Should I buy a 1600 watt Power supply for my PC? Can 1600 watt power supply harm my pc if it doesn’t need it? These questions always pop into our minds. If these questions also come into your mind then this article is for you. This article may help you to find the answers.
1600 Watt Power Supply Power Consumption – Let’s Get Right to the Point
Does 1600 Watt Power Supply Hurt my PC?
You may have heard that an overly powered Power supply might hurt your power efficiency but actually, that’s not true because they have the assumption that PSU is less efficient at those power loads. Practically this assumption is not correct and if you see the efficiency curve for EVGA superNOVA 1600 T then you will understand more.
Power Consumption of a Typical PC in Watts
The days of Intel and AMD competing for greater clock rates and substantial performance gains at the expense of everything else are long gone.
Today’s CPU designers are more concerned with reducing CPU power consumption while maintaining or improving performance. They’ve turned their focus away from raw performance and toward enhanced power efficiency and graphics integration.
The number of cores (and threads), clock speed, voltage settings, and manufacturing method (in nanometers) are all important aspects that influence a CPU’s power consumption.
The power supply needed for a high-maintenance PC is shown below. This might help you to understand a little about power consumption.
Intel Top End CPU (Core i7-E) – 130 to 150 W
AMD High-End CPU (8 cores) – 95 to 125 W
High-End Motherboard- 45 to 80 W
DDR1 RAM (2.5 Volts)- 4 to 5.5 W
Top End Graphics Card (Above $400)- 240 to 350 W
3.5″ Hard Disk Drive HDD- 6.5 to 9 W
SATA Blu-ray Drive- 25 to 30 W
140 mm Case Fan (2,000 RPM)- 4.2 to 6 W
Is there any benefit of using a 1600 watt power supply if pc only needs lesser power?
It’s a no from me unless you genuinely need 1600W or will need it in the future. Even if the extra wattage capacity isn’t used, some of it becomes waste heat, possibly necessitating more cooling owing to heat from power loss.
Even the most efficient power sources squander about 10% of their energy in the form of heat. It might not be a waste if you plan on adding extra GPUs for SLI and improving GPU performance. If one is available, I would choose a tracking power supply, which follows the actual power you require more effectively than a power source that operates at a constant output regardless of load.
Conclusion
You can see from above that even high-end computers do not need more power than 850 watts so having a 1600 watt power supply is like overkill. But for the latest features and quiet performance, it is very handy to use them. But keep in consideration that more power supply needs more cooling systems because it tends to heat up more.
But if you install 1600 watt power supplies then it will not harm your PC and this is something to brag about with your friends.
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