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Raistline on 14 January 2015
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the-pi-guy said:
Raistline said:

Since the site you are using is not in English I will refer to tomshardware which does the most extensive testing out of any site that I know of.

Here is the direct link with the wattage usage for a non-overclocked system using a GTx 980. It is on the low end and suprisingly lower than I orignaly thought. Avg draw is ~175W peaking at just under 350W. This is one Sata device, adding a second would at max add another 10W per device. The average machine has 2 or 3 so we can  asume 360W max load for an average PC.  

360X1.2 so that you have teh 20% overhad puts you at 432 Watts. If you have a PSU with enough conneciton for everything you would be perfectly safe with a 450W Silver PSU, or a 475W Bronze. You could get by with a 400 but the PSU will have a higher chance of failure working at 85%+ of max fequently.  The power draw shown for 60 seconds reaches max draw frequently enough to base your PSU purchase on that.

Here is the link. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-970-maxwell,3941-12.html. Look for graph labeled with TOTAL.

Bronze and Silver ratings are about energy efficiency and the wattage is how much the PSU can supply.  

Efficency = output/input.

450 w bronze PSU and a 450 w silver PSU will both supply the same amount of power.  The input is what will be different.  

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7988/corsairs-ax1500i-released-a-1500w-80-plus-titanium-psu

Notice the DC ouput rating is what the wattage is.  

I understand that the Bronze/Silver/Gold is about effeciency and that the W rating is how much output it has. 

The reason I suggest a higher W output for a Bronze vs a Silver is because for a Bronze level PSU to output the 450W it has to work harder than a Silver one doing the same. The harder a PSU has to work the faster it will break down.  If a Bronze level PSU is working non-stop close to it's max output it will die much sooner than a Silver rated one. Bronze PSU max output are typically very close to their power output rating while Silver and Gold rated PSUs typically have a higher max output then their Power Rating. This is not always the case but I have learned to err on the side of caution for PSU selection.

Sticking with a brand that is well known for underrating their PSU wattage output is also another sound way to avoid the Gold/Silver/Bronze strategy I listed above. You could also do all of the above, never buy less than Silver, stick with well known brand and buy lines of PSU that is known to underrate their PSU wattage output.