X-bit Labs tackles the issue of "how many Watts we need

Matija · Post by **Matija** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 1:25 am

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cooler ... ttage.html
Print: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cooler ... ttage.html

The graphs are very nice

BillyBuerger · Post by **BillyBuerger** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 6:00 am

Oh wow, that was a pretty good article and a pretty cool way to measure power consumption. It's always good to have articles out there showing people that 95% (probably more) of them don't need more than a 500W PSU. Although it seems it would have been a good idea to at least mention that the $20 500W PSU you pull out of the bargain bin is not the same as a good quality 500W.

Post by **CA_Steve** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 8:32 am

Matija · Post by **Matija** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 9:49 am

I still can't understand why nobody makes quality 250-300W PSUs...

nutball · Post by **nutball** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:05 am

Matija wrote:I still can't understand why nobody makes quality 250-300W PSUs...

It was explained here by the Seasonic rep some time ago. I'm paraphrasing, but basically it goes like this:

Not enough people want them, because the internet vibe is that bigger is better. It doesn't matter that the internet vibe is wrong, no company with any sense of self-preservation is going to make a product it knows won't sell very well.

There's a saying "give the customer what he wants". The second, unspoken, half of that sentence is "... even if he's a clueless ****wit who doesn't know what's best, give him what he wants and take his money away from him". [The Seasonic rep didn't say this, those are my words!!!]

There are customers who know that 250/300W PSUs are just right, customers like Dell, etc., who buy in huge quantities. The retail market isn't worth the effort.

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:09 am

I think this should be put in the PSU forum.

Good info. In addition to pointing out the difference between good and dirt cheap power supplies (as BillyBuerger mentioned), they should also point out that the usual testing method used by anandtech and other websites is a Kill-A-Watt meter, which is higher than the PSU rating (output vs. input) because of the efficiency hit. It's like comparing apples to . . . pears.

Post by **MikeC** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:12 am

Very nice tool!

A bit amusing that the test results with this highly sophisticated tool echo what we reported after experiments with much cruder tools -- all the way back in 2005: Power Distribution within Six PCs

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 3:22 pm

Indeed nice article and I look forward to xbit labs reviews in the future. Kudos to Oleg Artamonov and team (I'm assuming he had help but I don't know).

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 3:58 pm

I keep bookmarking these kind of articles for whenever I see a forum thread "what 1000 Watt PSU do I need". Nice article.

Joe Public · Post by **Joe Public** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:50 am

Ran into a guy the other day who ran a Q9550 and a 9600GT off a 1000W Enermax PSU. Phew... I guess he's the kind of guy who needs this kind of article stuck in his face.

rpsgc · Post by **rpsgc** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:01 am

Joe Public wrote:Ran into a guy the other day who ran a Q9550 and a 9600GT off a 1000W Enermax PSU. Phew... I guess he's the kind of guy who needs this kind of article stuck in his face.

You don't know? 1kW PSUs makes your stuff bigger

Ch0z3n · Post by **Ch0z3n** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:39 am

My microwave is 1kW; will a 1kW PSU heat up my dinner too? If so, it might be worth it.

Zeroignite · Post by **Zeroignite** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:51 am

Mad props to them-- this is as close to definitive proof of the superfluity of huge PSUs as I think we are likely to get.

hans007 · Post by **hans007** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:33 pm

nutball wrote:
Matija wrote:I still can't understand why nobody makes quality 250-300W PSUs...
It was explained here by the Seasonic rep some time ago. I'm paraphrasing, but basically it goes like this:

Not enough people want them, because the internet vibe is that bigger is better. It doesn't matter that the internet vibe is wrong, no company with any sense of self-preservation is going to make a product it knows won't sell very well.

There's a saying "give the customer what he wants". The second, unspoken, half of that sentence is "... even if he's a clueless ****wit who doesn't know what's best, give him what he wants and take his money away from him". [The Seasonic rep didn't say this, those are my words!!!]

There are customers who know that 250/300W PSUs are just right, customers like Dell, etc., who buy in huge quantities. The retail market isn't worth the effort.

At least there is an OEM market. You can get a 220 watt true 80 FSP group psu, but unfortunately its almost as expensive as a 500 watt online becuase distributors dont generally carrythem.

This argument is more or less the same as why car companies built SUVs. I guess for car companies the oem market equivalent would have been cars for japan/europe.