Power supplies

DETAILED VIDEO
What you might have known
already
The most important component of the PC
The component that makes the difference between a good and a bad system
Very dangerous consequences in some cases
Marketed wattage is probably the least reliable way to judge the PSs
capability
Power supply calculators can be very handy to estimate the maximum load
of a specific configuration
Different PS have different amount of cables with them
Modular and non-modular power supplies
Efficiency rating that gives the idea of how efficient the PS is converting
electrical current
PS warranty is extremely important
Marketed Wattage, deceptive
stuff
There is no rule or regulation regarding marketed wattage
Maximum load is often very different than the marketed wattage
A more reliable way to see the actual maximum wattage is to look at the
label of the Power supply
My Power
Supplys
label
The PSU is often divided into
these 5 types of rails
Rails are the types of different
voltages and each rail
contains a Voltage Regulator
With ATX standards, these 5
different voltages are needed
to power the system
Each Rail can only provide
specific amount of electrical
current before shutting off
Since the 2 main power
sucker mostly uses the +12V
rail, focus onto that
The +12V wattage
(obtained by multiplying the
voltage and amperage) is
actually a very good
estimation of the actual
maximum load that the PS
My Power Supplys Label (cont.)
My power supply can provide 54 amps on the +12V rail
The maximum wattage is 648W on the +12V rail
The +3.3V and +5V barely touches 100W combined even in an overkill high
end PC, so most power is taken from the +12V rail
Powering a system with a load of 650W should not be a problem at all, thus
the 650W marketed wattage is very well justified
It can even go above that as well
Pay attention to multiple rails
Example of
marketed
wattage
dishonesty
This is a label of a no name
brand Power supply
marketed 680W
Pay attention to the +12V
rail
30A on it means 360W,
absolutely far off from the
680W claim
This can even get worse
if the manufacturer
decided to even fake the
amperages
Efficiency
Efficiency is one of the most important aspect of the power supply, but its

meaning is greatly distorted and misunderstood

The simple calculation of efficiency is
For example, we have 200W load supplied with a 50% Efficiency PS. We also
have 300W load and supplied with a 80% Efficiency. How much watts does
these two systems take from the wall?
First case equals to 400W
Second case equals to 375W
This means that your electricity bill is going to be higher on the first system,
even though the second systems consumes 50% more power
Efficiency (cont.)
The certification for power supply efficiency is the 80+ Rating, the higher
the certification, the higher the efficiency
Vanilla, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Titanium (ascending order)
Efficiency is not constant
In the left, we have a line graph
showing the efficiency of a common
good power supply
As you can clearly see, the
efficiency is very low on load less
than 10%, climbs up really quickly on
20%, then gradually climbing and
peaks at 50% and then gradually
declining
With 100W of load, 300W Bronze
rated power supply can be more
efficient than 1500W Platinum rated
power supply
Voltage stability
Each rail should provide voltages that are equal to what its written there,
However this is not possible in real world
In lower loads, power supplies give a higher voltage. In higher loads, power
supplies give a lower voltage
Good power supplies have a very good stability, whereas bad power
supplies have a very bad stability, the measurements are in percentages
(relative to their correct voltages), 5% is the absolute maximum, 2%-1% is
considered good and less than 1% is considered excellent
Components on your PC works best at proper voltage, the farther it gets, the
more chance it will malfunction, overheating or crashes can be caused by this
Incorrect voltages can also damage components gradually overtime
Ripple/DC Noise
Obtained from imperfect AC to DC
conversion, all converters produces
ripple no matter how good it is
It is measurable through an
oscilloscope, the gap between the
highest and the lowest peaks are
counted in millivolts
Just like Voltage Stability, this affects
how your components are getting
powered
Ripple/DC Noise (Cont.)
+12V Rail +3.3V and +5V
Rail
Excellent <25mV <20mV

Good 50mV-25mV 30mV-20mV

Okay 100mV-50mV 40mV-30mV

Avoid >100mV >40mV

Cooling and temperature
The capacitors can change its capacitance and the rails can change its
maximum current limit caused by temperature changes
Thus, hotter temperatures can potentially make the PS resulting more ripple
and/or less current on the rails
PS usually starts to stabilise around the 50C in normal conditions in full
load. It can go to the high 50s in hotter conditions, but within these
temperatures, power supplies will still work as the specs suggests
Longevity
Capacitors must be top quality, bad quality capacitors can deplete easily
and changes capacitance throughout the PSs operation, resulting into more
ripple
Fans, while not usually an object of interest nowadays, are very important
when it comes to component longevity, as it keeps temperatures down to
ensure best and reliable performance