Meant to point out earlier, that the performance advantages of drives like the Samsung Pro series show up in benchmarks that simulate unusual workloads, but do not show up as tangible in single client workloads like loading applications or booting an OS, at least not by margins worth bothering with.
When we line up a bunch of SSDs with large discrepancies in "benchmark" performance, and measure their boot speed and application launching speed on a single client machine, they all wind up performing about the same. I'm in agreement that the MX100 is probably the most logical buy for a single client system, especially when we can buy a 512GB MX100 for only $50 more than the Samsung Pro 256GB.
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DonkeyOatie :
For good efficiency and extended power supply life, a PSU should be operated, most of the time, around 50% of it's rated capacity. A car may have a 400HP engine, but it won't last as long if it is run at full power all the time.
If your estimate is 325W, then a reserve of 225W to 325W is good for the system and allows room for some upgrades.
Not true at all as not all PSUs are created equally. If you're buying a Raidmax or an Apevia PSU, yes, you should probably take whatever the peak power estimate for the machine and DOUBLE it. If you're buying a modern Seasonic or SuperFlower, there is no need to do this, as they have already engineered the necessary overhead into the design.
FYI: There are MANY engines designed to operate at peak power continuously without failure. See Marine, Commercial Transport, Agriculture, Earth Works, and Industrial applications. There are also MANY non-commercial vehicles with engines that can operate at near peak power continuously without premature failure.. For examples, see micro-buses, vans and motorhomes with poor power to weight ratios and oversized engine cooling. In fact, almost any vehicle designed to perform WORK can operate at near peak rated engine power continuously without issues.
If you are buying a "sedan engine" version of a PSU, yes, you should oversize the snot out of it because it can not be trusted to operate at its label rating continuously because the support system is not in place for that (cooling/librication/driveline etc). If you are buying the tractor engine version of a PSU, there's no need to oversize. Obviously if you put a trailer behind your taurus and try to pull the pass at full throttle you're asking for trouble, but if you buy a tractor and put the pedal to the floor you better believe you can plow at that peak power output all day long, all season long, this year, next year, and every year for the next 30 years before that engine is going to need an overhaul.
FURTHERMORE (back to computers): Under normal single client workloads (not mining, or server-farm/render-farm/distributed computing etc), the peak power dissipation is not anticipated to be a sustained under any normal circumstance. Gaming workloads pull 50-80% of peak power dissipation on average. That "~300W" estimate for peak power dissipation with a GTX970+i5 really translates to ~200W averages while gaming, and ~40W or less while idle. Even an i5+R9 290 will only manage ~250-300W average power dissipation while gaming, which aligns very nicely with the efficiency curves on the better 450W units out there. The Peak power dissipation of an i5+R9 290 would be ~400W, which still leaves us ample overhead with a well made 450W unit, since those well made options from OEMs like Seasonic, SuperFlower, and ATNG, are capable of holding well inside ATX specs all the way out to ~550W where the over-current protection stops the show with everything well within safe operating margins.
If you want to build a 450HP tractor engine that can last 15,000 hours at peak output, you design a 900HP engine, and then govern it and label it a 450HP engine. Same sort of practice applies to building PSUs. There are HUGE differences in component sizing and quality and resistance characteristics from cheapo to high end PSUs with the same label rating. If you size and buy your PSU based on wattage ratings taken at face value then you may as well be using a ford taurus to pull a loaded trailer through a mountain pass.
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A commercial application of an i5 + GTX780 powered by an SFX 450W PSU: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Steam+Machine+Teardown/20473
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