No discussion of efficient power supplies is complete without mentioning Sea Sonic, a long time provider of very efficient and quality built computer power supplies. Of particular note is the S12 line.

Sea Sonic also uses 120mm fans, so they are also known to be quiet. Which means less noise pollution.

Seasonicusa

According to the 80plus.org website Sea Sonic has 27 models compared to Antec's 3. Though I do applaud Antec's efforts at being more green.

very nice,. where are the fully recycleable, low energy, reasonably fast systems to be found? It would be nice to see more green computers and media devices. Who has money to start a green digital device company? I want out of my day job,. and like to program stuff,. .

Now we just have to hope that the trend catches on with major manufacturers.

That's going to be the trick. PC building is a low margin business, and most manufacturers go for the cheapest parts that they can find that won't put too much strain on their warrantee program. But hopefully the enthusist community, at least, will pick up on this. The potential for reduced noise is a big selling point for lots of people.

An excellent and detailed review + forum discussion is available here:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article684-page1.html

I got an Antec NeoHE series 380W power supply early this year and I've been very happy with it. It's quiet and electrically stable. It kept my machine running through a very visible power drop that reset every digital clock in the house.

That said, I did match it to some low power components, particularly the graphics card which I chose for its passive heat sink (a Quadro FX 700, about 35W), and the CPU which is a 2.6 GHz P4 (66W TDP). So it's a pretty cool running system with an efficient and also cool power supply.

Unfortunately most enthusiasts tune for speed rather than power draw. Green PC builders are a minority, but a growing one, and Antec and a couple of other suppliers cater to this group with at least some of their products. Silent PC enthusiasts, who try to use passive cooling all around, also require efficiency, though as a by-product.

As power per watt becomes a new yardstick, it will become easier to build powerful but low-power computers. However, efficiency should also be mandated for power supplies. The really cheap ones are very bad indeed, and they undercut the market for the better stuff.

Maybe two years for payback. The last PC I measured drew 120 watts while active, we'll round up to 150. If we assume it had a nasty 65% efficient power supply then the goodies only drew just under 100 watts. To supply that with an 80% efficient power supply will take 120 watts. So we save 30 watts. If you leave your computer active 24x7 that works out to $30/year if you pay $0.12/kWhr.

I'd spec one if I were making a new machine.

For existing machines it is more complicated, but not terribly. Most PC type power supplies are made as cheaply as possible and still be reasonably certain they will last 12 months. Pennies count in the PC industry. If your computer is a few years old and you plan to make it last then it might be a good idea to get one. Save money over the next couple years and put off that day when your computer faints from power loss. (Get the lint out of your heatsinks while you are in there, that would be your 2nd most likely PC death.)

More or less unrelated, but when it comes to saving power in a home office it is interesting where the power goes. I measured must of the things in my office.

Sorry, this comment won't accept a table so this might be a bit of a mess.

20" iMac G5 on a UPS:
...normal use: 95 watts
...full brightness and cpu: 120 watts
...sleep: 10 watts
Stereo, 70w/chan 250w amp + 150w subwoofer:
...blasting to disturb whole house: 58 watts
...normal level: 40 watts
...nearly silent: 31 watts
...power saver: 18 watts*
*I discovered that the subwoofer fails to enter power saving mode, I would expect better but something is flawed and it just won't go.

Epson RX700 inkjet printer/scanner/copier:
... printing: 20 watts
... scanning: 25 watts
... idle: 14 watts
... power saver: 10 watts

HL-1270N laser printer:
... waming up: 850 watts
... idle: 11-400 watts(mostly 11)
... power saver: 9 watts

Tech21 (small guitar amp):
... idle: 5 watts
... twanging: 5 watts

Phil Jones Briefcase (small bass amp):
... idle: 13 watts
... playing: 18 watts

60w incandescent bulb, 840 lumens:
... on: 54 watts
... glowing: 18 watts (I use this mostly)

23w compact fluorescent, 1400 lumens:
... on: 23 watts
... *but I almost never turn it on.

150 gallon aquarium:
... lights and pumps: 110 watts

Perhaps the moral here is that equipment in power saver mode is still taking $10/year each. As visible as the computer is, it isn't that large a cost especially since it sleeps so much of the time, and this from a model that has a thrice proven reputation for being too hot. Finally, those fish are going to have to get a job or something to help pay their electric bill.

(I do encourage people to let their computers sleep. I set my tiny router so it has a URL on it that will send a wake-on-lan packet to my computers. That way I can let them sleep, but if I need something from them anywhere in the world I can have the 8 watt router rouse them.)

You are right, Forrest. I have a Seasonic S12 380W myself. Very quiet, very cool, not noisy and about 82% efficient at the range I use it (IIRC).

Also ROHS compliant and such.

Funny enough, this PSU is made for Antec by Seasonic.

This is a big deal for the hordes of people who never turn their computer off. Besides, wasn't a major corporation like Google just making a fuss about this stuff? I'm forgetting who it was, but I imagine it will take hold soon.

GreenEngineer, Enthusiast PC components with green specs do exist, and you're right they revolve around the less wattage = less heat = less noise concept. But the industry is going further still with RoHS. For example Gigabyte (motherboard, video card, etc.) now makes lead-free PCB's that meet RoHS standards.

I'm an avid PC gamer and I pay very careful attention to power consumption, noise, and now the RoHS standards.

Thanks Alonso Perez for sharing the results of your comparative power use investigation. I've been thinking about trying to acquire a Kill-a-watt or other such device that measures power usage. And then using it to measure the power usage of everything/anything in my house just for the heck of it and for the learning. I'm really curious to find out how much power my computer actually uses, so that I can find a power supply that will fit its needs best.

I'd be curious to know what type of device you used to measure the energy use of your different appliances.