80 Plus Platinum PSUs

80 Plus Platinum is an efficiency rating. It describes how much of the mains power a supply converts into usable power for your components, with the rest lost as heat — a Platinum unit typically runs around 92% efficient at half load, against roughly 90% for Gold.

Be clear about what that does and does not buy. It does not give your components more power; a 850W Platinum unit delivers the same 850W as a 850W Gold one. What it gives you is less waste heat inside the case, a quieter fan because there is less heat to remove, and a marginally lower electricity bill.

Whether it is worth the premium depends on use. For a machine that runs heavy loads for hours every day, the savings and the reduced noise add up. For a PC used a few hours in the evening, a good Gold unit is the better value and the difference will not be noticed.

The range covers 750W to 1600W from ASUS ROG, be quiet!, Corsair, Antec, MSI and GIGABYTE, mostly fully modular.