i am here because i do not know what it means when a psu is 80+ certified. what does that mean? also what are the differences between bronze, gold, and platinum. thanks for the help.. also is this psu a good deal? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152036
It means that it has an 80+ efficiency rating under load (when your pc is running a program or game) and bronze, gold, and platinum are just better efficiency rating psu's under load.
so it just means it uses less energy?
Somewhat(it depends on what components you have in your system) and if you get a higher efficiency psu it will be less likely to fail
80+ is a standard certification based on efficiency, and nothing else. It does not account for being within ATX spec, so going just for an 80+ rated PSU is pointless, because you could have a ripple of, oh, .3V that is far outside of ATX spec, but is still 80+ certified.
The different names (90+, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium) reflect different inefficiencies of converting AC from the wall to DC for your components. Usually, while your system uses, oh, let's say 300W, it may pull 320, 350, or even as high as 360-70 from the wall, because of losses due to poorly shielded components, heat, etc.
so will a 730w psu that isnt 80+ certified be able to run 2 graphics cards and the rest of my internals?
Wattage-wise, yes, it can, but I wouldn't use just any 730W. What unit?
80+ means that the psu transfers at least 80% of power draw from the socket into usable currents when it outputs 20, 50 and 100% of its rated max output. If your pc requires for example 300w at the moment your psu draws about 370w from your socket the excess 70w are outputted as heat, yours could output a maximum of 730w and suck more from the wall depending on how efficient it is.
Bronce, silver etc mean that even less energy is wasted, a platinum psus transfers over 90% of the power draw into usable currents, so there is so little excess heat that many dont even have a fan.
What matters for running 2 gpus is the maximum combined wattage on the 12v rails of the PSUs and the complete configuration of your pc, most importantly what cpu and what gpus and if you want to overclock.