> > Same was said of first generation DDR2 vs DDR. DDR3 while lame in > performance vs hype and expectations, is still the future. >
Certainly--but the simple fact of the matter is that DDR3 must reach higher clockspeeds and drop in price to really justify moving from now-cheap high-speed DDR2. Eventually DDR3 will get my nod, it just isn't worth the price premium now, unless upgrade part availability 5 years down the line is the principal concern. > In theory you are absolutely correct - efficiency should have nothing > to do > with output. However more efficient power supplies = less heat > produced, and > an ugly reality that many brand X power supplies hide in the fine print > is > their highly touted wattage output rated at a certain, unrealistically > low > operating tempurature. > While it is indeed true that increasing temperatures drop a power supply's rating, I think you may take efficiency's role too far. While my 80+% SeaSonic runs cooler than the ~65-70% supply it replaced, it still doesn't run _cool_. There is still a lot of power being dissipated as heat. The real advantage, as you point out, is that the SeaSonic units (at least the M12) deliver rated power at 40C, and 80% at 50C. While I agree that a 500W quality power supply is sufficient for his single-GPU machine, I advocate buying more capacity than needed now to allow for expansion in the future. While C2D stunted CPU power demand for a while, the addition of multiple cores is causing that demand to increase once again. GPU power consumption is in near runaway mode. Even chipsets are starting to pull a not-insignificant amount of power. Of course, my PSU strategy is to have the supply last through several machine builds...so if you have different objectives in that regard, sizing should change accordingly. Greg
