[Novalug] Green(er) PC Power Supplies

[Jay Hart]

Right, further on in an article I was reading it said that the only downside
to buying a higher capacity PSU than what is:

"Most power supplies today have fairly flat efficiency curves instead of the
drastic efficiency drop-offs at very low and very high loads, so speccing a
PSU that is too large generally does not extract a huge efficiency penalty. It
does waste both money and materials, though—a system with only 155W of DC load
is going to need less beefy transistors, capacitors, heatsinks, and the like
inside its PSU, so buying an appropriately sized PSU is more environmentally
friendly than a massively oversized unit that won't ever be used at more than
25 percent or 35 percent of capacity. "

Jay

> The PSU does not draw that all the time, it only draws it if it needs it.
>
> Ken
>
> On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 8:56 AM, Jay Hart <jhart at kevla.org> wrote:
>
>> Just found a site called:
>>
>> http://www.80plus.org/manu/psu/manu_psu.htm
>>
>> The goal is that PSUs listed on this page must be 80% or greater
>> efficient.
>> Meaning that if you draw 100W, they will draw 125W from the wall.
>>
>> I've looked at several of the companies (PC Power & Cooling), and it could
>> be
>> somewhat hard to find smaller units.
>>
>> I am very partial to PC Power & Cooling, but the units I see listed on
>> this
>> site as being rated 80plus are all high wattage.  If I was looking for a
>> unit
>> for a unit in the 300-400W range, what advantages/disadvantages would I
>> incur
>> by buying a unit rated for 800W?
>>
>> Hope this site is useful.
>>
>> Jay
>>
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>