Bronze, Gold & Platinum

[RichieM]

Bit of a n00b question but what is the actual difference to the "type" of PSU's?
Obviously Bronze is budget, Gold is mid and Platinum is high-end, but what makes them so?
Or is it just simply down to the quality of the components?
Is the extra for a Platinum worth it?

[jim]

It's the efficiency. There is a diagram here that demonstrates it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus

Of course, to get higher efficiency, you need higher quality components, but the Bronze/Gold/Platinum/Titanium certification isn't based on the quality of the PSU. For that you would need to check a review site, such as JonnyGuru.

As for whether the extra is worth it - you can calculate the energy saving from a more efficiency PSU, and use that as a calculation, but I would be very surprised if you could typically save money by investing more in a Platinum PSU vs a Gold. So consider other factors, e.g. the quality of the PSU according to careful, thorough reviews, the warranty, modular vs non-modular etc.

[monstercable]

Bit of a n00b question but what is the actual difference to the "type" of PSU's?
Obviously Bronze is budget, Gold is mid and Platinum is high-end, but what makes them so?
Or is it just simply down to the quality of the components?
Is the extra for a Platinum worth it?

It's the efficiency as the post above states. Personally, I don't think that the extra for platinum is worth it, I have a bronze Corsair 600W myself.

[Butuz]

Paying through the nose for Gold and especially Platinum PSU are totally 100% garunteed not worth it (unless you just like having nice shiny posh looking things of course).

Here's some figures I ran the other day for someone who asked me about PSUs. These are two PSU's I actually own and paid full price for as listed.



As you can see - on my representative 500W load test, the Platinum PSU drew 493 watts from the wall, the Bronze PSU drew 527 watts from the wall. Platinum is clearly more efficient than the bronze - it's going to take you a LONG LONG LONG time to ever possibly recoup the extra cost of the Platinum PSU based on your electricity saving of a constant 34 watts.

Make sure you buy PSU's with your eyes open and don't be dragged into the hype.

Butuz

[D1DM]

Bit of a n00b question but what is the actual difference to the "type" of PSU's?
Obviously Bronze is budget, Gold is mid and Platinum is high-end, but what makes them so?
Or is it just simply down to the quality of the components?
Is the extra for a Platinum worth it?

You didn't say 80 PLUS, but that is usually what people refer to when they say Bronze rated, Gold rated, etc. In which case 80 PLUS ratings only certify the efficiency achieved by the particular unit which was sent to ECOVA.

You can find the criteria for 80 PLUS PSUs on their website: (press on the "What is 80 PLUS certified?" button).
http://www.plugloadsolutions.com/80P...rSupplies.aspx

I also suggest you read this to gain more understanding (page 1 and 3 are the most useful pages IMO):
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/...en_buying_psu/

[RichieM]

Paying through the nose for Gold and especially Platinum PSU are totally 100% garunteed not worth it (unless you just like having nice shiny posh looking things of course).

Here's some figures I ran the other day for someone who asked me about PSUs. These are two PSU's I actually own and paid full price for as listed.



As you can see - on my representative 500W load test, the Platinum PSU drew 493 watts from the wall, the Bronze PSU drew 527 watts from the wall. Platinum is clearly more efficient than the bronze - it's going to take you a LONG LONG LONG time to ever possibly recoup the extra cost of the Platinum PSU based on your electricity saving of a constant 34 watts.

Make sure you buy PSU's with your eyes open and don't be dragged into the hype.

Butuz

Thanks man, that is exactly the kind of answer I wanted

[Butuz]

My pleasure!

Butuz

[finch96]

Do higher tiers last longer?

[D1DM]

Not necessarily. If an 80 PLUS Gold unit has crappy build quality then it's not going to outlast a well built 80 PLUS Bronze or Standard unit.

[Pob255]

The one thing the 80plus certification has going for it is that companies can no longer claim the peak output as the wattage as the psu has to run at 100% load for a sustained time as part of the 80plus certification tests.

Although it doesn't stop the more unscrupulous companies claiming 80plus cert when they don't have it or careful wording and logo's that make them appear to have 80plus certification (known brands to do this are CoolMax, KMEX and Spire)

Granted the 80cert testing has come under a bit of criticism, mainly because they test at 23c which is rather low even for room temperature tests (normally 25c in engineering tests) and temperatures inside a pc case can often go higher, which is why some of the best psu manufactures do their own tests at 40-50c
One other area is rebranding, originally a psu should be of been resubmitted for testing to claim 80plus rating even if nothing has changed other than a company sticking their own label on it and giving it a new model number.
Some companies get around this rule by keeping the original manufacture name and model number on the label some place (chieftec does this, we've got some pc's at work where the psu sticker has "made by CWT" and the original CWT model number in small print down on the corner of the sticker) but many didn't.
However Ecco consulting, the people behind the 80plus mark and testing, changed their rule to allow rebrands to get certified at the same rating as the original for a reduced cost (20%)
The potential for abuse is possible as re-brands are not actually tested so unscrupulous companies could try to pass off a different set of internals as the same as an existing unit, although no examples have yet been known and it would open up the company in question and possibly the manufacture to crippling law suits.

[Wa1lock]

Actually there is an example on the market. The LC-Power LC9450 has a 80PLUS Gold certification, but the model they tested was modified and the models on the market for consumers are different. They would only achieve 80PLUS Silber.

Edit:
@Jim I personally would not make a decision based on a Jonnyguru review, because if I'm not mistaken Jonny is working for Corsair. In my opinion this is a good enough reason not to trust all his reviews without concerns.

[D1DM]

Someone else writes the reviews at jonnyguru.com, calls himself OklahomaWolf, has been doing them for years. Plus jonny has basically stopped writing reviews since he started working at Corsair - can't remember him publishing one since.
Agree that using multiple reviews to make a decision/recommendation is a good idea, but I wouldn't distrust JG.com reviews, at least not based on jonny working for Corsair.

[Wa1lock]

I did not exactly mean to distrust jonnyguru, but to be careful only reading their reviews to make a decision. So I totally agree on what you have said.
Correct me when I'm wrong, but I think JG wrote a review of the Corsair RM series and it was very positive. In contrast to that HardOCP had a very negative one. Thats what I mean with I would not make a decision based on a Jonnyguru review.

[Frankenfurter]

Not sure if this is really still in topic or not as the OP's question has been answered, but this is relevant to where the thread is now so...

As for always using multiple reviews (I'm with you on that, every time) I'd recommend this place:
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_a...s/Page1354.htm
It shows you some useful stuff about all the different PSUs, makes comparing them really easy, and on the right - links to any reviews they've found (with scores written if applicable). It really is a fantastic resource for PSU hunting.

(I'm not talking about BeQuiet specifically in that link btw, it's just the deafault brand when you navigate to the page )

[Renaissanceman]

Not necessarily. If an 80 PLUS Gold unit has crappy build quality then it's not going to outlast a well built 80 PLUS Bronze or Standard unit.

As a rule of thumb though, it'll be rarer to find a Gold or Platinum unit with crappy build quality as you need better components (especially caps) to hit the efficiency targets. I've just bought a Seasonic X-850 Gold (KM3), and it comes with a 7 year warranty. Obviously Seasonic PSUs are generally a cut above, but length of warranty offered is a good indicator of a manufacturer's confidence in their design and build quality.

[Programming_Lif]

I generally only go for psus which has at least 80+ bronze, 3+ year warranty and come from a reliable manufacturer.