How important is 80+ certified ??

[mute20]

Are most of the 80+ certified psu's worth buying?? Should it be the first thing I should be looking for when buying a psu other than the brand like antec/corsair?

 

[3xch4ng3]

Are most of the 80+ certified psu's worth buying?? Should it be the first thing I should be looking for when buying a psu other than the brand like antec/corsair?

80 Plus Ratings are really important to the efficiency of your PSU. Your PSU has to take the AC Power from your wall and convert it into a DC for your computer to function. The 80 Plus certification verifies that, depending on the certification level, is at least 80%+ efficient in the conversion from AC to DC.

The more efficient the PSU is at converting the power, the less power consumption the PSU uses to achieve the watt rating is claims to have. SO in the long run, this decreases your overall power consumption and saves you money.

Spending the extra $$$ up front for a certified Gold 80 Plus will pay for itself in the long run in your electric bill, but then again it's more money up front. It's your call

.

 

[duffymoon]

I would go by brand first, and check who built the model you are thinking of buying, but getting an efficient PSU is worth it IMO. More efficient means less power is wasted and that means less heat. Avoiding heat is good - heat makes fans run longer and faster/louder and ages your components faster. Heat is also wasted money paying for the power, and while this might not amount to that many pennies each hour, why pay for it when you don't need to.

I also believe that a more highly rated PSU is going to be using better components and so be at less risk of failing. This is also good

Personally, I look to buy rated units but not the highest ranked ones as these tend to carry a price premium.

 

[cuecuemore]

Though I don't care about the efficiency of my PSU per se, I wouldn't buy anything that didn't have some sort of 80+ rating. The only reason for this is that I don't know of any half-decent unit that isn't 80+ certified.

 

[ko888]

80 PLUS is the last thing I look for. There are way more important characteristics, that actually affect system stability, but 80 PLUS Efficiency isn't one of them.

The first thing to look for is a sufficient +12 Volt continuous current rating.

Second is very stable voltage regulation.

Third is very good DC output quality (i.e. good voltage spike suppression, very low noise and ripple).

Fourth modular connectors.

Fifth efficiency.

 

[mute20]

Best answer selected by mute20.