PSU overkill \ electricity bill skyrocket?

[kevinongg]

There is a sweet deal going on right now with the SeaSonic X-1250 but my build consists of the main parts:

H105
Gigabyte G1 GTX 970
8gb ram
asrock z97 extreme 6
i5-4690k

My friend told me that it's stupid to buy such an overkill psu when it might leak power and raise my electricity bill by alot because my build isn't going to be near 1250 watt. But in the future, I may go SLI. So my question is, should I purchase this psu rather than a 850w one that I'm looking at. Because my main worries are electricity bill raising.

 

[AshyCFC]

No your bill would not rise just because your PSU can provide more power doesn't mean your PC wi USE more power, the difference in bill between the 850w and 1250w will be negligible

 

[smorizio]

power supplys only use the power that loaded on to them. newer units that are gold and higher are very good on not using power. for the same wattage a hair drier or a microwave will use a lot more power per month the a pc. or your house electric stove.

 

[manez]

What your friend means is that using your psu at a load less than 20 % of the max capacity of the psu will give you a slightly higher electric bill.

That's because the psu is the most efficient at above 20% usage. That said, it's not something you have to worry about.

Though a decent 450w psu would be enough for your build and anything higher than 750w for your sli system would be overkill.

Chances are you will never have a system that will need a 1200w psu, so I would advice you not to go with it unless it costs less than the 850w (750w) you would otherwise get.