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The PSUs that are provided with the modern workstations are becoming more and more powerful for the last 10-12 years. 500 Watt units are quite common nowadays. The steady improvement in manufacturing technologies leads to shrinkage of the transistors and the power dispensed by each, but we use a lot more of them.

Does the modern workstations really need such powerful PSU units, or this is a marketing trick?

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This probably belongs on SuperUser or ServerFault. It's off-topic here unless there's a substantial claim. – jozzas Aug 10 '11 at 22:36
I think there are implicit claims from the manufacturers. A bit similar to Monster Cables and Audiophile grade equipment. It is expensive, so it must be better and you need it – Daniel Iankov Aug 10 '11 at 22:45
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@Daniel - Your question cannot be answered objectively. There are modern power supplies that are very efficient, check this out: codinghorror.com/blog/2011/07/… So the answer is it depends on which brand or model you buy. 760W, but only sits at 17W idle. – xiaohouzi79 Aug 10 '11 at 23:10
Hi, can you provide some link to justify notability? Current graphic cards require hundreds of watts as you can see with a simple google source... – Sklivvz♦ Aug 11 '11 at 7:54
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closed as not a real question by jozzas, xiaohouzi79, BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft, Sklivvz♦ Aug 11 '11 at 7:54

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.

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Besides cost, a disadvantage of a big PS is that it creates more landfill waste, and a cheap high-wattage PS may also be inefficient, which is both an environmental and a monetary disadvantage. To be good to the earth and to your pocketbook, look for the 80PLUS designation, which means that it's relatively efficient and doesn't contain lead.

A high-wattage PS may or may not be a sign of high quality. On a cheapo machine, one of the things the manufacturer skimps on is the PS. The main issue you'll see with a cheap PS is that it may die sooner.

The PS has to be powerful enough to handle all loads experienced by the computer, not just the typical load that you'd measure with a meter such as a Kill-a-Watt. The maximum load tends to be at boot time, so if you use a PS that isn't powerful enough, you may experience unreliable booting.

References:

"Is there such a thing as "too much power"?" -- http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDFAQs&op=FAQ_Question&ndfaq_id=3

continuous versus peak -- http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDFAQs&op=FAQ_Question&ndfaq_id=5

80PLUS -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_PLUS

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This answer requires references, and also doesn't answer the question. The claim is that high-wattage power supplies aren't necessary, and you don't address that. – jozzas Aug 10 '11 at 23:32
@jozzas: Thank you for your comments. I've added references. However, I did address the question. The question doesn't have a simple yes/no answer. I gave an answer that explained the relevant factors. – Ben Crowell Aug 10 '11 at 23:36
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