Power Supply Unit (PSU)

Hi everyone!

Today is my day off from work so I woke up rather late. Hopefully today I will be able to post both about the PSU and the Computer Case.

Buying a PSU is something you may want to spend a little time thinking about. There are a couple of things you have to mindful about which I shall list here.

A) Always keep in mind how much power you actually need in the system. The obvious question that arises is how do you know? There are several tools on the internet which can help you calculate the power requirements of your build.
1. ASUSTeK
2. Thermaltake
3. Extreme Outervision

You can go to any of these links and start entering all the information it requires. Now here is a pro tip. After you see your recommended wattage, sit and think how much future upgrades you want to do. Now I, for example have one video card in my system at the moment but I intend on getting maybe more or maybe a newer more powerful one which may require more power. So let's say your recommended wattage come up as 450W. You can search for a 450W psu and you can get them pretty cheaply too, but if you do upgrades in the future, you will have to buy another psu because now suddenly your computer cannot provide enough power to all of your components. I would suggest going at least 100-150 Watts above your recommended wattage.

Of course you could go all out and buy a 1200 Watt PSU and not have to care about it all, but I would not recommend you do so. Firstly because you will not be using a huge portion of the power it can supply and basically will be under utilizing your psu. Secondly they cost more and if something goes wrong and your warranty does not cover it, you will just have lost quite a bit of money. I personally tend to look more for efficient usage and will try to buy things keeping that in mind. Of course if you want to by all means do it but I was just stating my personal opinion.

B) Noise. Noise is something you may not think off when building your pc but you will notice it when you are using your system regularly. It can become a bit annoying if you keep hearing a constant buzz in the background  . I would suggest reading a few reviews about the component and see if some people mention noise. I would also caution against over analyzing comments because the more you read, the more likely you are to run in to problems people ran in to because generally people resort to reviewing things only when something goes wrong. Take everything with a grain of salt.

C) Power Cables. What do I mean by power cables? When you buy PSUs, you will notice they come with a huge number of cables which you use to connect various things inside you computer. Make sure you have enough cables to power everything and also some extra cables left so you can expand in the future should you want to. Always make sure the PSU has cables for the video card because newer video cards all require their own direct connection to the PSU.

D) Clutter. Buy a PSU with a million cables and after you set up everything, you may notice that the inside looks cluttered with wires. Wire clutter can also impede air flow which in turn will raise the internal temperature and looks plain messy. I just love it when I open my case for cleaning and everything looks neat and organized. To solve that problem, manufactures also sell Modular Power Supplies which have the option of disconnecting power cables which you are not using thereby reducing clutter.

E) 80 PLUS Rating. What is 80+ ? 80+ is an initiative to promote and increase energy efficiency in PSUs. It certifies that products have at least 80% efficiency at 20%, 50% and 100% of rater load and a power factor of 0.9 or greater at 100% load. For you it will mean lower electricity bills,less waste of electric energy and less heat generation. There are several levels of this certification which are as follows

		115V			230V
Loads	20%	50%	100%	20%	50%	100%
80 PLUS	80%	80%	80%	-	-	-
80+ Bronze	82%	85%	82%	81%	85%	81%
80+ Silver	85%	88%	85%	85%	89%	85%
80+ Gold	87%	90%	87%	88%	90%	88%
80+ Platinum	90%	92%	89%	90%	94%	91%
80+ Titanium				94%	96%	91%

  

Brands I love in this category are : Corsair, Antec, Cooler Master, OCZ and SeaSonic.

CORSAIR (www.corsair.com)

Corsair has several award winning PSUs and I greatly admire this company and the hard work it puts in to create quality products. They have 5 series of Power Supplies which you can choose from

1. CX Series

 Builder series for basic system builds. Carries 80+ Certification and comes in 430 Watts, 500 Watts and 600 Watts.








2. GS Series


Balanced between Price and Performance. Carries 80+ and 80+ Bronze Certifications and comes in 500W, 600W, 700W and 800W.







3. TX Series


Hardcore PC Gaming, Performance Enthusiast Level and affordable. Carries 80+ Bronze Certification throughout the series. Comes in 550W, 650W, 750W, 850W and 950W and has both Modular and Non Modular options.





4. HX Series

For Gaming Rigs and Overclocking Systems. Very stable and carries 80+ Bronze and 80+ Silver Certifications. Comes in 650W, 750W, 850W and 1050W. All Modular.






5. AX Series

Top of the line AX Series boasts top performance, reliability and energy efficiency. Carries 80+ Gold Certification throughout the range and comes in 650W, 750W, 850W and 1200W. Fully Modular.






ANTEC (http://www.antec.com/)

They make amazing Computer Cases and they also make amazing Power Supplies. They have a very big line of PSUs to choose from so I will be listing a few of them but you can go to their website and check them out. They also have a few 80+ Platinum PSUs in the mix. A small note. Read descriptions very carefully as they have a few power supply series that are exclusively compatible with Antec cases so they might not fit readily in your build.

1. VP Series


The entry level series from Antec with very good stability and a few of the models carry 80+ certifications as well. Good for budget builds. Comes in 350W, 430W, 450W, 500W and 550W.








2. Neo Eco

Economical, High Efficiency Power Supplies. The Neo Eco series has 80+ Certification throughout the series with Active Power Factor Correction (automatically switches to your voltage type, Universal Input) and quiet, solid operation. Available in 400W, 450W, 520W and 620W. Does not come with a power cable so you have to use your old one.





3. EarthWatts Series

Antec's environmentally friendly PSU series. 80+, 80+ Bronze and a few are 80+  Platinum Certified! Some of their PSUs are also SLI and CrossFireX Certified. Comes in 380W, 430W, 450W, 500W, 550W, 650W AND 750W. You can use them to power some good gaming rigs.






4. High Current Gamer

Antec's Gaming lineup features 80+ Bronze Certification throughout the line, special High Current connectors and heavy duty cabling all designed to give you high efficiency, excellent cooling and loads of power. Some also feature SLI and CrossFire certifications. Modular options also available. Comes in 400W, 520W, 620W, 750W and 900W.





5.  High Current Pro

Antec's top of the line series boasting 80+ Gold PSUs and one Platinum Certified PSU. Supporting Modular Cable Management, the HCP comes in 750W, 850W, 1000W and 1200W. A very solid choice to consider.







COOLER MASTER (www.coolermaster.com/)

Makers of some of the best Computer Cases, Cooler Master also makes some good Power Supplies. Chief amongst them is the Silent Pro Gold  Lineup

Featuring an 80+ Gold Rating, The Silen Pro Gold is a very good lineup of PSUs that you can consider from. Comes in 800W, 1000W and 1200W. Good noise reduction capability as well.







Make sure that your motherboard also supports the PSU by looking up the PSU Type. For example my Cosshair V mother board requires for a fully configured system to use a PSU that complies with ATX 12V Specification 2.0 (or later version.) Make sure it has a decent number of SATA power connectors (to connect your hard drives now or in the future,) and PCI-E Connectors (to power up your video card.) Check dimensions to make sure it will fit in your system. Generally PSUs are of a similar shape but just pay attention when you are buying so you can avoid having to send it back in because it could not fit in to whatever Case you ended up buying.

You can check out Newegg and browse through their huge collection to see which one you like but for my money, you can't go wrong with Corsair or Antec PSUs. In the end the PSU I chose was

Corsair TX750W PSU.
Type : ATX 12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92
Max Power : 750Watts
PFC (Power Factor Correction) : Active
PCI-E Connectors : 4 x 6+2 Pin
Sata Connectors : 8
80+ Bronze

My recommended power came up as ~430W. With that in mind and my future build ideas I selected 750W as my PSU power and I went for this PSU out of all the others chiefly for price. It is retailing right now  $104.99 but I bought it for $80 at a ridiculous sale I found one day.

My next post will be about the CPU fan and Case choices. As things are wrapping up for the Computer Build blog, I have quite a few ideas in mind for the next phase of my blog. I am confident that you will like the new direction it will be headed in. I will still discuss current components in the market and my thoughts on them but I will also be adding several new things in the mix and I hope you all keep reading to see them. Please subscribe if you like what you see so far and as always comments are welcome to help me get better at this as well as any kind of discussions you would like to have.

Kiyoshi out.