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Desktop Power Supplies

Shopping for a desktop power supply is tricky, not just because of the technical knowledge you'll need, but also because, due to lack of standardization in the industry, you'll have to stay on your toes to interpret what a manufacturer's claims about his power supply really mean. Let's start with the basics. * Power supplies are rated according to their maximum power output, expressed in watts (W). * For most home computers, you can expect a rating somewhere between 300W all the way up to 1500W. * The everyday PC User won't need much more than a 400W supply; actually 400W would be a bit of overkill, but with power supplies its often wiser to overestimate than underestimate. * Opting for a low power supply computer'>print word documents and that's it. Higher end systems need more power. * For a gaming computer you'll want a more powerful supply, something between 400W to 800W depending on your hardware. * Of course, by gaming we don't mean pinball, or minesweeper we're talking about the latest, state of the art games out there. * A very high would be rated above 700W. * For most other situations 400W to 600W would be fine. For a word about video cards, we're gonna have to take a trip back to ELEC 101. ! * Video (gaming) cards, especially newer ones, have high power requirements and will require a more powerful supply. * The truth is that the maximum rated power is not the way to choose a power supply if you're trying to make it jive with a powerful video card. So, forget the maximum power rating for now. * Video cards today operate on 12 volts (V), so the important factor here is the output capacity of the power supply, expressed in amps (A), for the 12V rail. * Your video card's specifications literature should tell you what the suggested minimum current for the video card is; if that minimum is lower than the current supplied by the 12V rail, you should be good. * It's also important to make sure there's ample wiggle room. In other words, if the power supply outputs 28A at 12V and the video card requires 25A minimum, then you haven't left much room for the 12V rail to power everything else in the system. This is especially important if you intend to upgrade in the future, or have other third party cards, drives, etc., installed in your system. Okay, stay with me, not too much particle physics left. The wiggle room consideration is important not just in gaming machines, but in all computers, as overloading the power supply will cause malfunctions, failures, and, ultimately, the need to buy a new power supply and, maybe even a whole new computer. So always overestimate, but don't overestimate too much. Using a power supply too large for your needs might be equally as bad as one too small. Power supplies are designed to operate efficiently at about 75% of their peak load capacity. If you're consistently running your power supply well below peak capacity (25% or less of rated power) you'll be wasting a lot of electricity. Also, if a power supply is operated so far below its capacity that the load is negligible to its ability, it will, often, automatically shut down. So, how do you choose? * You could go through all your hardware: ** motherboard ** processor ** video card ** optical drives * Check out the specifications literature for each one, add up all the current they need, and you'll come up with a reasonable over-estimate for how much current you need on each rail. * Also, most components will specify a minimum power need, so take the highest specified need among all the parts in your computer, add 50W, and you'll be fine. * Alternately, try to stay in the middle of the guidelines repeated here: ** Most Extremely High End Gaming Computers (multiple GPUs): 800W to 1400W ** Server Stacks; Computers with Multiple Processors: 1500W to 2000W There are a couple more things to think about before jumping into the jungle of power supply shopping. First, the industry is completely un but you're almost all set now. A final word on some of the features commonly available on power supplies. Most power supplies have protection features. These are all good. Ideally, you'd like to have overpower, overvoltage, and overcurrent protection. Over temperature can be nice, too. Don't fret too much, though, if your power supply doesn't incorporate all four of these. In fact, take any two of them together, and the other two are for redundancy's sake.

Home-Office Type Desktops

Here are some power supplies that would be good for a home-office system: * 300W Power Supplies * 350W Power Supplies * 400W Power Supplies

Gaming Computers

Going to need a little more power here: * 450W Power Supplies * 500W Power Supplies * 600W Power Supplies * 800W Power Supplies

HyperTechnology Computers

If your computer is from the future, you might shop here: * 900W Power Supplies * 1000W Power Supplies (now we're talking about alien technology here) * 1100W Power Supplies * 1200W Power Supplies * 1300W Power Supplies * 1400W Power Supplies

Server Stacks

You'll need plenty of power for these: * 1800W Power Supplies * 1900W Power Supplies * 2000W Power Supplies

Top Sellers

Here are some of the best selling power supplies on the market today. From left to right will be low power to high.

Related Guides

Here are some other wikis related to Desktop Power Supplies: * Building a Computer * Computers Internal Desktop Components Motherboards * Computers Internal Desktop Components Cooling Fans * Graphics Cards * Internal Desktop Components Computer Cases By User:LPNalini @timeAndDate(1269636709)