Cool review! keep up the good work...

Very good review as usual. Nice to see some interesting new developments in PSUs for a change. The fact that these units all meet their specifications easily is comforting; it would seem increasingly difficult to find a poor-quality PSU, provided you're willing to spend an appropriate amount.

Once again, I want to cry. X-Bit has the best PSU reviews I have ever seen. And they waste them on super-high-wattage PSUs that have no reason to exist! Indeed, it almost seems like (unlike in other sections) X-Bit's PSU roundups are not catering to "intelligent, informed technology enthusiasts", but rather to "ego-driven wastrels who want a bigger e-penis".

I would really appreciate a PSU roundup strictly in the range of 300W-400W.

~rant~

Desktop computers that are not running multiple graphics cards - which is 99% of them - don't need power supplies of 400W or greater. Buying such a device is wasteful of money (obviously) and power, since efficiency declines near the bottom of a PSU's capacity. So, buying an "82%" efficient 600W PSU for a normal computer will not get you 82% efficiency, if you will usually be running at 150W.

Since I have always bought - and considering the trend to design more power-efficient CPUs, drives, and even graphics cards, probably always will buy - power supplies under 400W, these PSU reviews at X-bit, while technically very well done, are totally irrelevant to me. And from what I can see, they are totally irrelevant to 99% of your other readers as well, who may buy 500W or 600W PSUs... but don't need them at all, and only buy them because that's all you ever review.

To find a quality (and I use the term loosely, since this is certainly not a perfect PSU!) sub-400W PSU in one of your roundups, I had to go back to 2005:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu_12.h ml#sect0


There are also a couple in roundup 8 from only 3 months ago, but they are junky no-name brands that nobody is going to buy unless they come in a case. And if they came in my case, I would thrown them out and buy a quality brand.

Just run through these roundup front pages and look at the wattages you review! They are almost all 500W+ and maybe half are 650W+. And there are lots of 700W, 800W, and 1000W scattered around, too. I don't understand why you do this.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu9.ht l
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu8.ht l (the sub-400W ones are junky)
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu6.ht l
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu5.ht l
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu4.ht l
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/psu-roundup. tml
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu.html