Also, if your rig goes over, say, 400 watts of power it is definitely worth it to get an 80+ efficiency rated power supply. There are quite a few tiers, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, titanium, etc., but that's the equivalent of extra 9's uptime where just the 80+ rating is the first 99%
I doubt they use a non-80+ power supply with their modern high end CPU and GPU seeing as the standard was introduced in 2004, with Energy Star certification requiring it in 2006.
But not only is the efficiency rating important but the specific model’s efficiency curves at cold loads and hot loads, 20%, 50%, and 100% loads. Paying attention to your components and what level of power usage they will be at for most of their usage will dictate what the most efficient specific model of power supply (at a reasonable price point for you). This of course makes reviewing and purchasing power supplies quite complicated.
My personal experience has been that people skimp on the power supply, it's the one area where direct performance isn't affected so the features that the power supply provides are not directly correlated to the overall performance of your machine.
Many people, especially in mid-tier or lower builds where every dollar for price vs performance has been calculated to the decimal point will opt for the cheapest power supply that meets the wattage and connector requirements their particular build requires, efficiency and longevity be damned.
My opinion is that getting a guaranteed 80% power conversion efficiency rating (as compared to, say, a 75% conversion efficiency rating) on a 500 watt PC will save you 25 watts of power over the years that you use it, plus a manufacturer that actually goes through the process of getting the approval will probably have also put a little extra care into their manufacturing process and so probably has a better reliability rating than one that did not.
Unless you are scraping to get any PC together it may well be worth an extra $10 in price variance, all other things being equal, for that piece of mind and minor electricity savings to boot.
My point was, in the past few years I have been buying computers, I have never seen a non-80+ psu. Not that they do not exist, certainly there are unlabeled white boxes for dimes and nickels on the dollar compared to a quality one.
I went out of my way to research my current power supply to make sure that given my usage and components, it would operate in peak efficiency (I believe mine is at nearly 95% efficiency at average load, would need to measure it more thoroughly, it has been a few years).
I feel a power supply is like tires. They are the only thing that actually touches the road(electricity). They are worth paying for something halfway decent, not bottom of the barrel.
I do agree, but I would be shocked to see a non-80+ psu at a reputable store like Micro Center.
True. It's been about 5 years since I built a new computer and so my information apparently is a little but outdated, but a quick search through newegg's cheapest power supplies shows things like this:
650 watt, no-name non-80+ power supply for $40. That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. There are 80+ rated power supplies in the same price range or 80+ from reputable companies for $10 more but it's still a thing worth looking for when you're a newish builder or if you have any concern for the overall efficiency of your computer.
After all, base 80+ rating still means that for every watt your PC actually gets to use you're converting .2 watts directly into heat. That's not a big deal for a workstation that may only draw 100 watts under load but if you have a beefy PC with 3090s and an overclocked 12 series i9 processor with a lot of fans, you could be burning 100 watts or more just to power the thing, so it would definitely be worth it to go for gold or platinum 80+ rating just to save the money in waste heat and in cooling that waste heat after the fact.
