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My point was, in the past few years I have been buying computers, I have never seen a non-80+ psu. Not that they do not exist, certainly there are unlabeled whi

My point was, in the past few years I have been buying computers, I have never seen a non-80+ psu. Not that they do not exist, certainly there are unlabeled white boxes for dimes and nickels on the dollar compared to a quality one. I went out of my way to research my current power supply to make sure that given my usage and components, it would operate in peak efficiency (I believe mine is at nearly 95% efficiency at average load, would need to measure it more thoroughly, it has been a few years). I feel a power supply is like tires. They are the only thing that actually touches the road(electricity). They are worth paying for something halfway decent, not bottom of the barrel. I do agree, but I would be shocked to see a non-80+ psu at a reputable store like Micro Center.

BizarroLand 5y ago
True. It's been about 5 years since I built a new computer and so my information apparently is a little but outdated, but a quick search through newegg's cheapest power supplies shows things like this: https://www.newegg.com/p/1HU-0027-00010?Item=9SIAXE5EGG6813&Description=power%20supply&cm_re=power_supply-_-9SIAXE5EGG6813-_-Product&quicklink=true https://www.newegg.com/p/1HU-0027-00010?Item=9SIAXE5EGG6813&... 650 watt, no-name non-80+ power supply for $40. That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. There are 80+ rated power supplies in the same price range or 80+ from reputable companies for $10 more but it's still a thing worth looking for when you're a newish builder or if you have any concern for the overall efficiency of your computer. After all, base 80+ rating still means that for every watt your PC actually gets to use you're converting .2 watts directly into heat. That's not a big deal for a workstation that may only draw 100 watts under load but if you have a beefy PC with 3090s and an overclocked 12 series i9 processor with a lot of fans, you could be burning 100 watts or more just to power the thing, so it would definitely be worth it to go for gold or platinum 80+ rating just to save the money in waste heat and in cooling that waste heat after the fact.

BizarroLand 5y ago

True. It's been about 5 years since I built a new computer and so my information apparently is a little but outdated, but a quick search through newegg's cheapest power supplies shows things like this: https://www.newegg.com/p/1HU-0027-00010?Item=9SIAXE5EGG6813&Description=power%20supply&cm_re=power_supply-_-9SIAXE5EGG6813-_-Product&quicklink=true https://www.newegg.com/p/1HU-0027-00010?Item=9SIAXE5EGG6813&... 650 watt, no-name non-80+ power supply for $40. That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. There are 80+ rated power supplies in the same price range or 80+ from reputable companies for $10 more but it's still a thing worth looking for when you're a newish builder or if you have any concern for the overall efficiency of your computer. After all, base 80+ rating still means that for every watt your PC actually gets to use you're converting .2 watts directly into heat. That's not a big deal for a workstation that may only draw 100 watts under load but if you have a beefy PC with 3090s and an overclocked 12 series i9 processor with a lot of fans, you could be burning 100 watts or more just to power the thing, so it would definitely be worth it to go for gold or platinum 80+ rating just to save the money in waste heat and in cooling that waste heat after the fact.