power-supply posts

Previously, we've discussed the power demands of the modern gaming rig. According to the US government's Energy Star program, home electronics are responsible for about 15% of the electricity consumed for the average household. That's everything from your home theater system to your cell phone charger, but the big ticket item in that bracket is your PC -- at a few hundred watts several hours a day (or, in some cases, 24/7), the KWh (kilowatt-hour) expenditure adds up. Some estimates put the total electrical consumption for server farms and the like at 1.5% of the United States' total power draw (which is why more efficient supercomputers are big news). It makes sense to think about ways to economize.

As we said at the time:

One other factor to consider when shopping for a new (or, if you're unlucky, replacement) power supply is the efficiency rating. Going green, or just being cost-of-operation conscious, has been made substantially simpler with the advent of the 80plus certification program. Many of the units listed by 80plus will also carry SLI/Crossfire certifications as well, so make sure to cross-check that the unit you've got your eye on meets all your needs.

Akela got our dander up a bit last week, with his shot across the bow of hardware fiends everywhere. BI could go on at exhaustive, tedious, and utterly facetious length about how someone can be somewhere other than the bleeding edge, but why bother being that guy? As was once pointed out by some dude with my byline at Massively, Max/Min is an @$$hole.

For instance, look at the tremendous popularity of PopCap and Big Fish and their ilk -- simple, flash-based clicky games that make next to no hardware demands at all -- legions of addicts (BI's Substantially Better Half included) must see something in them. BI will admit to killing an occasional hour with Peggle or something high-concept like Dyson -- when we need a break from something that puts the screws to our six-month old build, or don't feel like being social in World of Warcraft.

New hardware ain't cheap. Well, it's almost always getting less expensive, but that's because something newer and shinier and bad-assier (and more expensive, natch) displaces it. But Akela brings up half of an interesting point -- killer graphics (and their attendant wattage draws) do not a killer app make.

As the world tries to move to a more conservative energy policy, including electronic devices, there's one rather large exception to this trend: PC gaming rigs. News.com has an interesting look at this trend which has seen power requirements for the high end gaming PC skyrocket up in the last few years.

It's not hard to see why; gaming rigs now have multi-core processors and many graphics processors, whether it's AMD's Crossfire solution or Nvidia's SLI set ups. As a result power supplies for these rigs have got up to as much as 1,200 watts which is three times what the high end was just three years ago. Some gamers may require new electric wall sockets or even new breakers be installed in their homes just so their gaming PC can run. PC makers don't see this trend stopping anytime soon. Kelt Reeves, the founder of PC maker Falcon Northwest, stated, "Eventually these chips get so hot that their own heat becomes a barrier to performance."

Tim Allen wasn't precisely the same flavor of hardware guy that we are, but his Tool Time mantra, "More Power!" certainly resonates with a lot of computer enthusiasts. Not only do the games we play and the applications we use require more and more computational chutzpah to perform well, but the silicon bits themselves are not shy about sucking down the wattage to do it.

If you're considering an upgrade or a new build, you're going to need to feed that beast. Onward, to the supplies of power!