Cleanse, Tone, Defrag: Upgrading Your Power Supply
Our resident Brit, Rob, was indisposed this week, so it’s up to everyone’s favorite redhead (me) to fill his shoes for this week’s Cleanse, Tone, Defrag. Last time I filled in for this column, I did a bit of fangirling over the “Back to the Mac” announcement that Apple had rolled out with in October of 2010, teasing OSX Lion and the MacBook Air.
Today, I’m going to give the PC users out there some loving and talk about something that is often overlooked: the power supply. As someone who has both built her own computers from scratch and Frankenstein’d name-brand PCs like HPs and Dells, I can tell you that the power supply is something that’s often never really thought about until it’s a little too late.
“Why would I need to upgrade my power supply?” you might find yourself asking. Obviously, from its name, you can tell that the power supply supplies power to your computer. Well, if you add new peripherals to your computer — such as upgrading your graphics card for example — the new or upgraded components may take more power to run. If your power supply can’t provide enough wattage to give energy to all of those hardware components, your computer will start to run sluggishly — and you know as well as I do that when your computer stops doing what you want it to do that nerdrage is imminent. As an example, prefab computer towers like Dell, HP, and Asus generally come with power supplies averaging around 300-400 watts; a middle-of-the-road graphics card upgrade from Nvidia suggests a minimum of 500 watts — and the beefier graphics cards will suggest a bare minimum of 700 watts. So, many times if your computer starts acting funny or shutting itself off, the problem can be as easily fixable as getting a new power supply.
Questions to consider before buying a new power supply.
“Will going from a low-wattage power supply to a high-wattage power supply fry my motherboard?” The simple answer is no! Each piece of hardware in your system will draw only the power you need to run it. Your power supply will never send extra amps to your motherboard — or any other part of your computer.
“What should I look for in a new power supply?” Depending on what you’re trying to do, obviously the higher the watts, the better. For a good gaming rig, 600-700 watts is probably a safe bet. Power supplies can be a bit pricey, but they are a worthy investment to keep your system running smooth. Here are a few other things to consider when buying a power supply:
- Make sure the power supply will fit inside of your tower. You might even want to remove your power supply and take it to the electronics store with you to compare, just in case.
- Look for a power supply that is 80 PLUS Certified. From the company that tests for 80 PLUS certification: “The 80 PLUS performance specification requires multi-output power supplies in computers and servers to be 80% or greater energy efficient at 20%, 50% and 100% of rated load with a true power factor of 0.9 or greater. This makes an 80 PLUS certified power supply substantially more efficient than typical power supplies.”
- ATX12V or EPS12V? Most CPUs utilize ATX12V, but some use an EPS12V. If you’re not sure, try to find a power supply that supports both; there are many out there.
Replacing your power supply.
- Turn off the computer and remove it from its power source. You don’t want to accidentally fry anything — including yourself — while doing this.
- Open up your tower case. This is also a good time to do some internal cleaning, especially if you live in a dusty desert like I do!
- Remove the old power supply. Make sure you take note of everything that is plugged in to the current power supply. Writing these down may help for when you’re reassembling your PC.
- Install the new power supply. Put it right where the old one went and make sure to secure it to the best of your ability. Loose screws are bad. Plug in everything that you unplugged from your old power supply; hard drives, mother board, graphics cards, etc.
- Close your case and plug your machine in and you’re finished!
Upgrading your power supply is fairly easy to do. If you’re timid about doing it yourself, you can always pay one of your geeky tech friends to do it for you or take it somewhere like Best Buy’s Geek Squad (although the latter of these two will be quite expensive). It’s always a rewarding experience to crack open one’s computer case and give your machine the love and attention it deserves.
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