Why High Wattage Power Supplies Are Stupid

Should you buy a 1200 watt power supply? Nope. Luke explains why...

Intro Screen Music Credit:
Title: Laszlo - Supernova

[deraldlee]

"Wattage will never exceed 800w"
RTX 3090: hold my beer

[Luvutoo]

High wattage psus are as unnecessary as the reflectiveness of that tech quickie shirt

[enkidoodoo]

"Wattage will never exceed 800W"

Intel CPUs: watch

[thewitchfindergeneral]

Should you buy a 1200w power supply? Nope. Go straight for the 1500w

[ChaosphereIX]

quite pathetic that most of the comments are not about the video, but are about being "first" or "last time I was this early..." or "notification squad" or "OMG WTF only 200 views"

I was looking forward to some discussion of power supply needs and suggestions for systems etc.

Instead...well what we have here.

Guys,

GET A FUCKING LIFE

[playerzero]

Why am I being recommended this in 2020?


Intel: ...

[shashanklaur]

I have a 250 watt power supply. Bitches, don't be jealous.

[SteveDice]

I need 1500W PSUs because they're the best looking ones

[andrewcz]

LTT: 1000+W PSUs are stupid...


VEGA 64 Crossfire + i9 7980xe: Let us introduce ourselfs...

[TheCyfire]

Modular power supplies are good for cable management

[blobcreeper]

The only reason I have an 850 watt power supply is because the 750 watt version was only about £4 cheaper xD

[NightHound]

But...But ....But I need to run 23 fans XD

[antonyredfern]

being somone in the eletrical background, if your pc Requires 300Watt. a 600Watt psu power curve is more energy efficient then a 300-400 watt one going full out.

my standard gaming rig pulls 480Watts from the wall. so a 650-700 psu would work and use less power then a 550watt psu

[dyIanVII]

"Buy a good power supply"

Standing right next to a CX unit....

[Michael-]

Damn I guess that anti-matter reactor power supply I got was slightly over kill then.

[spockeli]

I need 1.21 Gigawatts...where could I find a psu rated for that ?

[genefulm]

I'm a seasoned Electrical Engineer and understands computer power supplies quite well.
I've worked on everything from industrial controls to military equipment.
When you design something that you want to last forever, you use components that are rated for high power dissipation, but in use, don't ever subject them to their maximum ratings. We call it the "power margin" and as a rule of thumb, you try your best to keep it under 50%. (The more reliability you need, the higher you need the margin to be)
Heat is the #1 reason electronics fail (instantaneous or sustained), and if you have components in your power supply that can easily handle it, your supply will last a long time.

This is why higher rated power supplies are good. They are built to handle much more heat than you will every subject them to, which makes them generally more reliable than lower rated supplies in the long run.

That is not to say all high power supplies use good components to start with. As a general rule, the bigger they are physically means they have big high power rated parts inside.

[Hostilenemy]

Why would you get 3 x 80mm fans? You mad?

[eliteexposure]

I dont think high wattage power supplies are stupid. I think Trump supporters are.

[ChrisThomasBone]

There's a few factors that went into my decision to get a 1000 watt psu. 1, due to an insurance settlement, I had an insanely huge budget (at least in terms of general consumer components) while building my current rig. 2, the pc I was building was going to be used in my home recording studio, and as such, fan noise was important enough that I was already getting Be Quiet silentwings fans on a watercooling radiator. 3, I have a distinct childhood memory of the family computer's motherboard putting on a giant light show due to an insufficient power supply (Yes kids, this was before anybody started intentionally putting lights on motherboards).