WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.120 Did you know that there are 2,000 watt PC power supplies 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:06.160 on the market, but very few people seem to be buying them? 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:10.560 I mean, they can offer more watts per dollar than other high wattage models. 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:13.680 So why aren't people opting to get something for nothing? 00:00:13.680 --> 00:00:17.680 Let's start by looking at a big reason, having a power supply that powerful 00:00:17.680 --> 00:00:22.600 might put off consumers. Namely, it's gonna be consuming a relatively large amount 00:00:22.600 --> 00:00:26.880 of power when the PC is sitting at or near idle. 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 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. 00:00:38.040 --> 00:00:42.240 But a PC near idle might not even be drawing 200 watts. 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:46.160 And when power supplies are running at less than 10% of their capacity, 00:00:46.160 --> 00:00:49.520 they tend to be really inefficient, 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:53.520 with the result being you're paying more on your power bill than you would have 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? 00:01:00.040 --> 00:01:05.560 Well, there are use cases where someone might legitimately need that much power. 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:08.600 Many 2000 watt power supplies are aimed at people 00:01:08.600 --> 00:01:12.440 who are into cryptocurrency mining, which is very computationally expensive, 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, 00:01:18.440 --> 00:01:22.880 referred to as a workstation, that can be used for a 3D modeling or rendering, 00:01:22.880 --> 00:01:27.280 training an artificial intelligence model, or even running scientific simulations. 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:31.160 For science, some of these machines actually use multiple graphics cards 00:01:31.160 --> 00:01:34.280 to do all this computing, which use a lot of power. 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, 00:01:40.720 --> 00:01:45.120 at least if you're in North America, even if you could actually use one. 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. 00:01:51.800 --> 00:01:56.200 If you think back to your high school of physics, watts equals volts times amps, 00:01:56.200 --> 00:02:00.360 meaning to power a 2000 watt power supply when it's at a full load, 00:02:00.360 --> 00:02:03.880 you'd need almost 17 amps of current. 00:02:03.880 --> 00:02:06.960 But most of the wiring that's probably in your home or office 00:02:06.960 --> 00:02:12.080 is only rated for 15 amps. Trying to connect a device that needs more amperage 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:15.840 than your wiring can provide will lead to the circuit breaker tripping, 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:19.040 or even a fire in your walls if your circuit breaker sucks. 00:02:19.040 --> 00:02:22.280 Now, some buildings do have 20 amp wiring 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:25.720 connected to certain outlets. These tend to be in places like kitchens, 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, 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:35.640 without tripping the breaker. But if you plug your workstation with your 2000 watt PSU 00:02:35.640 --> 00:02:38.640 into an outlet like this and leave it running at load 00:02:38.640 --> 00:02:42.840 for a long period of time, you'd still run the risk of the breaker tripping, 00:02:42.840 --> 00:02:47.400 since they're often only designed for continuous loads of around 80%, 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:51.160 which would only be 1,760 watts in our hypothetical. 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. 00:02:55.860 --> 00:02:59.820 So unless you wanna pay for an electrician to come out and install a special circuit 00:02:59.820 --> 00:03:03.500 just for your beefy power supply because you truly need that much wattage, 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. 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 00:03:13.900 --> 00:03:17.340 used in places like Europe that don't require as much amperage, 00:03:17.340 --> 00:03:21.220 while others are labeled 1600 watts when sold in North America, 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. 00:03:27.980 --> 00:03:32.300 And even a 1600 watt power supply would not likely draw full load 00:03:32.300 --> 00:03:36.340 since a typical gaming PC setup, even if you're rocking a 4090, 00:03:36.340 --> 00:03:42.260 wouldn't come close to drawing 1600 watts. Additionally, multiple outlets and even entire rooms 00:03:42.260 --> 00:03:46.460 are often all on the same circuit. So you wouldn't want the PC itself 00:03:46.460 --> 00:03:50.500 hogging all that amperage, especially as you'll need to power your monitor, 00:03:50.500 --> 00:03:54.700 your lights, your vibrating chair, whatever else you have in your computer room. 00:03:54.700 --> 00:03:57.860 Imagine a massage chair. Anyways, thanks for watching. 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 00:04:02.660 --> 00:04:06.060 to buy a really cheap power supply, go watch this video next.