Buying a new power supply for your equipment is not a trivial thing, since there are many characteristics that you should look at if you do not want to make a mistake when doing it, or if you have a tight budget and do not want to spend more. Can you imagine the disaster of buying a power supply for your new computer and not being able to give enough current to your graphics card? To avoid this among other things, in this article we are going to tell you what characteristics you should take into account when buying a new power supply for your computer.
If your power supply has broken down and you simply want to replace it with another, it is very easy to buy the exact same model again, and you will hardly go wrong. The problem is that you rarely buy the exact same source that you had, and most users just buy another source of equal or greater power and voila, something that can lead to problems if not done with head. To avoid this, we are going to give you a few tips so that you can get it right.
Power, rails and current intensity
Normally, when choosing a new power supply for your equipment, most users look only at the power announced by the manufacturer, but there are many other relative aspects that you should look at. Go ahead that if you choose an extremely oversized power supply (for example, a 1200 W for a basic equipment) you will hardly go wrong in the sense of compatibility, but you will be safely spending a lot of money that you could have saved to invest in other components.
In addition to the power of the source, which obviously must be according to your equipment (we would recommend around 25% more than the maximum consumption calculated from your PC with an online calculator, so that you have room for “peaks” and for component wear due to aging).
Another factor that you should pay attention to is the rails that the source has and their amperage or current intensity; Generally, if you have a very powerful graphics card, you will want to look for sources that have a single + 12V rail capable of delivering a lot of intensity before several rails with less intensity, since although the latter allow balancing the load, the former provide greater stability and In fact, on very “greedy” GPUs they won’t even be able to give them adequate service in some cases.
You can see this in the power table, in the specifications of the source. In the example that we put above a 550W source, it has a single + 12V rail that is capable of giving up to 44A of intensity, with a total of 528W on the rail.
The brand and the tier, a fundamental aspect
We have often discussed that the brand and the way the power supply is manufactured is a crucial factor in its quality. You should not only look for high efficiencies (80 Plus Titanium, Platinum, Gold, etc.) but also renowned brands and, in fact, it is advisable to look for the Tier (category) of the specific power supply to be able to get an idea of the quality of its components.
A clue about this can easily be found in the warranty: if a manufacturer gives you a 10-year warranty on their power supply, it is that they are very, very sure of its good quality; If, on the other hand, it only gives you the required 2 years, you may think that the source is not very good.
Get it right when you buy your power supply
Obviously you should look for a power supply that provides you with the electrical requirements that your equipment requires in terms of power and wiring (whether you want it to be modular or not is your thing), as well as other characteristics that are useful such as digital control , certification of efficiency, connectors and type of cables, protections, etc.
Likewise, we always say that if the brain of a PC is its processor, the source is the heart because it is the one that supplies energy to all the components and, therefore, they all depend on it. So, the advice is to look for a source of good quality and from a reputable manufacturer, never skimp on the power supply or you will regret it in the medium and even short term.
