What Power Supply should I get? How many Watts? Who made it? Guide Inside.

[kram 2.0]

06.29.09 EDIT: Minor edit - added a table of common load for ATI HDx cards on the 12V Rail (thanks to Khalil). If any of you have any suggestions or comments to the information posted below, please feel free to contact me via PM. Thanks - kram, Moderator.

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Table of Contents:
-Five Important Rules to follow for Power Supply Unit (PSU) selection
-Good/Bad Units List
-General wattage calculator
-Further Links
-Who Really Made this Power Supply Unit? (thanks to flazing1)
-Notes
-Disclaimer


This is the third major revision of the PSU guide, originally written by bigandy, revised by fedz, and heavily modified with multiple user contributions as presented before you here. It takes into account all the comments posted. Also, read the disclaimer at the bottom.

Copyright Notice: You MAY NOT re-post or redistribute any distinct portion of this thread (or its preceding revisions, as linked in the previous paragraph) in any form without proper credit. Please private message the original poster of this thread (kram 2.0) with comments, questions, inquiries, etc. Thanks!

Five Important Rules to follow for Power Supply Unit (PSU) selection:
In no particular order
1) Do NOT skimp on the power supply unit - you are entrusting an expensive investment you've made in your computer to this unit.
2) Brand/Manufacturer reputation is VERY important
3) Rated/Advertised Wattage is NOT an indicator of quality or unit power.
4) Do NOT trust a PSU that weighs less than your CPU to power your system.
5) Research - let others do the testing for you and read about them. That's what this thread is for.

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NOTE: To emphasize the point, "reputable" generally refers to companies that make high quality units while "Less Reputable" refers to manufacturers that produce normally faulty units. Like with any electronic product, there is a chance of failure with any unit, so please keep that in mind as you shop for a power supply unit.

Reputable:1 Top quality PSU's in blue bold, high quality in blue - for high-end builds. Note that external hyperlinks are also blue on most browsers, but usually also underlined. AMS Akasa (PowerGreen, Power+) Antec (almost all models) AOpen (select models) BFG Technologies (800W model) Channel Well Chieftec (non-bundled) Cooler Master (UCP) Corsair (Best PSU Manf., CustomPC) Delta E-Power Enermax Enlight Fortron Source Hi-Power Jeantech Mushkin OCZ (EliteXStream, EvoStream, ProXStream) PCMCIS PC Power & Cooling PowerMan Raidmax (ONLY select models from Tagan/Topower) Seasonic SilenX Silverstone (ZF, ZM) Sparkle Tagan Thermaltake (select models) TTGI/SuperFlower (select models) Tuniq Verax Xclio (only GreatPower) Zalman

Questionable/Less Reputable: Achieve Allied Apevia (formerly Aspire, same quality) Bestec Codegen CoolMax Cyberzone DEER Dragon Eagle Tech EYE-T Foxconn Greenline Hiper (most low-wattage models) HIPRO JSP-tech KingStar Kingwin L&C Linkworld Okia Orion PowerMagic PowerTek PowerUp Powmax Q-Tec Raidmax (almost all non Tagan/Topower) Rosewill Skyhawk Startech Turbolink Ultra (esp. X-Connect) Win Xion Youngyear

Not Enough Info/Undetermined: AGPB Ahanix Astec Broadway Com (mixed bag) Dynapower USA Gigabyte HEC Levicom Mad Dog (mixed bag results) NSpire Soyo Vantec (mixed reviews)

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General PSU Calculators:
Please note these should be used as GUIDES - as noted on their disclaimers, they cannot take into account every component, every part that is drawing power. As a general guidelines, it's a good idea to marginally overshoot the calculated wattage in order to cover for the entire system.

Newegg Power Supply Calculator

eXtreme PSU Calculator

Load on 12V Rail for Common ATI HDx Graphics Cards (originally from VGA Source)

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

http://www.pcpowercooling.com/maxpc/cases.htm

Above links courtesy of Pancake, Fedz, Khalil, bill_bright, and glc.

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Further links:
courtesy of Hi Ho, flazing1, Panama Red, Cricket, Freakitchen, and glc

• FiringSquad PSU Unofficial Listing


• JonnyGURU's Bargain Basement PSU Review


• HardOCP: Five $50 Power Supplies Tested (thanks to Cricket. glc: "Yet another Deer literally blows up.........")


• HardOCP: 450W-500W Battle Royale (Apevia PSU disintegrates during test)


• Directron: Weight vs. Power Efficiency


• nVidia Forums: The Who and Why of Power Supplies, With purchasing suggestions


• Who Really Made this Power Supply Unit?


• Tom's Hardware: Deceptive ratings: 21 PSU's compared


• Tom's Hardware: High-End PSU Comparison


• Tom's Hardware: Power Supplies Under Full Load


• PC Stats: Most common ways to kill a PC

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Notes:

- PSU's inside manufacturer's cases, like Dell or HP, can sometimes use power supply units that may or may not be sufficient to allow for upgrades. In other words, you may need to upgrade your PSU in the real chance that the unit cannot handle the added load. Take note, and do your research first.

- Dell has often been using PC P&C for their PSU. HP, eMachine, Compaq, and Gateway USUALLY use either/or Bestec and Hipro.

- Modular PSU's are not all good. The connections are not very efficient and provide a lot of electrical resistance. In fact, I just avoid them.

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DISCLAIMER:
Although some PSU's are listed in the good list, this does not mean that they are never going to fail. No component is ever perfect, these power supplies just have a higher success rate and generally provide cleaner, more efficient power.
The same goes for the 'bad' PSU's. Just because you have a 'bad' PSU it does not mean that it is going to fail on you the next day. These PSU's have been reported as problematic and there is a higher probability of them giving out, or at least not providing clean power through stable rails. There is also the matter of 'rated power'. Some "500W" power supplies have been known to provide less than 200W, whereas some good quality PSU's can provide more power than their rating. When in doubt, start a thread and ask - we're here to help!

Originally Posted by JonnyGURU

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story5&reid=71

It was hard to pick a winner among losers, but the clear leader of the pack would have to be the Delta DPS300-PB-1, if for no other reason than it actually still worked after we got done with it.

[kram 2.0]

As it looks like most activity has subsided, I have consolidated all the information to the original post and locked the thread. If you have any suggestions or comments based on the information above, please private message kram 2.0, the original poster. If you have questions (build related, malfunctioning unit, etc.), please create a thread in the appropriate forum, likely General Hardware.

-kram