Basic knowledge of computer power supply

Power supply has always been inconspicuous among computer accessories, but with the continuous upgrading of new products such as processors and graphics cards, power consumption is also gradually rising. Now, except for the monitor, all other accessories in the computer need power supply. Therefore, a high-quality power supply (such as being able to provide stable voltage, small ripple, fast dynamic response and good conversion efficiency) is extremely important for the system. If your computer frequently freezes, restarts, or even often has some inexplicable failures, then you should pay attention to the power supply.

The "engine" of the computer - power supply

After upgrading some old accessories, many users found that the upgraded computers often malfunctioned. This is because the original power supply can no longer meet the needs of the new accessories.

The power supply is like an engine for the accessories in the computer, providing enough power for each accessory to make them work better. However, the power supply is not an energy source, but a conversion device that converts civilian AC power into DC power through rectification and filtering, and transmits the current required by computer accessories to the right place. It can be said that the quality of the current of each branch output by the power supply will directly affect the use of the computer. Many computer failures are caused by insufficient power or poor current quality. Therefore, when buying a power supply, you must carefully choose it, and don't just pick one at random. You must choose it according to your own configuration.

Tips:

To determine whether a power supply can meet your computer configuration, the simple way is to open the power supply shell to check. However, this cannot be done in most cases, and opening the shell means losing the warranty. When you are ready to buy a power supply, the only thing you can directly touch is the power supply shell and a glimpse of the heat dissipation holes. According to most people's experience, the power supply must be "heavy enough". This word has two meanings. One meaning is that the transformer and fan of the power supply are heavy enough, and the other meaning is that the components inside the power supply are sufficient. Although there is a certain price difference between the 100 yuan and 300 yuan power supplies, the difference in component quality is not the main reason for the price difference, but the metal shell and heat sink. Because the components of the power supply will generate more heat to withstand higher currents, enough heat sinks are needed to take away the heat. A reasonable heat dissipation system is necessary for a power supply.

Check out the workmanship of the power supply from the heat dissipation holes

With the continuous development of hardware products, accessories require more and more interfaces. The number of interfaces provided by a power supply is also one of the criteria for judging the quality. A few years ago, there were fewer power supply interfaces, three 4-pin D-type power supply interfaces and one 20-pin motherboard power supply interface. Nowadays, in addition to more 4-pin D-type power supply interfaces, SATA power supply interfaces have been added, as well as 6-pin interfaces specifically for PCI-E graphics cards, and 8-pin CPU power supply interfaces that a few power supplies have.

As the power requirements of the main components in the computer continue to increase, the motherboard power supply system can no longer supply power to the graphics card and CPU, so starting from Pentium4, the power interface has added an additional 4-pin power supply interface to power the CPU. Later, a dedicated power interface was added to the graphics card. Now you can see a 6-pin interface on the latest power supply that is dedicated to powering the PCI-E graphics card.

If the addition of PCI-E power supply interface is to meet the needs of graphics card development, then the emergence of SATA power supply interface is of epoch-making significance. This is the transition of the power supply interface of hard disk and optical drive from the familiar 4-pin D-type power supply interface to the flat SATA power supply interface.

Some motherboards now support 8-pin CPU power supply interface, no longer 4-pin, but compatible with the previous 4-pin. Looking at the power supplies that have increased to 5-7 4-pin D-type interfaces, it also proves that the energy required by computers will become higher and higher. When purchasing and using power supplies, users should choose which one to match, and cannot act arbitrarily.

The power supply looks simple, and since we can only see its appearance, what we can know about it is very limited. However, when faced with a dual-core processor that requires huge power, we really can't be careless or act rashly.

What are the consequences of unreasonable power supply selection?

1) The computer often blue screens, restarts, or freezes

If the power supply is not selected properly or is of poor quality, the computer may often experience blue screen, restart, freeze, program running errors, etc. Or the computer cannot recognize hard disk, optical drive and other devices when it is turned on, resulting in failure to boot. Generally speaking, if the power supply cannot meet the power requirements of all accessories, the stable operation of computer accessories cannot be ensured. Of course, it may also be due to the use of old components of poor quality power supply, insufficient output power, resulting in the computer failing to start normally. In addition, if the heat dissipation conditions are not up to standard, the temperature is too high, which will also cause freezes and other phenomena.

2) Insufficient power leads to reduced optical drive reading ability

Improper power selection or poor quality power supply can easily lead to bad sectors on the computer hard disk and greatly reduce the optical drive's ability to read disks. Insufficient power supply may lead to insufficient or unstable +5V power supply output. Since the hard disk and optical drive use +5V power supply output, they are likely to be damaged and unstable if the power supply is unstable or insufficient for a long time. For many computer users, if they often encounter bad sectors on the hard disk, they may wish to pay attention to whether there is a problem with the power supply.

3) Computers are easily damaged when they are suddenly powered off or hit by lightning

If the power supply is not selected properly or is of poor quality, the computer will be easily damaged when it is suddenly powered off or hit by lightning. The PFC circuit can effectively ensure the safety of computer accessories, but many low-quality power supplies are very light because they do not have a PFC circuit. This will greatly increase the chance of damage to accessories. At the same time, the IC circuit is too simple and does not have a protection function, which is also one of the reasons why the computer is easily damaged when it is suddenly powered off or hit by lightning.

4) Insufficient power leads to reduced CPU overclocking capability

Improper selection of power supply or use of inferior power supply will weaken the CPU overclocking capability. Many people cannot achieve the expected effect when overclocking the CPU. In fact, many times it is because of improper selection of power supply. For example, buying a brand-name power supply with a small rated power, or buying an inferior power supply with no guaranteed output power. When the CPU is overclocked, the power consumption will increase significantly and the required power will rise sharply. When the power output power of the power supply is insufficient, it will not be able to meet the power consumption required for CPU overclocking.

5) Insufficient power will cause a lot of noise in the speaker

Improper power selection or poor quality power supply will cause a lot of noise in headphones, speakers and other equipment. Since the filtering function of poor quality power supply is very poor, and the circuit quality is not up to standard, it is easy for the sound card to run unstably. For some high-power speakers, if the power supply is insufficient, the noise of the speakers is inevitable.

In summary, when consumers choose computers, they must pay enough attention to the power supply, which sometimes even takes precedence over other accessories, in order to ensure the performance and safety of the entire platform. At the same time, if consumers encounter problems such as the above, they may wish to pay attention to whether it is caused by insufficient power supply of their computer.