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Something that gets overlooked a lot, I think anyway, is that the no-name PSU you just slotted into your $1,500 system can and will drastically shorten the lifespan of your parts. People tend to look at watts and nothing else.
Check the power variance. Voltage spikes, even ones within tolerance for your particular hardware, will degrade and eventually kill your expensive gear. This also means the PSU itself can and will die if your house current isn't up to perfect 120v 60Hz. Ironically one of the cheapest and most effective ways of regulating this is a crappy UPS, provided it passes power through the system rather than failing over to battery on power loss. (That is, converts AC to DC and then back to AC. Of course you should make sure that the capacity of the UPS matches the draw of your system... my old one screamed in pain after my last upgrade.) A crappy UPS will perform almost on par with some very expensive isolators and regulators.
Again, one of the things you pay for in a good PSU is steady power. Doesn't matter how many rails it has provided it is stable at max draw.
I mean, I make damned sure that my home theater setup has good power regulation partly because it helps audio and picture quality, but mostly because it protects the expensive hardware connected to it. The same applies to that uber rig on the desktop. Being that they cost about the same all together, it's worth it in the long run.
Check the power variance. Voltage spikes, even ones within tolerance for your particular hardware, will degrade and eventually kill your expensive gear. This also means the PSU itself can and will die if your house current isn't up to perfect 120v 60Hz. Ironically one of the cheapest and most effective ways of regulating this is a crappy UPS, provided it passes power through the system rather than failing over to battery on power loss. (That is, converts AC to DC and then back to AC. Of course you should make sure that the capacity of the UPS matches the draw of your system... my old one screamed in pain after my last upgrade.) A crappy UPS will perform almost on par with some very expensive isolators and regulators.
Again, one of the things you pay for in a good PSU is steady power. Doesn't matter how many rails it has provided it is stable at max draw.
I mean, I make damned sure that my home theater setup has good power regulation partly because it helps audio and picture quality, but mostly because it protects the expensive hardware connected to it. The same applies to that uber rig on the desktop. Being that they cost about the same all together, it's worth it in the long run.