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[Pemalite]

haxxiy said:

Cyran said:

I think you have a misunderstanding of what PSU power efficiency mean.  If your computer require 500 watts.  Your PSU is 80% efficient at 500 watts then that mean the PSU going to require you to draw 625 watts of power from the wall to provide your computer 500 watts of power.  If it 90% efficient it would only need to draw 555 watts from wall.  Therefore your real power draw from wall would be 70 watts less therefore reducing your power bill slightly.   

That's exactly what I meant.

Most people *think* they would incur the cost of that extra wattage, but that's just apparent power, which residences don't pay for in most places.

So unless you're running your PC on the site of some industrial enterprise (which would have to pay for that apparent power), it shouldn't reduce your power bill.

It can get really complicated quickly.

In short, efficiency reigns supreme, wattage of the PSU doesn't influence total power consumption itself.

Different power grids (I.E. The USA's inferior 120v grid vs the rest of the planets 240v, just like the inferior imperial vs metric all over again...) impacts efficiency as well.

So a 600w high-effiency PSU can actually draw *less* power than a 500w cheap-o PSU at the wall.
But a 600w PSU can have higher wattage loads than a 500w PSU.

Quality comes first.