Are the 80plus certification a hoax?

[veryevilone]

Hi,

How is the 80plus certification made? I did a little research and it seems manufacturors like Corsair and OCZ and more say that power supplies that are modular are less energy effecient. However when im shopping for power supplies, every modular PSU seem to be 80Plus Gold and non-modular are 80Plus Bronze. Why is there seemingly not a decent 750w PSU that is none-modular, and 80Plus Gold or higher?

 

[frag06]

Hi,

How is the 80plus certification made? I did a little research and it seems manufacturors like Corsair and OCZ and more say that power supplies that are modular are less energy effecient. However when im shopping for power supplies, every modular PSU seem to be 80Plus Gold and non-modular are 80Plus Bronze. Why is there seemingly not a decent 750w PSU that is none-modular, and 80Plus Gold or higher?

Give this a read. It should help answer some of your questions.

I would recommend a modular PSU, as they are easier to deal with. What kind are you looking for?

 

[hunter315]

Modular units are a premium product, as such they tend to be built on the better platforms with better components that result in a more efficient power supply so they tend to be able to score higher 80+ certifications.

Its also not wrong that being modular makes a unit less efficient, the modular connector presents another voltage drop which does hurt efficiency, very very slightly. The myth was that it was equal to about 2 feet of wire, JonnyGuru wrote up an article on this back in 2006 and found that the voltage drop in 18 inches of cable was about 4x more than that lost in the modular connector, so while the modular connector does hurt a little bit, its unlikely to even amount to a single percentage point in overall efficiency.
http://www.motherboards.org/articles/guides/1488_11.html

80+ is also not meant for you, as an end user you will NEVER pay off the price differential between an 80+ bronze and 80+ gold unit without a ridiculous usage scenario or extremely high price/kWh in your region. It was meant for large commercial installations that pay for the power twice, once for the computer, once again for the HVAC to remove that heat. It was also meant to help reduce load on the power grid by upping the efficiency bar. I wrote up a post on efficiency myths a while ago, you can find a link to it in my sig.

 

[Pondering]

The easiest way to visual the 80 plus rating is to imagine that the titanium or gold rated has way better soldering work so that less power is lost and that 80 bronze or 80 plus is just lower level quality in terms of workmanship.

Beyond that the 80% figure is a good way to rate available capacity of a power supply. So a 500 Watts Power Supply with a 80% rating would be able to provide up to 400 Watts at certain given temperatures, etc.

 

[hunter315]

The easiest way to visual the 80 plus rating is to imagine that the titanium or gold rated has way better soldering work so that less power is lost and that 80 bronze or 80 plus is just lower level quality in terms of workmanship.

Beyond that the 80% figure is a good way to rate available capacity of a power supply. So a 500 Watts Power Supply with a 80% rating would be able to provide up to 400 Watts at certain given temperatures, etc.

That first part isn't true at all. 80+ isn't a scale of workmanship, its a show of the topology. There are some PSU layouts that are just going to be way more efficient, they are also way more complex and way more expensive to produce, but you can make an 80+ gold unit with poor soldering work, you can also make an 80+ bronze unit with top notch component choice and workmanship and just be limited by the layout. The XFX 850 Bronze is a good example of the second bit, good part selection, good workmanship, good performance, but only bronze level efficiency. There aren't many gold and up units out there with bad parts because the layout costs more than you can save with cheap parts so you might as well just make it a premium product and ride the marketing myths.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=217
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/XFX-PRO-850-W-Power-Supply-Review/1205


That second part is also wrong, a 500W power supply should be able to provide 500W, a 500W PSU with 80% efficiency will pull 625W from the wall to deliver 500W, while a 90% efficient PSU will pull 555W from the wall to deliver 500W. Both 500W PSUs are capable of delivering 500W regardless of their efficiency rating!