Clean power equals clean computing

Your computer is a spoiled beast, filled with wires and such sundry stuff, feeding itself on ones and zeroes, and abstaining from dirty power. It takes a power supply to keep it running smoothly.

Let’s be frank about it: without power, your fancy PC is just another doorstop. Yet if you didn’t buy a good power supply in the first place, your PC may be teetering right on the verge of the abyss of failure.

Why is this? What many people don’t realize is that the power coming from your wall sockets is not ‘clean’ – it has spikes, surges, noise and other variables that all contribute to shortening the life of your electronics. The more sensitive a device, the less likely it will survive with poorly regulated power coming from a wall socket. Even if you haven’t noticed flickering lights or other signs of poor power, your PC may still suffer from it.

A good power supply is your first defence against early PC failure. A PC power supply, usually rated at around 500 watts (or more) nowadays, will smooth out and fix a good deal of the problems with the power it receives from a regular wall socket.

Cheaper power supplies, usually costing less than $40.00, will choke much more quickly if the power in your home or office is of poor quality. If your PC’s power supply can’t filter out poor power, then everything inside your computer will likely die an early death, too. This is because the damaging effects of noise and surges add up over time to shorten the life of a PC’s components, causing the parts to become stressed and so fail.

When looking for a quality power supply, there are several things to consider.

PC supplies built after July 2007 will carry the Energy Star label, meaning they have met strict efficiency and testing requirements. This means that they run at 80 per cent or better efficiency in power use and so do not draw too much more power than they are rated for. A non-Energy Star supply of 500W that runs at 50 per cent efficiency will end up drawing nearly 750 watts of power at peak load, straining the unit and the PC both. Given the ever-increasing power needs of modern CPU’s and graphics cards, saving costs with an efficient power supply can really add up over time. Look for PC power supplies that carry the ‘80plus’ logo, as they meet these new 2007 standards.

This efficiency is also related to how a power supply works: it takes the higher voltage current from your wall sockets and lowers it to the 12 volts (or less) that your PC’s various internal components need to operate. This conversion often creates heat. Of course, you’ve got to get rid of that, usually using a fan. Supplies with larger fans are better at getting rid of heat, but they create something else: noise. The rule of thumb is that the bigger the supply, the more noise it makes, but there are alternatives to this win/lose formula available.

Several companies specialize in high-quality power supplies, such as Antec or PC Power & Cooling. Both companies sell various types of power supplies, including low-noise models, some of which are even fanless. These products are excellent choices for buyers with expensive PCs, whose components have both high power requirements and the need for clean power to help extend their operating life (and so avoid premature failure). Make sure to get the correct power supply for your PC, in terms of watts (the more the better). If your PC is more than three years old, you want to look for power supplies that carry the label ‘ATX12V’ as these are new power supplies that are backwards-compatible with older PCs that use the ATX power supply standard. This means they have connectors for both the old and new hardware standards, allowing older PCs to benefit as they can add new hardware such as SATA drives. Be sure to check your PC’s motherboard manual, or look up the model number on the manufacturer’s web site to ensure you know what your PC’s power needs are. Even looking at your old power supply should help you.

Of course, you should also invest in a good surge protector. It’s the least you can do to defend against such surges those cause by lightning. Better yet, have your PC running off a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) which will not only protect against surges but will last through brief power blackouts. Some UPS models even regulate the power to your PC. For more information, see these related TechnologyTips.com articles: Invest into proper power protection and Power: a good servant, an awful master.

Bear in mind that replacing a power supply is a time-intensive task, as you have to ensure that all the connectors are properly fitted to each of the PC’s components. You should have a good idea of what new power supply you’re going to buy before proceeding; do your research.

After all, knowledge is empowering and your PC will thank you for its new power supply by returning years of failure-free service.