How to choose the right power supply unit or SMPS for pc?
Choosing the right power supply unit (PSU) depends on mainly a few things such as- the number of components used, brand and efficiency. Here in this article, I am going to explain to you all the technical terms while choosing the right PSU.
There are many PSU present in the market having different specs, but how to choose the right one depends on – the load, brand, and efficiency as above said. So let’s talk about all these one by one.
- First of all, we have to calculate the final combined load of all of our pc components.
For this reason, we have to just check the power consumption of all components present inside of our pc, such as Ram, processor, Hard disk, Graphics card, motherboard, SSD, and case fans.
You can get the power consumption of each component present inside your computer very easily on the internet.
So let’s take an example.
| Components | X1 | X2 | X3 | X4 | Total |
| Processor (i7) | 1 | – | – | – | 95 watt |
| Ram | 16GB | 16GB | 16GB | 16GB | 5.94 watt x4
= 24 watt |
| Motherboard (ATX) | 1 | – | – | – | 45 watt |
| Graphics card
(1070 ti) |
(ddr4) 8 GB X 1 | (ddr4) 8 GB X 1 | – | – | 180w + 180w
= 360 watts |
| Hard drive | 1 TB
(7200 RPM) |
1 TB
(7200 RPM) |
1 TB
(7200 RPM) |
1 TB
(7200 RPM) |
2o watt x 4 =
80 watts |
| SSD (1TB) | 1 | 1 | – | – | 11-watt x 2 =
22 watts |
| Case fans | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1.8 watts x 4 = 7.2 watts |
Therefore total power consumption according to the above data is 633 watts, this means we have to use 850 watts PSU or more for better safety. So in this way you can calculate the required PSU for your pc. You can also search google for the online PSU calculator (just use two to three online PSU calculator and take an average of the calculated watts if you do not want to calculate wattage on your own),  I recommend you to go to official websites of all the products and find out their power consumption in watts and add all power consumption data of all the components to get the final consumption and choose the right PSU for your self
- Top PSU brands.
Currently, in the market, many brands are producing PSU’s, but the topmost brands are –
- Antec
- Cooler master
- Gigabyte
- Corsair
- The efficiency of PSU’s
             Primarily the efficiency of power supply units are divide into three categories-
|
Efficiency |
Loading | Bronze | silver | Gold | Platinum | Titanium |
| 20% | 82% | 85% | 87% | 90% | 90% | |
| 50% | 85% | 88% | 90% | 92% | 92% | |
| 100% | 82% | 85% | 87% | 89% | 94% |
Hereby this table, we can clearly see that gold, platinum, and titanium rated PSU’s are the most efficient PSU’s. For example, at 50% load bronze rated PSU is 85% efficient which means 550 watts of bronze rated PSU will consume 687 watts power since it’s only 85% efficient where 25% of watts will be used as heat.
* The efficiency of power supply will not create a problem for your pc but it will affect your electric bill.