PSU: Power Supply University, Does Your PSU Make the Grade? - Avoid the Cheapos
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For maximum stability, your total power needs should only be 30 to 70 percent of what the power suppy can provide. This will allow your system to run smoothly and to accommodate the occasional increased power consumption that a high-end game or application may put on your components.
There are a large variety of manufacturers that produce power supplies for computers, and cheap power supplies should be carefully avoided. Many of these power supplies not only provide mediocre output and stability, but also generate more heat than higher end models. This increased heat is a serious factor in reducing your power supply’s lifespan and can cause erratic power fluctuations. Troubleshooting sporadic and difficult-to-recreate power supply problems is very difficult and irritating. Why risk your 10,000 rpm Raptor hard drive and Athlon 64 FX-57 processor with a cheap power supply unit? There’s nothing impressive about having to tear your high-end machine apart at a LAN party to deal with an avoidable power problem.
The heat produced by a poor power supply can significantly impact not only your system’s performance, but also its lifespan. An overheating PSU reduces its output as more and more of its energy is being transformed into heat instead of passing through to your system components. A number of higher-end and more powerful power supplies have more than the traditional single 80 mm exhaust fan. It is becoming more and more common to have two or more 80 mm fans built into the power supply unit to provide adequate cooling to it because of its increased potential for heat production. Small form factor power supplies like those used in some OEM machines should be avoided because the small package certainly doesn’t allow for maximum cooling.
An overheating power supply obviously dramatically shortens its lifespan but your computer’s overall performance will be significantly hampered. Without sufficient power going to the internal devices the performance expectations of your hard disks, video cards, etc. will not be experienced as they will be physically unable to deliver their expected results.
When looking for a power supply, focus on more wattage than you have determined necessary, more than one fan if you power supply exceeds 400 watts, a well recognized name for quality like Enermax or Thermaltake or Antec, and the amount of information they volunteer. A manufacturer that lists all the necessary information on its packaging and more is a company that feels that their product has nothing to hide. The less information you can find, the more they don’t want you to know.
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