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This Guide will be broken down into multiple sections that will show you some quality PSUs that will power your system based on the system's general power usage. As with any PSu selection its a good idea to research your systems power needs. So be sure to also check the PSU Selections Guide. Some of the areas we'll cover are:
- Supplemental PSUs
- PSUs for the Low End
- PSUs for the Mid range
- PSUs for the High End
Supplemental PSUs:
These PSUs are ones that usually mount in a spar 5.25" bay and come with only a pair of PCI-e power connectors to power your video card(s). These units are great if you have a good PSU but it won't support the video card upgrade you want to make. The only draw back is the price of these units may be the same as the Price of a decent PSU that is able to power your system. Available units are:
[BREAK=Low End Systems]
PSUs for the Low End:
This section covers all those single core systems and many dual core systems with last generation video cards or older such as the 7 series and 1k series cards. Many HTPCs will also fall into this category. This category also covers those systems that are not using any sort of Raid configuration. We'll limit this category to systems that don't require more then about 25A on the combined +12v rails. These PSUs are of moderate quality. Some offer pretty good total +12v amperage but since its on a Dual rail configuration they sit on the edge of not supporting a mid range system even though the total amperage seams adequate enough.
[BREAK=Middle Range Systems]
PSUs for the Mid range:
This is the area that most people's systems will fall under. Dual core and some of the more power hungry single care CPUs that use most any single video card and many lower end SLI and Crossfire configurations. These system may also use a Raid configuration. Basically any system that doesn't need more then about 28A on the combined +12v rails. These PSUs will generally have a single +12v rail or they will have 3 or more +12v rails. There are several quality dual rail PSUs listed here as well.
[BREAK=High End Systems]
PSUs for the High End:
Now we have reached the top of the line here. We're talking the high amperage and high wattage PSUs. These are the PSUs that will power most any system with room to spare. Though most users don't need this much power and hopefully we never will.
[BREAK=Final Thoughts]
Conclusion:
I hope this guide will help all those looking for a new PSU. If there are any questions about the information presented here then please join the discussion of this article here. Also be sure to check out the PSU Selection Guide (PSU 101-102). A new version of this article will be posted about every quarter to update the article with new PSUs and remove any that are no longer available in most areas.
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