1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,120 Did you know that there are 2,000 watt PC power supplies 2 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:06,160 on the market, but very few people seem to be buying them? 3 00:00:06,160 --> 00:00:10,560 I mean, they can offer more watts per dollar than other high wattage models. 4 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:13,680 So why aren't people opting to get something for nothing? 5 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:17,680 Let's start by looking at a big reason, having a power supply that powerful 6 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:22,600 might put off consumers. Namely, it's gonna be consuming a relatively large amount 7 00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:26,880 of power when the PC is sitting at or near idle. 8 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:32,200 Say when doing light tasks like web browsing. This is because power supplies tend to be most efficient 9 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:38,040 when they're somewhere around 40% load, which is 800 watts for a PSU of this size. 10 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:42,240 But a PC near idle might not even be drawing 200 watts. 11 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:46,160 And when power supplies are running at less than 10% of their capacity, 12 00:00:46,160 --> 00:00:49,520 they tend to be really inefficient, 13 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:53,520 with the result being you're paying more on your power bill than you would have 14 00:00:53,520 --> 00:01:00,040 if you had just bought a lower wattage power supply. But if this is the case, why do they even exist? 15 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:05,560 Well, there are use cases where someone might legitimately need that much power. 16 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:08,600 Many 2000 watt power supplies are aimed at people 17 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:12,440 who are into cryptocurrency mining, which is very computationally expensive, 18 00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:18,440 and that such sucks down a lot of electricity. Another use case is if you have a very high powered PC, 19 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:22,880 referred to as a workstation, that can be used for a 3D modeling or rendering, 20 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:27,280 training an artificial intelligence model, or even running scientific simulations. 21 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:31,160 For science, some of these machines actually use multiple graphics cards 22 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:34,280 to do all this computing, which use a lot of power. 23 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:40,720 But here's the thing, it might be very difficult to run a 2000 watt power supply in your home or office, 24 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:45,120 at least if you're in North America, even if you could actually use one. 25 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:51,800 A huge part of the problem is that in the US and Canada, the standard voltage for a wall socket is 120 volts. 26 00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:56,200 If you think back to your high school of physics, watts equals volts times amps, 27 00:01:56,200 --> 00:02:00,360 meaning to power a 2000 watt power supply when it's at a full load, 28 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,880 you'd need almost 17 amps of current. 29 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:06,960 But most of the wiring that's probably in your home or office 30 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:12,080 is only rated for 15 amps. Trying to connect a device that needs more amperage 31 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:15,840 than your wiring can provide will lead to the circuit breaker tripping, 32 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:19,040 or even a fire in your walls if your circuit breaker sucks. 33 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:22,280 Now, some buildings do have 20 amp wiring 34 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:25,720 connected to certain outlets. These tend to be in places like kitchens, 35 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:30,360 so you can plug in multiple high draw appliances, such as blenders or toaster ovens, for example, 36 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:35,640 without tripping the breaker. But if you plug your workstation with your 2000 watt PSU 37 00:02:35,640 --> 00:02:38,640 into an outlet like this and leave it running at load 38 00:02:38,640 --> 00:02:42,840 for a long period of time, you'd still run the risk of the breaker tripping, 39 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:47,400 since they're often only designed for continuous loads of around 80%, 40 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:51,160 which would only be 1,760 watts in our hypothetical. 41 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:55,860 And plus, you'd have to run it in your kitchen which doesn't sound very convenient. 42 00:02:55,860 --> 00:02:59,820 So unless you wanna pay for an electrician to come out and install a special circuit 43 00:02:59,820 --> 00:03:03,500 just for your beefy power supply because you truly need that much wattage, 44 00:03:03,500 --> 00:03:07,900 it doesn't make much sense to try and run one in a typical North American home. 45 00:03:07,900 --> 00:03:13,900 In fact, some 2000 watt power supplies are only designed to work with the 230 volt outlets 46 00:03:13,900 --> 00:03:17,340 used in places like Europe that don't require as much amperage, 47 00:03:17,340 --> 00:03:21,220 while others are labeled 1600 watts when sold in North America, 48 00:03:21,220 --> 00:03:27,980 since the PSU will limit its maximum wattage if it detects it's plugged into a 120 volt outlet. 49 00:03:27,980 --> 00:03:32,300 And even a 1600 watt power supply would not likely draw full load 50 00:03:32,300 --> 00:03:36,340 since a typical gaming PC setup, even if you're rocking a 4090, 51 00:03:36,340 --> 00:03:42,260 wouldn't come close to drawing 1600 watts. Additionally, multiple outlets and even entire rooms 52 00:03:42,260 --> 00:03:46,460 are often all on the same circuit. So you wouldn't want the PC itself 53 00:03:46,460 --> 00:03:50,500 hogging all that amperage, especially as you'll need to power your monitor, 54 00:03:50,500 --> 00:03:54,700 your lights, your vibrating chair, whatever else you have in your computer room. 55 00:03:54,700 --> 00:03:57,860 Imagine a massage chair. Anyways, thanks for watching. 56 00:03:57,860 --> 00:04:02,660 Like, dislike, leave a comment with your ideas for future videos. And if you wanna know why it's also a bad idea 57 00:04:02,660 --> 00:04:06,060 to buy a really cheap power supply, go watch this video next.