what does 80 plus mean ?

[Khattabics]

what does it mean and what makes it different of a non- 80+ psu
and what is the difference between gold,silver and bronze ?!!

 

[jimthenagual]

80plus is a certification for PSUs denoting their efficiency in energy use. 80plus rating means it is 80% efficient, Gold means 90% efficient at 50% load. In other words at 50% load an 80plus certified PSU will waste 20% energy as heat whereas a gold only wastes 10%.

In order for a platinum PSU to be worth while purchasing, the general consensus is that you'd need to be running your system at a high usage for years before you'd save enough money in your electricity bill to make it worth the investment. For the average home user, it's unnecessary.

 

[SnakeGTX]

Power supplies are the devices that power computer, servers and data center devices. They convert AC power from electric utilities into DC power used in most electronics. The 80 PLUS® performance specification requires power supplies in computers and servers to be 80% or greater energy efficient at 10, 20, 50 and 100% of rated load with a true power factor of 0.9 or greater. This makes an 80 PLUS certified power supply substantially more efficient than typical power supplies.

You can learn more and you can check if power supplies are even legit here.

 

[Khattabics]

80plus is a certification for PSUs denoting their efficiency in energy use. 80plus rating means it is 80% efficient, Platinum means 90% efficient. In other words an 80plus certified PSU will waste 20% energy as heat whereas a platinum only wastes 10%.

In order for a platinum PSU to be worth while purchasing, the general consensus is that you'd need to be running your system at near full load for years before you'd save enough money in your electricity bill to make it worth the investment.

what about the bronze .. ?

edit : sorry didn't notice the photo

 

[jimthenagual]

what about the bronze .. ?

Are you asking whether or not it's worth buying one?

I personally would get at least a bronze certified psu. If a psu can't even pass bronze certification, it probably isn't worth buying.

 

[soldier9599]

In order for a platinum PSU to be worth while purchasing, the general consensus is that you'd need to be running your system at a high usage for years before you'd save enough money in your electricity bill to make it worth the investment. For the average home user, it's unnecessary.

A 5% improvement in efficiency (eg. Gold instead of Bronze) would save about 25W for a PC that uses on average 500W. Over the course of four years, assuming the electricity price is the USA national average of 12 cents per kWh, if the device is run 12 hours a day, the savings for a 5% increase in efficiency over that period would be roughly $50 (25*12*365*4*0.00012).

So if you usually leave your PC off, it probably won't save money, but if you usually leave it on and plan on keeping the PSU for a while, it can actually pay off in the long run to get Gold. You might argue that most PCs use less than 500W on average, but also the price difference between Gold and Bronze is smaller for cheaper PSUs. It all depends on your situation, so I would recommend anyone buying a PSU to do a calculation like this with numbers based on their specific circumstances. I used these numbers because they are relevant to my personal experience.

Every percent more efficient than 90% is dramatically harder to accomplish than the last, so it really does take high quality manufacturing to make a Platinum certified PSU. Likewise, Platinum has a very high markup above Gold with a comparatively small effect on energy savings. So I agree, the amount of energy it saves is unlikely to pay off when it comes to a Platinum PSU for most people.

Another thing to consider is the fact that a more efficient PSU means less electrical energy is converted to thermal energy for every joule of electrical energy that reaches your components. Keeping temperatures down promotes a longer lifespan of the system. In well cooled systems this may be negligible, but it is worth taking into consideration.