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Why does dell use relatively small PSU's?

S

stinkboots

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Feb 20, 2006
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If you look at the tech specs for this system you find a PSU of 360W. It seems like this is really small. I think the answer to the namesake question of this thread is "because it's cheaper"; so maybe a more important question is - is the general trend to build computers with a much larger power supply than necessary? Obviously, many people take into account upgrades and/or adding more stuff to your setup. But couldn't you just as well upgrade your PSU if it got to be a problem?
 
stinkboots said:
is the general trend to build computers with a much larger power supply than necessary?
Click to expand...
Yes. That computer doesn't actually need more than a 360W power supply, so Dell saves a lot of money by using smaller PSUs. A few bucks per PC translates to a very large cost difference in volume.
 
It also means earlier failure of the PSU so an out of warranty support call or new PC is required earlier.
 
I could be wrong but I doubt this is limited to just dell. I am sure most OEM's are like this and I really don't see a problem with it.

The bulk of the systems they sell have one optical and one hard drive. Most don't have dedicated graphics and the ones that do are often mid ranged lower power consumption cards. In similar systems I build I tend to use 380watt to 500watt PSU's.

Even my desktop/gaming PC is only using a 550watt.

Anyway yes it's a numbers game for them.

I really can't agree with the earlier failure comment though. Out of 50 some Dells that a previous employer had that were going on 6 years old at the time we seen one PSU failure and it happened to be on my PC, the only one that had added hardware, ram and a CPU upgrade done to it. Last time I talked to them they still had something like 30 of those same bone stock dells still in use now almost 8 years old. The other 20 had been replaced and kept for spare parts just in case, since a few of them had become flaky due to capacitors going bad on the motherboards. Now we did regular maintenance on these systems to help keep them running. Such as blowing the dust out of the PSU.

When I encounter a PC with a failed or failing PSU they tend to be full of dust and pet hair to the point I am amazed the thing lived as long as it did.
 
Couple of my old desktops had 300 & 350 watt PSUs. They were HP desktops made for the average consumer. Makes sense to me, the average computer buyer would buy an HP/Dell etc. and use integrated graphics/sound with 1 hard drive and one dvd drive. Plenty of power for the mere basics.
 
Standard OEM setup. Dell, HP, Emachine, etc look at what the machines are going to need to run. They then look at possible OEM upgrades they may offer or some basic upgrades the consumer might install.

Most of the machines are going to be left to factory spec through the life of them. They don't need anything more.
 
Because larege OEM's have engineering staff that can actually workout their exact power needs on the limited configurations they sell.
 
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