Why do (relatively) high-efficiency designs always seem to bottom out above 500W? Is there really no market at all for 350-500W Gold (or better) units for HTPCs or efficient gaming PCs? Heck, a 550W unit is enough for a 1080Ti if you don't load down your build with drives and stuff. For a semi-budget-oriented line like this, a 450W unit would have been a shoo-in. Although I really hope we can see some decent designs and better-than-Bronze efficiency in the ~400W space soon.

ValantarWhy do (relatively) high-efficiency designs always seem to bottom out above 500W? Is there really no market at all for 350-500W Gold (or better) units for HTPCs or efficient gaming PCs? Heck, a 550W unit is enough for a 1080Ti if you don't load down your build with drives and stuff. For a semi-budget-oriented line like this, a 450W unit would have been a shoo-in. Although I really hope we can see some decent designs and better-than-Bronze efficiency in the ~400W space soon.

The reason for that is that it's not really any cheaper at all to make a high end ~400W unit. For most cases it would be 1-2 dollars cheaper than the 550W version at best. That's why you don't see Seasonic Prime Titanium 450W, or Corsair RM450x.

OrionFOTLThe reason for that is that it's not really any cheaper at all to make a high end ~400W unit. For most cases it would be 1-2 dollars cheaper than the 550W version at best. That's why you don't see Seasonic Prime Titanium 450W, or Corsair RM450x.

I kind of get that, but personally I'd rather pay for an efficient PSU at an appropriate wattage rather than going overboard at the same price - considering most non-Titanium designs dip well below 80% efficiency at ~10% loads, anything above 500W is wasting significant amounts of energy when the PC isn't being used for games or anything really demanding. 20% load as the lowest point of measurement is simply way too high. Not that an extra 5W wasted makes much of a difference in terms of heat or cost, but personally I'd rather pay a bit more for added efficiency. Considering that even my PC (with a Fury X and water cooling) idles at ~70W and uses a bit less than 80W from the wall when browsing the web, most PCs run way down into the "really inefficient" spectrum in most use cases. That isn't even 20% of a 500W PSU, after all, and most dGPUs idle far lower than the Fury X.

When I built my HTPC a couple of years ago I tried to find a good, efficient, quiet unit at ~350W, but eventually gave up. Got a 550W Silverstone 80+ Gold SFX-L unit instead. Don't think its fan has ever turned on, even with four 3.5" HDDs running off it. I would gladly have paid the same price for a lower wattage unit that would have been more efficient at relevant loads.

ValantarWhy do (relatively) high-efficiency designs always seem to bottom out above 500W? Is there really no market at all for 350-500W Gold (or better) units for HTPCs or efficient gaming PCs? Heck, a 550W unit is enough for a 1080Ti if you don't load down your build with drives and stuff. For a semi-budget-oriented line like this, a 450W unit would have been a shoo-in. Although I really hope we can see some decent designs and better-than-Bronze efficiency in the ~400W space soon.

There are quite a few nice gold units in that range, even the fanless platinum 400W Seasonic thing.

FrickThere are quite a few nice gold units in that range, even the fanless platinum 400W Seasonic thing.

Nothing that's available here in Norway, at least. A quick overview shows the fanless Seasonic as the only <550W Gold or better rated unit available, and it being fanless takes it out of consideration for most builds I've ever considered (fanless ATX PSU in an SFF build? Not a good idea). Shame they don't have a version with a fan.

ValantarNothing that's available here in Norway, at least. A quick overview shows the fanless Seasonic as the only <550W Gold or better rated unit available, and it being fanless takes it out of consideration for most builds I've ever considered (fanless ATX PSU in an SFF build? Not a good idea). Shame they don't have a version with a fan.

A quick look on prisjakt.no shows dozens of gold units in that range. FSP, BeQuiet, Seasonic, Silverstone...

FrickA quick look on prisjakt.no shows dozens of gold units in that range. FSP, BeQuiet, Seasonic, Silverstone...

Looks like Prisjakt has a slightly better sorting system for PSUs than my preferred price comparison site, and sure, there are a few. Non-modular all, unless you go to the "crazy expensive" category (FSP Aurum Xilenser Modular 400W) or relatively new (Enermax Revolution X't II 450). I suppose the Fractal Edison M could have been an option for my HTPC, though I'm happy I went for my SFX-L unit (same size fan, same efficiency, same price, but fully modular and smaller). Still, it might look like choice is improving slowly but steadily. Too slowly, though, considering the power needs of modern PCs. There ought to be gold-rated 350-500W modular units available at reasonable prices ($50-70? I only have a vague idea about US PSU prices).