrote:I wouldn't hold my breath for something like Gold certified 800W as most PSU companies seem to use Gold to sell high-end/high-wattage models. I guess Seasonic 330W 80Plus Bronze will be more realistic when it is realeased.

Speaking of bronze, the Corsair hx450 is actually 80plus bronze. Unfortunately not available in usa

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 7:03 am

I can't believe that I'd omit HX450's existence. I never notice it is bronze-certified.

A 450W unit with modular cables, 80plus bronze award, and modest Power rating at least compare to 800W units seems to be a good candidate for most folks. Fortunately, it's available in taiwan.

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:17 am

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