80 PLUS Power Supply Ratings - All You Need to Know as Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2013-05-07
·
603 words · ~3 min read
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you know that little bad you see in the quarter of almost every power supply box
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that says 80 plus and then has some kind of a precious metal attached to it we're
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going to tell you what you need to know about 80 plus as fast as possible the
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original 80 plus was really simple 80 plus logo goes here the power supply at
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20% of its maximum load 50% of its maximum load and 100% of its maximum
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load had to be at least 80% efficient
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converting power from AC wall power to the DC power that your computer uses
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after a while it got to the point where it was becoming easier and cheaper to
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build power supplies that were 80 plus efficient which is which is great I mean
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power was being saved money was being saved trees were being saved it all good
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things but consumers were looking for ways to continue to differentiate even
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more efficient power supplies so over 2008 and 2009 80 plus bronze silver gold
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and platinum were all introduced now some of these particularly 80 plus
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Platinum is almost more like a 90 plus certification because it requires 90%
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92% and 89% efficiency at 20% 50% and
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100% loads but The Branding of 80 plus
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remains power supplies that are extremely efficient but for example have
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large voltage drops under load or exhibit a lot of Ripple can cause
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long-term damage to your components even though they might be quite efficient
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with that said most 80 plus gold and platinum power supplies these days do
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tend to also be very very well built inside it just should be noted that you
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got to watch out for those other things as well and it's important to still read
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reviews for power supplies for those of you who were paying really close
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attention before there's no 80 plus requirement for efficiency under 20%
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load so that's why it's important to buy a power supply that is appropriate for
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your system if you have a mid-range gaming rig that only draws 80 to 100
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Watts from the wall at idle buying a 1200 wat power supply for it is
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inappropriate because that's less than 10% of the overall power supplies
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capacity that means this 80 plus Platinum power supply could be 90%
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efficient at 20% load but it could drop all the way down to 70% efficient at a
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5% load you don't know I'm not saying this one does in fact the ax1200i is one
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of the best built power supplies on the market but as a general rule you want to
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get something that is going to be somewhere near that sweet spot so you
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want at least 20% load at idle and then under load you want it to be around 50
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to 75% to take advantage of the most
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efficient part of the efficiency curve which is not on this particular power
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supplies box but I think you guys get the point thanks for watching this
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