Things You Should Know About A Power Supply

Power supply unit (PSU) is, believe it or not, a vital component to increase overall performance of your PC. When you increase your hardware you must make sure that your PSU will give sufficient power to all the components. The new CPU’s of today are heavy on power when you play games or use performance intense applications. Yes the new hardware comes with power saving gadgets but when the pc is on open taps it need loads of power.

What you should know when buying your power supply:

• True power rating
• How many 12v rails
• Does it have two four pins for big mother boards
• How many six pins it has for GFX card
• Amount of S-ATA plugs included
• Is it a modular power supply (removable cables)

One thing to keep in mind is that with bigger power rating the better performance you will get out of your machine. Obviously a smaller one will work, but with the limited power supplied by the PSU the hardware can not work at its full potential.  I have tested this on a gaming machine, and I saw a 20% performance increase on a machine that had a 750 watt which we replaced with a 1200 watt PSU.

If you are running two GFX cards you need at least 850 watt or more, don’t even think of using any thing less, yes it will work but you will lose performance. Also make sure that you have enough GFX power cables on the PSU because to get those cables separately is a mission.

Make sure about the true power rating on a PSU. Like the low budget PSU’s says it is a 650w but the true power is like 500w. Basically they give you the peak power rating, and peak power you do not want to use because the life span of the PSU will be decreased significantly.

Another bonus when buying an over powered PSU is the life span will be twice as long as getting a required PSU. Some companies will give you the life cycle of the PSU and that rating is normally on the peak power.

A modular power supply is allot more expensive, but if you want to make you box neat inside this is a very good option. To be able to plug out unused PSU cables is any Case mod Gamers dream!

Here are some examples of Good power supplies:

Corsair HX850W

Eps12V + Modular cable management , ATX 12V V2.3 – 850w ( 12v : 840w ) , NVIDIA SLi ready , 80PLUS certified for energy saving , 24pin ( 4pin detachable ) , with active-PFC , 6 x 8pin (2+6) PCI-E power connectors , 1x 140mm thermal controlled fan ; with OCP, OVP, OPP, SCP, UVP – 5 years warranty

Coolermaster RS-C50-EMBA Real power 1250w

EPS12V V2.91 + SSi + ATX 12V V2.2 , quad SLi + quad CPU ready , multiple protection circuit , active PFC , 6 x 12V rail , 8 x SATA + 6 x 6pin PCI-E power + 3 x 8pin PCI-E power connector  , 24pin ( 4 pin detachable ) + 4 or 8pin 12v AUX , 1x 135mm fan with intelligent fan speed control ; with OVP , UVP , OTP , OCP , OLP , SCP ; 80 PLUS certified

Zalman ZM1000-HP

With EPS12V support + dual heat-pipe technology + dual engine system , 80PLUS certified for energy saving , with modular cable management , with 5v standby noise filter switch , 6 x 12V rail , active PFC , 2x6pin + 2x8pin (6+2) PCI-E power connectors , 1 x 140mm auto control cooling fan , one Multi-connector for Fan ; Active PFC  ; with OCP , OVP , SCP , OTP , UVP