Choosing Power Supply

[absolute55]

Introduction

Power Supply does not seem very important, but yet it is involved in the operation of a PC on it when it is precisely the problem.

A diet is chosen according to several criteria:
Power Provided
Training and equipment available

What power for your PC?
Modern CPUs consume little, because they are engraved with great fitness (45 nm beginning in 2008), but graphics cards are not as good ones: If a graphics card Midrange consumes about 50 to 100 W in 3D , high-end dual-GPU approaching 200W.

First rule
Choose a diet that is a good brand.

Antec, Corsair, Enermax, Fortron, Seasonic: these are well-known brands of manufacturers of food (except Corsair, Seasonic based), there is nothing to fear with these brands, their power will provide Watts announced.

Conversely, a diet known as "no name" will not be able to provide a continuous power Announced: It is not uncommon to find 480W "no name" actually providing less than half continuously since to better sell at low prices, it announced that Watts will be provided a few seconds, after which food and too much heat will safely (if any ...).

The "entry ticket" to quality is represented by the Earthwatt Antec 380W about 40 €. Based on the Seasonic S12 II 500W, it is very powerful for its price.

Second Rule
Do not take food too tight, she would regularly security, not too powerful, its performance is not good, since the return of an optimal diet is between 20% and 100% load, with up to 50% .

This can be done to help a very small program, the Power Supply Calculator (PSC) and Antec Outervision. All CPUs, even overclocking and all graphics cards are listed, so no mistake, we get the power required to configure, just take one of the values of trade one of them a little above, for example if CCS provides 382 W, a 500W will do, giving a maximum between 100W and 500W load.

Taking a small margin, it optimizes performance, and it has a reservation if you want to climb later a 2nd graphics card SLI or CrossFire.

Sizes and types of equipment
The power of trade may have different sizes and finishes, such as cable sheathing, detachable cables, the number of Sata taken or PCI Express ...

Formats
The most common is the ATX format, size 15 cm x 14 cm x 8.6 cm.
The power supplies in this format are easily interchangeable.

There are also smaller, usually for the barebones or mini PC.
The power supplies are difficult format interchangeable.

[absolute55]

Connectors
A current supply has a connector for motherboard 24-pin, 4-pin connector to power directly to the CPU, plus different connectors for power disk drives, optical drives and graphics cards.

The current graphics cards require connectors called PCI-Express 6 or 8-pin of their power, although adapters are supplied with maps, it is better to have good connections directly on food.

Sheathing cable or not
The cables can be sheathed or cannot be sheathed.
Sheathed cables are more practical to move into the PC, the pieces of thread are grouped together.

Modular or not
The power supplies can be modular or not.

A modular power supply allows you to connect the cables you need, it's very useful not to clutter the PC cables unnecessary.

My current Power Supply is sufficient for my new configuration?
Often, when you change a graphics card, one wonders if the power is sufficient. You should go read the label on one side of food, and we know how much power it provides, including the 12V.

On this label, you see that this power is capable of providing 14A on a 12V, and 15A on the other line 12V, its power is therefore 14A 15 A = 29A on the 12V, or 29 x 12 = 350W on 12V.

We read also below the current indications of the true power of food: Total output continuous shall not exceed 400 W: it is a 400 W continuous, not peak.

Conclusion
With these few simple rules, you should be able to choose a healthy diet for your PC.

The selection criteria should be the electrical performance (yield, stability tensions ...)

Yield:
A certified food "80 Plus" (white logo on black background) is a guarantee of good performance:
It rewards the supplies can exceed 80% efficiency over a load range from 20 to 100% of their maximum power.
New logos are beginning to appear:
These are the 80 Plus Bronze, Silver and Gold to recognize the power that can reach 82, 85 and 87% return mini between 20 and 100% load.
Some companys put the logo "82 +" for the 80 + Bronze.
Power factor correction: an active PFC power is preferable to a passive PFC.

Noise: Some PSU are even silent support, others less so ...
The best thing is to remain below 45 dB, we must avoid foods exceeding 50 dB in charge.

[Birdie]

Asus offers on its site a simulator to help you choose correctly according to your components.
Click on the link below:
http://support.asus.com/PowerSupplyC...Language=en-us