Contemporary personal computers (PCs) use pretty a lot of energy and requirements for 450W – 550W power supply units (PSUs) hardly surprise anyone familiar with high-end systems. However, there are machines that are designed to offer extreme performance and, thus, demand for extreme amount of power.

According to a Taiwanese web-site, Topower, a maker of PSUs has landed orders for 900W power supplies, which are used for making PC gaming systems running four GeForce 7 graphics cards in quad SLI configuration. Additionally, similar power supply units are used to create low-cost servers, high-end workstations and enthusiast-class gaming machines.

Topower Computer Industrial, a Taiwan-based power supply maker, has landed additional orders for 1500 900W PSU to be used in “Nvidia-based” high-end computers from an unspecified German distributor, according to the company in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) made in response to Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) that reported Nvidia has released orders to the power supply maker, DigiTimes web-site reports.

Typically PSUs with peak power higher than 650W – 700W are used in servers or high-performance workstations, which employ two or more processors, support four or more hard disk drives and numerous other demanding components. However, with the recent increase in power consumption by central processing units as well as introduction of power-hungry graphics cards configurations, high-wattage power supply units have become an option for high-end gaming systems that run two graphics cards in CrossFire or SLI mode, or four graphics cards in quad SLI configuration. Nevertheless, as X-bit labs found out, even a 660W PSU is enough for a system featuring quad SLI. Still, the fact that Topower has to make additional units, means that systems of "quad SLI class" power consumption are getting more widespread.

Earlier this year Topower, which currently has two high-wattage power supply offerings – the P3 that delivers up to 600W and the P9 with a maximum of 1100W, already landed orders for 1200 of its 900W products from a German distributor.