Question 550w or 1000w and above? efficieny question

WreckerALeX

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Jun 15, 2019
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1) Everyone says that 80+ certification is most efficient at 50% usage, does that mean getting a psu with double the watt(than calculated) will consume less electricity overall or will consume more due to getting unnecessary higher wattage? I doubt I will upgrade this pc anymore so I don't extra watts for upgrades.

2) I might keep this pc really long and I game a lot 4-6hr a day, sometimes 8. Is a Titanium recommended over a bronze if I decide to keep this pc like 5-7yr or maybe I can reused it if I get one with 10-12y warranty.

Not important but if you want my full story:
  1. Got new monitor(Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ) to experience 4k & HDR with ps4 pro
  2. Decided I want 4k & HDR on PC, so got new gpu (Asus rtx2070 strix gaming oc)
  3. My PSU can handle the GPU at stock(405w) but on boost will require 454w. whole pc was calculated using outervision.com/power-supply-calculator
  4. Since I am upgrading my psu anyways, I want to save on the electric bill if possible(The monitor is said to consume up to 180w with HDR on)
PC: Dell Inspiron 5675 (Everything Prebuild)
MOBO: Dell 07PR60
CPU: Ryzen 7 1700 (8core, 16 Threads) 3-3.7ghz @ 65w
GPU: Rx580 Polaris, 8gb GDDR5 1266mhz(Currently, rtx2070 on the way)
RAM: 1x16gb pc4-2400t 2RX8 Micron
HDD: 1tb 7200rpm Seagate BarraCuda
DVD: DVD +/- RW HL-DT-ST GU90N
WIFI: Built-in Qualcomm QCA61x4A 802.11ac with bluetooth I think
Card Reader: Built-In Realtek something

PSU:
Dell D460AM-03 Delta brand
Max Power 460w
+12VA = 18A
+12VB = 16A
+12VC = 8A
Max on all 3 is 385w
 
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here are the efficiency figures for 80+ for 20/50/200%

white: 80 / 80 / 80
bronze: 82 / 85 / 82
silver: 85 / 88 / 85
gold: 87 / 90 / 87
platinum: 90 / 92 / 89
titanium: 92/94/90

so it's 3% at max. that's not a lot.

as for outervision PS Calc: screw it. it's waaaay off. your system won't draw 454W.

in the torture loop of tom's test (found here: https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/amd-ryzen-7-1700-cpu-review,review-33854-8.html) it consumed 105W
an RX580 usually consumes around 150-200W tops. that's under full load and full usage of it's components.
realistically in a gaming setup you'll most likely draw around 200-250W under full load in total.
now a RTX 2070 is a bit more power hungry and uses around 220W. so let's say 300W total.

now concerning platinum. Platinum units usually are well made, but so are decent gold rated units. there's plenty PSUs that come with 10 years warranty.
when we say you're using your computer 6h/ day every day - meaning you're never out of town, are using it even on holidays, that's 2190h/year. it's unlikely that your system draws 300W for 6h a day, but for the sake of it, let's say so. that's 657 kWh/year. now with the efficiency losses:
a platinum unit at 100% would use 722,7 kWh, at 50% it's 709,56
at an electricity price of 0.20c/kWh the difference per year would be 3$ between 50% & 100% load on a titanium unit.
on a bronze unit it's 775.26kWh vs. 755,5kWh which would equal to just over 4$/year

now for the difference Titanium vs. Bronze, at 100% load, you save around 11$ a year. given you get a decent bronze unit for around 50$, a Titanium for around 135$, that's a 85$ difference, so within 9 years you've saved enough power to justify the price of the Titianium unit.
With Gold however it's a bit different. there's only a 7$ difference in your example. a decent gold unit can be found for 70$, often on sale for around 50$. So that's at least 10 years.

and as said,that's with very generous 300W. you won't draw 300W for 6h a day. in reality you can half the cash values.

So right now 80+Gold is the sweet spot imho (titanium if you find a good deal)
because the PSUs are well made and come with 7-12 years warranty (I think Seasonic, EVGA give 10 years, Corsair 8 on the RMx, but I could be mistaken) and the titanium unit will hardly pay for it's higher price.
also you don't need to go out and puy some 1200W unit, a 550W PSU will be fine (below you might run into troubles for the connectors and to find a quality unit)
 
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If you buy a psu with much higher wattage then what your system draws, the psu will not operate at its peak efficiency. It wont consume a ton of extra power, but definately noticable. Extra wattage will also allow for future upgrades.

Higher 80+ certification will help to lower overall power draw, but you wont see that efficiency if you have excess wattage.

If you upgrade your gpu you will need to upgrade your power supply. While delta is a decent brand dell uses, the amperage and wattage ratings are not what id run a 580 on. Definately not a 2070. Dont worry much about efficiency, as higher 80+ certification doesnt always correlate to higher quality.
 
550w is sufficient for a RTX2080.
Nothing wrong with 650w if you might want to get a better card in the future.
Look at the Seasonic focus line. It is top quality.
You can get a 550w gold rated unit with a 7 year warranty for $73
https://www.newegg.com/seasonic-focus-550-gold-ssr-550fm-550w/p/N82E16817151203?Item=N82E16817151203
A Gold rated unit with a 10 year warranty will be $85
https://www.newegg.com/seasonic-foc...x-550w/p/N82E16817151189?Item=N82E16817151189
A platinum rated 550w unit with a 10 year warranty will be $100
https://www.newegg.com/seasonic-foc...x-550w/p/N82E16817151193?Item=N82E16817151193

Truthfully, I see little difference between 7 and 10 years warranty and gold or platinum efficiency.
 
Agree a ton with the comment above.

Realistically your computer will be obsolete or sold before a quality unit will start giving you issues or a 7-10 year warranty will expire.

The 3 year warranty that many cheaper psus (corsair CX) come with is fine, but the ability for upgrades that comes with a better unit may end up saving you money in the long run. Not to mention the increased efficiency reducing power bills, which is marginal, but noticable.
 
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Gold vs Plat vs Silver and efficiency ratings have always been more about quality to me than worries about spending a few bucks more per year...buy a solid 750w Gold rated supply from a brand name and rest easy that it will handle anything you throw at it with reasonable efficiency...and you'll be covered if you decide to upgrade to more demanding components in the next few years.
 

DMAN999

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I like to buy a decent Gold PSU that is rated for 100W more than I think I'll need so when I do upgrade components (like the CPU or GPU) I don't have to worry about whether or not the PSU will handle the extra load.
I currently have a Rosewill Photon 750 Gold PSU because I got a great deal on it ($50 new).
And even though some people say it is a bad PSU the reviews I read all said it was at least average or slightly above average for it's class and does provide it's rated wattage, voltage and efficiency with decent ripple suppression.
 
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As a general rule most power supplies are most efficient in the 50- 75/80% power range.
I usually plan my always on systems with a load of 70% of power supply wattage.
In the sweet spot, runs cooler at lower loads and runs quieter.
My folding rigs run for years with video card upgrades. With video card/s loaded @95-100% and one CPU core loaded for each GPU.
With all that said, buy yourself a quality 550-650 watt Gold rated power supply.
Puts you in the sweet spot for power,efficiency and noise, and you don't have problems down the road caused from bad power or a blown power supply.
 
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WreckerALeX

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Can anyone suggest a good power calculator? Or give me an estimate? I’m not sure how much I really need and I want to stay as close as the 50%

Im about to buy a 550w gold. I did some math and gold is a big bump from bronze and seems to be the sweet spot. Not much after that due to very high price for a titanium.
 

WreckerALeX

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I can’t find anywhere about the amps required for rtx2070. Is 43amps in +12v rail enough? Thats from a corsair 550w gold, is corsair good?

Also this is a rebuilt so a lot of things probably cant be found on pcpartspicker but I’ll see
 
Can anyone suggest a good power calculator? Or give me an estimate? I’m not sure how much I really need and I want to stay as close as the 50%

Im about to buy a 550w gold. I did some math and gold is a big bump from bronze and seems to be the sweet spot. Not much after that due to very high price for a titanium.
Power calculators are deadly accurate IF... you can enter the right inputs.
Problem is that we do not know what factor to use for capacitor ageing, what our future needs are, and so on.
What the temperature inside a case will be.
I found that this chart is handy and does the job:
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm
 
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DSzymborski

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I like to buy a decent Gold PSU that is rated for 100W more than I think I'll need so when I do upgrade components (like the CPU or CPU) I don't have to worry about whether or not the PSU will handle the extra load.
I currently have a Rosewill Photon 750 Gold PSU because I got a great deal on it ($50 new).
And even though some people say it is a bad PSU the reviews I read all said it was at least average or slightly above average for it's class and does provide it's rated wattage, voltage and efficiency with decent ripple suppression.

Honestly, that's not a bad PSU. Rosewill's choices can be variable -- they've had some pretty awful units, but also some excellent Super Flower-made ones before Super Flower went all-in with EVGA -- and this is one of the better Sirfa platforms out there. Even uses quality capacitors.
 
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DMAN999

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Honestly, that's not a bad PSU. Rosewill's choices can be variable -- they've had some pretty awful units, but also some excellent Super Flower-made ones before Super Flower went all-in with EVGA -- and this is one of the better Sirfa platforms out there. Even uses quality capacitors.
Thanks and obviously I agree with you or I would not have bought it even at that low of a price.
I can also say that I have had it since November 2018 and so far it has performed very well so far.
So I don't have any regrets about my decision to use it in my current rig.
 

DMAN999

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cat1092

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The EVGA B3 (Bronze) & G3 (Gold) are among the best choices for OEM PC's, because are smaller, fits the smallest of (most) mini towers. A quality PSU doesn't get any smaller & packed with features. Even includes a power on tester.

I have 3 of the 550W B3, two of the 550 G3 & two 650 G3. All were purchased on promo and/or had a $20 rebate. Usually both. Since I keep a couple of extras, this is how I was able to stock up. Yet if you decide to buy one of these, turn the ECO off, you want the fan running all the time, not just when it gets hot to trigger the fan.

https://www.newegg.com/evga-550-b3-...=EVGA B3&cm_re=EVGA_B3-_-17-438-120-_-Product

https://www.newegg.com/evga-g3-seri...=EVGA G3&cm_re=EVGA_G3-_-17-438-095-_-Product

All of these are fully modular, the B3 units typically carries a 5 year warranty, while the G3 carries a 7 to 10 year one, depending on size (and any promo that requires registration once received). Yet 7 at the minimum for G3 series. My 650W G3 has 7 years (one 10 years due to promo). None has given any issues, I began purchasing these once released.

It's unfortunate that most OEM PC's doesn't have twin ATX power connectors, you must make sure that the right one is chosen, or risk damage to the connector (this applies to all brands). Use a magnifying glass to inspect the ATX connector before randomly plugging one in. Glad I seen a YouTube video on this when upgrading the XPS 8700 weak PSU (Delta 450W). The issue was random freezing, usually when sitting. No dump file created, only a sudden loss of power in Event Manager. So I used an older PSU on hand to test if it was the issue & after 2-3 days, no freezes. This would lead to my first 550W G3 purchase & have never looked back.

Hope this is helpful!

Cat