PSU tier list 2.0

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Could someone help me in some understanding? If voltage is a measurement of the electric fields and provides the potential that allows electric charges to flow as current, what property of electric fields exactly is voltage measuring? How does a higher voltage effect the electromagnetic energy passed about a current's medium or how does it affect the physical electric charges flowing about a conductor?
 
Well, when you consider that Power (in Watts) is Voltage (Volts) * Current (Amps), you see that voltage has a direct relationship with power. It is a very important detail when calculating the capacity of a 12V off-grid solar system.
 
A volt is a measure of electric pressure. The greater the voltage, the greater the electrical current flow. Voltage interacts with electrical charges(+/-) the same exact way that magnetism interacts with magnetic poles(+/-).
 
Voltage is the punch behind the force of the current. If you push on your fridge door with everything you have, you will budge the fridge, but never leave a dent. That's high current, low voltage. Now punch the fridge. The mass of your fist is much smaller than the combined weight of your body, yet you will easily leave a dent. That's high voltage, low current. Of course, with enough body mass and power behind the punch, you'd not only dent the fridge, but move it also. High voltage, high current.
 
So to state my question more clearly, I understand the difference in negative and positive voltages - it just really depends on what your reference point of 0 volts. So negative or positive really just affects the direction of the current. We could really consider the current to have negative amps but instead we use negative on voltage to represent direction while we take the absolute value for current.

All making sense, but I just am having trouble understanding what voltage really is. According to the article http://amasci.com/miscon/voltage.html it says:

"There is another type of invisible field besides magnetism. It is called the "electric field" or "electrostatic field" or "e-field." This second type of field is much like magnetism. It's invisible, it has lines of flux, and it can attract and repel objects. However, it is not magnetism, it is something separate. It is voltage."

Okay, so this states that voltage is an electric field. It then states:

"In reality, "static" electricity has nothing to do with motion (or with being static.) Instead static electricity involves high voltage. "

Then to:

"Another way to say it: currents in electric circuits are caused by "static electricity," and "static electricity" is not necessarily static. The connection between voltage and "static" electricity is poorly explained in the books, "

So voltage is what causes current. Voltage is what actually causes the charged particles to start flowing. Makes sense! But I don't really understand what the difference in a high or low voltage is, and how it really affects the current. Now, this is what confused me:

"To be a bit more specific, Voltage is a way of using numbers to describe an electric field. Electric fields or "E-fields" are measured in volts over a distance; volts per centimeter for example."

So if it's measured in volts over a distance, what is one volt???

"When you have e-fields, you have voltage. E-fields can exist in the air, and so can voltage. Whenever you have a high voltage across a short distance, then you have strong e-fields."

So it seems that a high voltage is a strong electric field. Still a lot of loose ends to tie up though on my understanding.

@CTurbo: There is also an article on there saying that voltage is similar to pressure but really is not pressure at all: http://amasci.com/elect/elefaq1.html#z

Note: Before I posted this I did not notice your responses.
 


Hmm good analogy. I understand that it is potential for the current, but some things are confusing me.

If a current has high amperes, that can mean:

1) The current is flowing very fast
2) the current has a larger number of subatomic particles (like bandwidth) flowing past a particular point per second

So if I have a current that is very fast and has a lot of ions/electrons/protons flowing, how can the voltage be low? It seems to be a lot of power to me.

Edit: After 10 minutes of pondering, I think I may have worked this out. Voltage = power / amperage. In physics, power if the measure of work done per given period of time. So in the instance where more work is being done with less current, voltage is high, and in the instance where less work is being done with more current, the voltage is low.

So it seems to me as if voltage does not have much of any effect on current (since current is the flow of electrically charged particles) but seems to have more effect on the electromagnetic energy that flows about a current and produces the real work.
 


So are you saying that a high voltage is simply a high resistance to current while a low voltage is a low resistance to current?

If that was the case, what is the voltage is high and the current is high? They seem to contradict. If the current is high, the electric charges are flowing far faster than if the current is low. But if the current is flowing faster, would there not be less resistance to the current, meaning low voltage?
 
High voltage and high currents tend not to go together very well due to the massive amounts of heat generated by running so much power through the circuit, which subsequently increases resistance thus a higher voltage is needed to get the current to flow. But yes, to get more current flowing through the system, you have to lower the resistance or the voltage.
 
Okay, so let me piece this together.

A high voltage is a strong electric field. An electric field is the attraction between positive and negative subatomic particles. If there is a high current and the voltage is high, there is a lot of resistance between the particles because of the strong electric field, and therefore more work is required to produce that high current at such a high voltage. However, if the voltage is low and the electric fields are weaker, there is less resistance so less work is required to produce that current.

Okay, if that is all correct, the last thing I'm trying to understand is how the electric fields actually relate to current.
 


You summarized that far more clearly than I managed to, and far more neatly as well. I used to have a really good link for all of this but I've lost it sadly.
 
Okay, so I think I see more clearly now. After a quick search, voltage is not resistance but the ability to overcome resistance.

Suppose you have two cars driving and suddenly a 150mph hurricane wind forms: car A and car B (same mass). car B is driving twice as fast as car A. Therefore, it'll take longer for the wind to stop car B. However, if car A is producing enough horsepower to resist the resistance of the wind, it may take just as long to come to a stop as car B, and end up in the same place. Therefore, the voltage or resistance to the resistance is like the horsepower while the current is like the cars and their speeds. Both stop at the same place, but one had a higher speed but poor resistance to the resistance, while the other had low speed but better resistance to the resistance.
 
take high voltage transmission lines. You are looking at @19,000V (19KV) at a measly 1/8th of an Amp. Basic electric Theory, Ohms Law, V=IR . so you get 19KV=0.125A x 152,000 Ohms. That's a very, very long piece of wire, as in miles long. Now hit the transformer. 208/120v, 600A and you went from the transmission line at 4/0 (big as an average pinkie finger) to parallel service wires larger than your thumb. Its all a matter of heat. Raise the amps, raise the heat. larger wire = less resistance = less heat generated = more current capability.
 


The 520W and 620W models were always group regulated design.

The 750 and 850 models have always used modern DC to DC converter design and were never group regulated.
 


No, ko888 is correct. That's why the 750 and 850w units are Haswell low power compatible.
 
FSP release new PSU named FSP Hyper M. The only review i found are France language (use google translate): http://www.conseil-config.com/2015/test-fsp-hyper-m-500/
This PSU have 5 years Warranty and semi modular
The capacitor Mix between Teapo and CapXon (no better than Corsair), but i still waiting for reliable Reviews
 


the FSP Hyper is not new, maybe they just released a modular version. you can find the same platform in Antec's VP500P v2 as well as the 600 and 700 wat versions.

 
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