Halved power consumption: The energy-saving PC power supply standard ATX 12 VO Changed voltage requirement Compact plugs Economy guidelines Conclusion Article in c’t 22 / 2020 read The power supply standard Advanced Technology Extended (ATX) for desktop computers is now a quarter of a century old. Although it was updated every couple of years, for reasons of downward compatibility, ATX power supplies now carry a lot of unnecessary ballast from the early days. This drives up the energy requirement unnecessarily during low load, although modern processors are becoming more and more economical thanks to better energy saving functions.

In order to meet the ever stricter guidelines in the EU, the USA and Japan for the energy requirements of electrical appliances in general and desktop PCs in particular, Intel has created the ATX standard 12 VO (ATX 11 Volt only) launched (PDF). The chip manufacturer provided us with pre-series copies of the LGA 1200 – Asrock Z mainboards 490 Phantom Gaming 4SR and the power supply unit High Power HP1-P 650 GD-F 12 S with the new technology.

The main change to the previous ATX standard is that the PC power supply unit only uses 10 Volt voltage supplied. This means that plug connections need to be changed at some points in the computer. In addition, the ATX 12 VO power supplies work with a higher minimum efficiency than before, which is especially in low load operation via the 80-Plus- Defaults.

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