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  • HOOfan 1 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    While well within spec, the ripple suppression on this unit is not very impressive.
    Using numbers from jonnyguru.com the EVGA Supernova G2 550W easily beats this unit on load regulation and ripple suppression, for $20 less.

    Saying that, the Andyson N700 Titanium Jonnyguru.com tested got load regulation and ripple suppression numbers which equaled or bested the EVGA Supernova.
  • jonnyGURU - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link

    You really shouldn't compare reviews from one reviewer to another when the results are this close. Different test equipment and testing methodology will result in slightly different findings.
  • YoloPascual - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link

    You said the magic word "slightly" so what he is talking about is most probably true.
  • chipped - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link

    Season are built like god damned German tankers. Best money I ever spent, probably my longest lasting PC part I've ever purchased.
  • chipped - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link

    Seasonic*
  • poohbear - Sunday, October 11, 2015 - link

    agreed. even with its 7 year warranty, i expect to keep my 750wt Seasonic platinum for atleast 15-20 years. What PC desktop part lasts that long???
  • Oxford Guy - Sunday, October 11, 2015 - link

    And how loud is that EVGA unit according to techpowerup's review? That's the thing people so often neglect to mention when bragging about those units.
  • Oxford Guy - Sunday, October 11, 2015 - link

    I haven't looked at the review of the 550W unit but I remember 48 dB for the 750W unit at 600 watts, and 48 dB for just 300 watts and above with the 850W unit.
  • Oxford Guy - Sunday, October 11, 2015 - link

    Actually more like 350 watts for the 850W unit. But, still... that's bad acoustic performance.
  • Shadowmaster625 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    So, 85% efficiency when my machine is idling and consuming 44W? I dont know, that doesnt seem very good.
  • Murloc - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    what is 10% when the consumption is low?

    Also the 80plus certifications are created to take into account that the best efficiency is achieved at certain loads.
    This is why they have certifications instead of a single efficiency number.
    The consumer gets the information on efficiency synthetized in a single artificial indicator.
  • CaedenV - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    What, you are going to complain about 5w? On a 'normal' PSU you would be looking at 50-60% efficiency at such low loads.
  • HOOfan 1 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    Not sure what you mean by normal. No PSU worth buying on the market today is going to be that inefficient at 50W draw.

    80 Plus Titanium calls for 90% efficiency at 10% load, so at 50W, this unit should be 90% efficient. None of the other 80+ Certifications specify efficiency at 10% load.

    Using Techpowerup, here are some numbers for 80 Plus Gold units.
    Seasonic G550 84% efficient at 59W draw retails for $80
    EVGA Supernova G2 650 84.77% efficient at 59W draw retails for $100
  • RussianSensation - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    I don't think you know how to reach charts.

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/9663/the-andyson-n50...

    At 50W rating, the power efficiency is >90%.

    It seems you also didn't even read the review:

    "As expected, the efficiency of the N500 Titanium is astonishing. The unit reached a maximum conversion efficiency of 95.2% at 50% load and an average of 94.1% within the nominal load range (20% to 100% of the unit's capacity). Not only that, but the low load efficiency is comparatively excellent as well, with the N500 Titanium maintaining an energy conversion efficiency of 91.4% at 10% load and 84.6% at 5% load. An efficiency greater than 84% with a load of merely 27.5 Watts on a 500W unit is outstanding."

    @ 10% load it's 91.4% to be precise.

    Next time before trying to criticize a product, maybe you should actually read the review.
  • HOOfan 1 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    Are you replying to me or Shadowmaster? I was correcting Shadowmaster when he said it was only 85% efficient at 44w by saying it was at least 90% efficient at 50w. Then I corrected Caedenv when he said other PSUs are only 50% efficient at that losd. So basically if you are refering to me then you just backed up what I already posted...
  • DanNeely - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    Actually it is. At idle loads a 80+ Gold PSU would be about 75% efficient; Titanium is the first standard to set a 10% efficiency requirement at all. Squeezing a tenth of a watt of consumption out of fixed power components is much harder than trying to get a tenth of a percent improvement at high loads.
  • DzanZeMan - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    Actually, 84.6% effeciency at 5% (27.5 watts) and 91.4% effeciency at 10%. details... details... amirite?
  • RussianSensation - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    Exactly. The guy goes off criticizing the product when in the review's description and in the charts it's as clear as can be that at 10% load efficiency is at least 90%.
  • ShieTar - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link

    Almost "rite". Its a 500W unit, so 5% are 25W, not 27.5W.

    Nitpicking, I know ;-)
  • Samus - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link

    Anything over 80% efficiency at <10% load is excellent.

    85% is unbelievable. As an electrical engineer I can't even wrap my head around how efficient that is. The analog ballasts and transformers I'm used to working with are usually around 70% efficient at idle\no load state. Even a Class 5 transformer to charge your phone saps around half a watt hour without a load, and since those devices are typically 3w, that's about 80% efficient and as good as consumer electronics often get.
  • Mark_gb - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link

    80+ Titanium requires 90% @ 10% load, 92% @ 20% load, 94% @ 50% load, 90% @ 100 load, on 115v.
    The only 80+ 85% requirements are 80+ Silver @ 20% load, and 80+ Bronze @ 50% load.
  • Daniel Egger - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    This is hands down the most interesting PSU reviewed on AT ever and I could not disagree more about the assessment that his might not even pay off compared to the 80Plus Gold PSU (you're even suggesting going higher with the wattage which means even higher losses at usual power levels!). Here in Europe we typically pay 23+ cents per kWh and rule of a thumb is 1W 24/7 power draw will >2€ per year; if you have devices running permanently or huge efficiency gains you can easily save 10€ per year, in some cases even 25€ or more.

    I've done lots of tricky conversions and downsizings in order to keep energy use down as much as possible and this is a very simple and cheap solution compared to all others so this is an instabuy for me (if I can actually locate one).
  • DanNeely - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    Keeping your computer at full load really is the only situation where going above gold will pay for itself; especially in places with cheaper power. The average price in the US is ~12c/kWh, or $1/watt year. At our prices platinum units generally took 4-6 years to break even on a 24/7 full load box; and never would if your computer spent most of its time at idle/standby/off. Hitting the titanium standard without bumping up the price a lot makes this one a much better deal at full load. If your box spends most of it's time at idle or off, the 2-4W average savings will push your baseline break even point out to between several years (24/7 idle, EU power prices) and never (off when not in use, US power prices).

    As Arbie's noted the amount of time you need to run the heater vs the air conditioner can tip the scales a decent amount either way, and that's very geographically dependent.
  • Daniel Egger - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    I disagree about the load. There're actually several aspects to this: More efficient PSUs are only available at higher ratings however most of them are at the same time abysmal at low loads where low is also defined as a percentage of the maximum rating. Titanium raises the bar tremendously above Platinum because it adds the quite important 10% tier where most of the Platinum PSUs plain and simply suck.

    Essentially there're only three options for best efficiency:
    - Take the smallest possible PSU with a gold rating
    - Use a PicoPSU/MicroPSU with a crazily efficient power brick
    - Take this PSU (if it's not completely overkill for the system which it might very well be)

    I've optimized numerous systems in my home, not only because of the power bills but because I'm in generally interested in efficiency in the hope that we can actually preserve the planet long enough for my grandchildren to have a decent life. From that experience I can tell you that a carefully chosen PSU alone can make a huge difference; with careful tuning and by replacing the PSU my Sandy Bridge based virtualisation environment and home server (24/7 on) went down from an already decent 75W to a nice 35W; the 20W that came from the PSU alone save 40€/year.

    Just for kicks I tried powering my small gaming and HTPC with a 700W platinum PSU, in idle it used around 50W, in FurMark 200W, while my 300W bronze PSU only sips 25W in idle and 150W in Furmark. Now that system only runs sporadically but that's still a whopping difference.

    I know AC and heating can make a huge difference (I'm also operating servers professionally) but in my home (and for the specific topic we're discussing) it really does not matter; a properly built home has to stay reasonably cool even without AC, so I don't have one.
  • Arbie - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    I would certainly pay extra for a very-high efficiency PSU. All the arguments I've seen regarding the cost of electricity ignore two important factors. First, unless you need heating in your room, the power dissipation of your rig has to be paid for about THREE times. Once for its own electricity, then 2X that for your air-conditioner to remove that heat. Another factor is that you may have to overcool several other areas to keep your computer room livable. Then there's comfort - it's no fun having cold A/C blowing on you much more than necessary.

    Of course you have to consider the deltas, proportionate gains, and costs - but a high efficiency PSU can be a better choice than you might think at first.
  • Murloc - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    well the heating is not a problem in most of the developed world. It's better to invest in recladding of old buildings really.

    Also overcool several other areas? Don't you have thermostats in each room?
    In most of the world there isn't central air con outside of big buildings anyway so it doesn't matter.
  • SodaAnt - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    Central air con is pretty common in the US. Main issue with it is that you have to cool the whole house even if its only one room that's hot, or if you're only staying in one room.
  • DanNeely - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    Central/forced air heating/AC is common in the US. At least in older construction a single thermostat is common. However, in most cases you'll have some ability to adjust the per room airflow by varying how open the vents are. If you've got a small massively overcomputed mancave you might be able to swamp the adjustability limits; but they generally are good enough to keep temperatures constant in a normal sized house.
  • Timbrelaine - Sunday, October 11, 2015 - link

    An efficient PSU can also help ke
  • Timbrelaine - Sunday, October 11, 2015 - link

    Whoops. I meant to say:

    An efficient PSU can also help keep fan noise down and lifespan up. If lost productivity from fan whine/failure is large then a modest investment in an efficient PSU is a bargain.
  • Arbie - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    Oh, and the word is "strove", or "have striven" - not "strived"
  • etamin - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    What's the warranty on this? I don't think it was mentioned in the review.
  • CaedenV - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    Nice, the PSU in my home server is ~10 years old and in need of replacement. This might be the perfect thing for an always on device with a bunch of HDDs.
  • Madpacket - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link

    Now someone needs to release an SFX version and I'll be all over it.
  • JanW1 - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link

    I may be missing something obvious, but why are the tests on this unit performed with 100% corresponding to 550W? Shouldn't the 5% load test have been performed at 25W for example?
  • KAlmquist - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link

    I'm guessing that the reviewer made a mistake when selecting the loads used to test this unit, and didn't want to go back and do more testing when he realized the mistake.
  • nem3sis - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link

    where i can buy this PSU in America..? =)
  • nem3sis - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link

    here i found a guy than made an group to buy this psu since Taiwan hope someone join us.. =)
    https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=73710.0
  • chipped - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link

    I've had my modular Thermaltake 80 Plus 850 watt PSU (rebranded Seasonic) now for almost 8 years I think. Can't go wrong with a Seasonic, buy once and never buy again.
  • chipped - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link

    In other words, just get a Seasonic and screw the rest :P
  • HOOfan 1 - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link

    What model? Most Thermaltakes I have seen are Channel Well Technology or Enhance
  • chipped - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link

    Why the fuck are you all arguing about a difference of a few percent efficiency??? It's like a few bucks a year difference. If you want to save money then you're better off buying a proven and reliable brand that's going to outlive you.
  • nem3sis - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link

    the point is not eficiency in low loads, to a true gamer playing every day this means a lot a money in power comsumtions this is the point.. =)
  • nem3sis - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link

    nobody buys an PSU thinking in power consumtion in low loads for that just buy an 80 plus bronce.. ¬__¬
  • AlB80 - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link

    Peak 45W of thermal energy and 135mm fan. Very strange.
    They can use 80mm with more optimal air flow and acoustic.
  • AlB80 - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link

    Oh. They can't. There is an additional card with connectors.

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