Feb 25th 2008

Most people (especially gamers) tend to overlook the importance of the power supply unit (PSU). In order to save cost, they cut down the budget for their PSU and get the cheapest they can find in the market. If you are one of those, then it’s time to pay more attention to your power supply.

The power supply is the energy source for the whole computer system. Its role is to ensure that good, clean, DC current that’s free of spikes, dips, and noise is supplied to the hardware. It also makes sure that there’s enough juice to run the system. The more powerful your the computer is, the more power it needs to draw from the PSU.
The importance of getting a good PSU

Power_Good signal

Most power supplies complete a series of internal checks and tests before powering up the system. If everything checks out, the power supply sends a Power_Good signal to the motherboard and that signal must be maintained continuously while the computer is on. If, for some reason, the normally 5V Power_Good signal fell outside its parameters, the power supply would cease to send the signal and the motherboard would reset the processor. Conditions that can cause the Power_Good signal to fail include brownouts, blackouts, and surges. Thus, the Power_Good signal is one way for the power supply to protect the PC from outside harm.

A cheap poor-quality power supply may not use this signal. Instead, it simply sends a 5V signal to the motherboard. This can cause your motherboard to try to boot up when the setting is not within its normal parameters, resulting in malfunctions or damage to your equipment.

Stability

Some computer devices, specially the processor, are extremely sensitive to voltage fluctuation. Sudden fluctuations on the power supply voltage can burn components and cause the system to crash (In the worst case, it can cause the component to burn up in flames). A high-quality power supply ensures that stable voltages are sent to the components at all times. On the other hand, the output voltage of a poor quality power supply is prone to glitches, spikes, dips and noise. In period of low power demand, the variation is still within the acceptable range of the components. However, in times of gaming or intensive application where higher power demand is required, the voltage spike may be too high and result in damage to the components.

Heat

All power supply generates heat. To prevent the power supply from overheating, some form of cooling must be used to prevent a buildup of heat in the power supply. Most power supplies have at least one cooling fan built in, thus, this is not usually a significant problem. Unfortunately, one way for a manufacturer to lower costs of their power supply is to use low-quality cooling fans in its construction. These fans may not cool the power supply effectively, reducing its lifespan, or they may not last long themselves, burning out after a year or two of operation.

Conclusion

It is important to get a good power supply for your system, especially if you are building the ultimate gaming computer. After spending so much money on the CPU, motherboard and graphics card, the last thing that you want it to happen is to see it burn up in flames; all because you didn’t care about the power supply unit.

Find out more about how to choose a good computer power supply.