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What does it do? |
| It brings electricity to the various computer
components (e.g. mother board, hard disk etc.) |
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Quality to consider before purchasing one |
Essentially, two things are important: a constant and stable flow of
electricity even when the computer is working hard, and a low noise
(although the latter is a rather subjective thing as some people may
not be bothered by noise).
You can see the various voltages (VCore, 5v, 12v, etc) from the
BIOS, or otherwise from specific applications added in Windows, such
as MBM or Aida32 and so on. These apps are particularly useful when
the pc is working hard: if the power supply is good, the voltage
should only vary minimally or not at all.
Consider that the wrong voltage (e.g. 14v or more, which I have seen
myself on a power supply of low quality) can lead to the breaking or
a major malfunctioning of your pc, and within a few weeks it will
damage all the other devices connected with the power supply
(starting from the hard drive to the CD burner). Usually this
happens because of storms: if there is no UPS to protect your pc,
there may be sudden changes in the flow of electricity which will
permanently damage the power supply. You may not see the damages
straight away, but within a few months these will become apparent.
It is also useful to consider buying a power supply with Active PFC
(Active Power Factor Correction): this device makes sure that about
90% - 95% of the electricity converted by the power supply is sent
to the pc, whilst it is only 65% - 70% in the power suppplies
without Active PFC (the remaining electricity is wasted).
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The average price of a good power supply is between 70 and 100 USD
(depending on its power).
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Brands to keep in mind (buy power supply ) |
1) Enermax
2) Zalman
3) Antec
4) Nexus
There are also other interesting brands. Beware of cheap power
supplies (especially those that are sold with the case) because the
money that you save in the power supply will have to be spent
severasl times over for fixing or re-buying damaged devices. |
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