Quote:
Originally Posted by Squall-Leonhart
I don't believe thats correct Cid, a PSU will only draw as much power as the system needs.
Infact i've seen evidence on the contrary during experiments with electricity during high school, The PSU will only draw as much power as the system needs from the socket, so you aren't always drawing 700w from the socket with a 700w psu, Infact, modern day appliances indicate this, look at a tv on standbye for instance, Does it draw the same amount as it would when turned on? Not that i've seen.
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I know it won't draw the maximum, however the overall effectiveness of a PSU, and thus the amount of power wasted or turned into heat differs based on the total % of its maximum capacity it needs. It's pretty much a general rule about PSU's efficiency. There's a certain sweet spot, so while I completely agree with you on your above points, I think there's more to investigate and that if going for a new PSU looking for something <600W would be best. Getting a solid brand that is known for its high efficiency would be the wise thing to do.
Besides, I really don't understand what's with all those high end 700+ W PSUs. CPUs have become more energy efficient over the years, a C2Q uses less than a Prescott, let alone a nice Conroe or Wolfdale processor. DDR2 and DDR3 use less than DDR1, the only thing that has been kicking things up were GPUs, and even there the worst was the 2900XT from ATi. Perhaps when having two of those you'll need more than 600W, though I know the system won't use much more than 400/500W for an average person. (that's probably where the efficiency plays parts).
Edit: Thanks for the info James Miller. I did quite a bit of review of PSUs, but that was about two or three years ago, so things have changed. I know that nowadays the best try to keep a >80% efficiency, and I'm glad to see that they are doing so at about every amount of wattage given
