Hey all, just moved to Japan for work and was due for an update on a PC/missed having a desktop so I bought components for it.
I know Japanese outlets don’t have grounding wires in them normally (unless they’re appliance outlets), so is it safe to use my American PSU in Japan? I’ve been using my American Laptop w/ a three-prong cord + adapter since coming here about 3 months ago just fine – but obviously a desktop PC’s gonna draw more power than a small laptop…. I’ve also hear that ungrounded PSUs, minus the safety risk, can sometimes interfere with audio by producing a small humming noise. Is this true for modern PSUs?
The specs of the PSU are listed as “100-240 VAC, 9 – 4.5A, 50 – 60 Hz” so I’m assuming it’ll work fine on Japan’s grid (I’m in Western Japan, Sendai area). But what are all your experiences with using a PC/gaming PC in Japan?
3 comments
It’s safe. Modern PSUs are generally made to work anywhere in the world. And the lack of ground is not as concerning as you think.
The main issue you may have is the low power limit. A single domestic circuit is limited to 1.5Kw, and one outlet to 1.2Kw. In practice the breaker may well trip lower that that. So any machine that needs more than a 1000W PSU is likely a no-go, and if you want anything else on the same circuit – monitor, speakers, desk lamp etc. – you need to take that into account as well.
A secondary power issue is that all that power ends up as heat. Which get dumped into the – possibly quite small – room you’re in. And as you may have noticed, Japan can get quite hot. You’d need the AC to run at full tilt to remove all that excess heat. So a very power-hungry PC may not be much fun to use in practice; it gets hot and noisy and your electricity bill will take a hit.
Build yourself a moderate, performant system rather than top-of-the-line for everything, and a gaming PC is perfectly fine to use here.
I built a PC in Japan in 2019, and now use it in the US. It has a Corsair RM850 PSU, and when I moved to the US, I just replaced the power cable that plugs in to the PSU. I’m no electrician, but I’m pretty confident that the 100-240 volt rating indicates that they sell the same PSU worldwide, and you should be fine using it in Japan with the correct cable.
Yes, no problem. Been using U.S. computers here for > 10 years, everything from small laptops to industrial-grade servers.
The equipment has switching power supplies that adjust to incoming voltage/frequency. This is reaching you from a PC with a 1,000W PSU, flanked by 2 other PCs w/ one 1,000W PSU each, Two Threadrippers, one 5950X