Thread: Know your Power Supply!

Many sites test Powersupplies, but they are not nearly as glamorous as video cards and the like so they tend to be ignored by most and people will throw whatever they have, or whatevers cheapest into their brand new PC build.

Take more care though as Power Supplies are a very important component and skimping on a PS endangers an entire build. Hardware can be damaged by shitty power and any number of problems will manifest if a system is not getting enough and the correct levels of juice.

To help you look here are two excellent sources of PS reviews, both attempting to push supplies past the point of breaking to give you the low down on their quality.
Both sites have specific tools they use that force power draw onto a supply at reliable and repeatable levels in a very controlled way, they do not simply throw them in a PC and hook a meter they got at home depot up to them. You want to know if PS xyz is a good buy, one of these two sites probably has the answer!

HardOCP Power supply tests Generally do single reviews at a time, but post new reviews all the time.
Sample:

The Bottom Line
With two products occupying the exact same output level in the same product line it would seem that there should only be marginal differences between the two and today Antec has shown that to be mostly true with the NeoPower 650/650 Blue. The two units do differ in cooling form factor and at the end of the day the slight performance metrics make one unit slightly better than the other. While both units posted comparable efficiency values that were, for the most part good (with the NeoPower 650 slightly edging out the NeoPower 650 Blue), and voltage regulation that only began to suffer during Test #4 it was the 650 Blue that was able to provide the cleanest DC Output Quality making it the better product in our testing by a slim margin. This coupled with the unit being significantly quieter makes the 650 Blue the unit that seems most fitting of the 650w slot in Antec's current lineup of power supplies and most fitting in enthusiast’s consideration when faced with a choice between these two units.

Techreport Cases and Power Case and Power Supply reviews! They tend to test several supplies at once.
Sample:

We've covered a lot, so before diving into our conclusions on each power supply we've tested, we should take a moment to note some general trends. With few exceptions, all the PSUs in this round-up are pretty good. In fact, only Cooler Master's 650W Real Power Pro failed to deliver tight voltage tolerances, and then on only one rail in our 100% output capacity test. Ripple wasn't much of a problem for these PSUs, either. ThermalTake's Toughpower may have been the worst, but its average AC content was well within acceptable limits. Heck, even overall efficiencies were impressive. The lowest efficiency we observed was 76.7%—just 10 percentage points shy of the highest.

So brand-name PSUs are pretty good in general, it seems. Some are better and worse than others, of course, and to help you sort through this litter we've provided a quick summary of our thoughts on where each stands.

Three companies that stand out from my research and in the reviews:

Antec - Power supplies always perform very well, they are consistent and deliver as advertised. Plus they are reasonably priced. You most likely will not go wrong with an Antec power supply.

Corsair Power Supplies - Though relatively new to the PS game has come out with some very high quality supplies.

PC Power & Cooling - Makes outstanding supplies, though they tend to cost more than others, but you definitely get quality for the money.



Heres a site that will let you plug in your hardware and get an idea of the power use:
eXtreme Outer Vision - eXtreme tools for computer enthusiasts

I have, and will continue to swear by the PCP&C, I will continue to put one into any rig I make my self.

pay the couple extra bucks, a good power supply will also make your other components last longer.

I have an OCZ supply now that I am very happy with, they in fact own PC Power & Cooling now.

Various things can happen if you dont have enough juice. Hanging, crashing, BODs, graphic anomalies are a few.
Heres a site that will let you plug in your hardware and get an idea of the power use:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp

Whats happening mike?