I was just wondering if "80 Plus Program" actually makes a difference? It's supposed to be more energy efficient, but is there any benefit to using 80 plus certified PSU's over "regular" ones?

I was planning on buying the Muskin 650W based on several recommendations here. But I'm wondering if I should shell out a few extra bucks for the Seasonic 600W since that's the cheapest modular 80 Plus I could find. They're both quad-12v. Mushkin has 20A per 12v while the Seasonic has 18A per 12v. 5v and 3.3v have the same ampage.

So basically my question is, are 80 Plus PSU's actually more stable or are they simply for tree-huggers?

80 plus saves on your electricity bill, however I'd just grab the Mushkin cause it's cheaper.

Never heard of it... The "80-plus" just refers to 80% efficiency or higher. Any quality PSUs should meet or exceed that level anyway, even if they're not part of that program.

So basically anything that you'd trust to power a $1000+ system is good enough. And do you really care if you save $12 on your electricity bill every year? Maybe you should give up overclocking then.

lolz Well my current system (or at least when it was functioning) was not OC'd (except for a couple of days when I was playing around). But yeah, if it's simply about saving a few bucks of electricity, then I don't care. lol

My point, if your PSU of choice has it, fine, but you really don't need to choose any of them simply cause of the electricity savings, which will be minimal at best.