Power supply efficiency

[Grauniad]

As luck would have it, Anandtech just ran an article comparing a platinum-certified PSU to a bronze-certified PSU to determine the power savings vs initial purchase cost.

Turns out (Quelle surprise!) that a PSU with platinum-certified efficiency uses less power than a lower standard PSU. Unfortunately, if one plays in the 800+ watt arena, then it becomes a matter of conjecture and individual use on whether the higher initial outlay will, over the life of the PC, produce a payback.

Full article here.

Edit: I also noticed that peak efficiency occurs around 50% utilization. Low-utilization seems more inefficient. It would be pretty interesting to be able to calculate the average power draw of a setup and then consider over-provisioning so that on average the PSU is at peak efficiency. But of course, that may not then have sufficient peak power available. :(

[knucracker]

"For power costs, we're looking at the worst-case scenario of leaving a system on 24/7, which really isn't realistic unless you're talking about a server. For a typical PC that's on eight hours a day, using the US national average price for electricity ($0.125 per kWh), we're looking at electrical savings of anywhere from $2.56 to $8.40 per year."

Uhh... am I the only one that leaves my machine on 24/7.  Excepting for power outages, reboots, and moving the computer to another room, my current desktop has been on continuously for the last 4 years (since it was built).  No hibernation, no sleep (none of that junk that hoses what you are working on).  I let my monitor sleep at night, but I literally walk away when I'm done and then walk back the next morning, move the mouse to wake up the monitor, then start typing these messages.

So I guess in my case a gold supply is better than bronze and platinum is better than gold.  I should get back the original investment (not even counting the extra air conditioning required in the summer to move the extra heat from a lower grade power supply).

[Grauniad]

And now you see how "system builders" (cough.., Dell.., HP.., cough...) works over their customers. They will put in a cheaper Bronze Certified  PSU, since the cost to them and that they reflect in the markup will be lower. Customers over then next "n" years of the life of that PC then  bear  the higher operating cost.

And the planet (and all of us) bears the higher cost of an increased energy demand.  :(  But that's capitalism as it was designed.

And no manufacturer will give you a 5-year warranty on a component. Why? If they don't have to, they can install equipment that have lower specifications and really doesn't have to have a designed lifespan of more than 2-3 years. That way the in-warranty failure rates are acceptably low that they have very low service costs.

[Blaze]

Uhh... am I the only one that leaves my machine on 24/7.

No, you're not.
I leave mine up most of the time as well, since I record and use my computer almost all the time during the day I have to compress that footage at some point.
So I do it at night when I don't need my computer (other than music for white noise), since I mass compress leaving my computer sluggish during that time.

And on the next night I upload last night's compression while doing another batch.
If I plan to be out for most of the day, then I shut my computer down, this happens mostly on the weekends.

However, last time my PSU fan kicked on full blast, was quite noisy to the point of being able to hear it across my room over my music, which to be fair isn't all that loud at night.
The fan also just made more of a ticking sound, not a whirring, I've been waiting to get a can of air to clean my computer out and see if that'd help.
I have a dog that frequents in my room, and when I'm on my computer she's next to my tower, however on the side she's on the fan is taking air out of the tower, not in.
In fact the only intake is in the front, through a filter built into the tower (just a plastic grate).

First time I noticed this, I aborted the compression and shut the computer down for the night to let it cool, thinking it's just been on too long (was about five days at that time).
Tried again tomorrow after turning it on, it was cool in my room and my computer was room temp, started compression and it happened after a few minutes.
I let it run through that time and it finished, cooling down after a little while back to idle temp.