ChrisMorley
01-05-2011, 06:20 AM
One component that is constantly overlooked, compromised on, and commoditized is a computer’s powersupply. Quick, what model does that multi-national commodity box use? Exactly. It’s not something that’s typically advertised by the bloated PC manufacturers. The reason being is that the PSU, like the cheap steel and plastic chassis it’s housed in, is one of the many parts that can be cut to the bone to get a BOM cost down.
But for a high performance builder like MAINGEAR a cheap powersupply can be disastrous. We employ only the highest quality components in our systems, and while the CPU and graphics card typically get all the glory, a high quality power supply is required to keep them fed with clean, constant power.
Because if the PSU fails, the entire system fails.
Like motherboards, graphics cards, and CPUs, there are different levels of performance. Sure, everyone likes to see a larger number when it comes to wattage, but did you know that bigger is not always better in the case of a power supply?
In fact, we find that our customers typically overbuy when it comes to power supplies. Some of you may be familiar with power supply “efficiency” ratings. If you’re not familiar, the standard out there is 80 PLUS. What this rating does is certify that a power supply is of a certain caliber at various loads. An 80 PLUS power supply will deliver 80% efficiency, meaning it wastes no more than 20% of its power as heat, at 20%, 50%, and 100% of load. This would be known as its efficiency curve, which in this case is flat.
So if your system is 80 PLUS certified, and the internal components of your PC were to draw 400 watts under load, you would be able to measure no more than 500 watts being pulled from the wall. But that’s only the beginning. There are ratings of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and recently even Platinum. A Gold PSU would have an efficiency curve of 87%, 90%, and 87% at 20, 50, and 100 percent of load, respectively. If you’ll notice, it’s most efficient at 50% of load. So a power supply that is rated for 850 watts is going to waste the least amount of electricity when it is delivering 425 watts of power to the internal components of the PC. In that case you’ll measure no more than 472 watts from the wall, where as your typical “junk” power supply that may only be 70% efficient (or worse) would draw 607 watts – wasting 135 watts of power that does nothing but cost you money and heat up your room.
At MAINGEAR we’re standardizing on 80 PLUS Bronze across our Stock lineup (82%, 85%, 82%), and introducing 80 PLUS Gold (87%, 90%, 87%) to our Super Stock lineup.
We’ve settled on Seasonic for our 520 watt to 850 watt requirements, which will serve the needs for most configurations utilizing Intel’s new power-sipping 2011 Core series also known as Sandy Bridge. Even with dual GPUs and heavily overclocked, our internal testing shows that the Seasonic X-850 can stand up to the rigors of synthetic load testing that is way above and beyond everyday use.
The Seasonic Gold-rated X-Series are very special designs. They feature the highest quality internal components for longevity and performance. In fact, they are so efficient and waste so little power to heat that for the first 20% of load – which covers most of our system designs when they are idle or surfing the net – the fan does not even spin up. It’s exciting to see an overclocked, multi-GPU system with a power supply connected that doesn’t even need to spin up when they aren’t under full load! These power supplies are also modular with gold connections, meaning it’s easier for us to integrate and cable your system, and also for repairs we don’t have cut zip ties or remove cables – we merely have to disconnect the power supply from its internal cables and swap it out.
And for those of you looking for 3-way GPU setups, or just want some extra upgradeability, we’re introducing a new line of 80 PLUS Gold power supplies from Silverstone to service the 1000 watt and 1200 watt range. These are also modular and of the highest quality. They don’t run silent at low power draw like the Seasonics do, but they are very quiet under load as well.
It’s important that when choosing a power supply you don’t buy a power supply that under-performs. That’s why we’ve built in conflict management into our configurator. If you choose a graphics card combination that will draw too much power for the default power supply, our configurator will automatically move you up to a level that is more than adequate. It’ll also pop up a message tell you it’s done so. We’re also working on better visual indicators of the theoretical maximum power draw for your system, but those are still in development.
We’ve been doing a lot of testing and research on the latest Sandy Bridge platform and what it means to our customers. This includes idle and load testing, and even worst case scenarios that will never be experienced in the real world. We’ve found that we need to start a dialog with our customers about what really is necessary when it comes to power supplies, and we hope this is a good start. We’d love to hear your feedback on this, and we welcome any questions you might have on your configurations. We are constantly looking to improve and your feedback is always appreciated!
But for a high performance builder like MAINGEAR a cheap powersupply can be disastrous. We employ only the highest quality components in our systems, and while the CPU and graphics card typically get all the glory, a high quality power supply is required to keep them fed with clean, constant power.
Because if the PSU fails, the entire system fails.
Like motherboards, graphics cards, and CPUs, there are different levels of performance. Sure, everyone likes to see a larger number when it comes to wattage, but did you know that bigger is not always better in the case of a power supply?
In fact, we find that our customers typically overbuy when it comes to power supplies. Some of you may be familiar with power supply “efficiency” ratings. If you’re not familiar, the standard out there is 80 PLUS. What this rating does is certify that a power supply is of a certain caliber at various loads. An 80 PLUS power supply will deliver 80% efficiency, meaning it wastes no more than 20% of its power as heat, at 20%, 50%, and 100% of load. This would be known as its efficiency curve, which in this case is flat.
So if your system is 80 PLUS certified, and the internal components of your PC were to draw 400 watts under load, you would be able to measure no more than 500 watts being pulled from the wall. But that’s only the beginning. There are ratings of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and recently even Platinum. A Gold PSU would have an efficiency curve of 87%, 90%, and 87% at 20, 50, and 100 percent of load, respectively. If you’ll notice, it’s most efficient at 50% of load. So a power supply that is rated for 850 watts is going to waste the least amount of electricity when it is delivering 425 watts of power to the internal components of the PC. In that case you’ll measure no more than 472 watts from the wall, where as your typical “junk” power supply that may only be 70% efficient (or worse) would draw 607 watts – wasting 135 watts of power that does nothing but cost you money and heat up your room.
At MAINGEAR we’re standardizing on 80 PLUS Bronze across our Stock lineup (82%, 85%, 82%), and introducing 80 PLUS Gold (87%, 90%, 87%) to our Super Stock lineup.
We’ve settled on Seasonic for our 520 watt to 850 watt requirements, which will serve the needs for most configurations utilizing Intel’s new power-sipping 2011 Core series also known as Sandy Bridge. Even with dual GPUs and heavily overclocked, our internal testing shows that the Seasonic X-850 can stand up to the rigors of synthetic load testing that is way above and beyond everyday use.
The Seasonic Gold-rated X-Series are very special designs. They feature the highest quality internal components for longevity and performance. In fact, they are so efficient and waste so little power to heat that for the first 20% of load – which covers most of our system designs when they are idle or surfing the net – the fan does not even spin up. It’s exciting to see an overclocked, multi-GPU system with a power supply connected that doesn’t even need to spin up when they aren’t under full load! These power supplies are also modular with gold connections, meaning it’s easier for us to integrate and cable your system, and also for repairs we don’t have cut zip ties or remove cables – we merely have to disconnect the power supply from its internal cables and swap it out.
And for those of you looking for 3-way GPU setups, or just want some extra upgradeability, we’re introducing a new line of 80 PLUS Gold power supplies from Silverstone to service the 1000 watt and 1200 watt range. These are also modular and of the highest quality. They don’t run silent at low power draw like the Seasonics do, but they are very quiet under load as well.
It’s important that when choosing a power supply you don’t buy a power supply that under-performs. That’s why we’ve built in conflict management into our configurator. If you choose a graphics card combination that will draw too much power for the default power supply, our configurator will automatically move you up to a level that is more than adequate. It’ll also pop up a message tell you it’s done so. We’re also working on better visual indicators of the theoretical maximum power draw for your system, but those are still in development.
We’ve been doing a lot of testing and research on the latest Sandy Bridge platform and what it means to our customers. This includes idle and load testing, and even worst case scenarios that will never be experienced in the real world. We’ve found that we need to start a dialog with our customers about what really is necessary when it comes to power supplies, and we hope this is a good start. We’d love to hear your feedback on this, and we welcome any questions you might have on your configurations. We are constantly looking to improve and your feedback is always appreciated!