Calculation of power supply power for a computer online. Next, we will offer you an approximate diagram of power consumption by various computer components. The best manufacturers of power supplies for a computer - which company to choose

Many users are in pursuit of high performance personal computer, they forget about the main element of the system unit, which is responsible for high-quality and timely provision of power to all components inside the case. We are talking about a power supply that buyers do not pay attention to at all. But in vain! After all, all elements in a computer have certain power requirements, failure to comply with which will lead to component failure.

From this article, the reader will learn how to choose a power supply for a computer, and at the same time get acquainted with products from well-known brands that are recognized by all test laboratories in the world. Tips for ordinary users and beginners, provided by experts in the field of IT technologies, will help all potential customers make their choice in the store.

Definition of need

Before starting to search for a decent power supply, all users need to decide on the power consumption. That is, first the buyer must select the elements of the system unit ( motherboard, processor, video card, memory, hard disks and other controllers). Each system component in its specification has power requirements (voltage and current, in rare cases - power consumption). Naturally, the buyer will have to find these parameters, add them up and save the result, which will be useful in the future.

It doesn’t matter what actions are carried out by the user: replacing the computer’s power supply or purchasing an element with a new PC - calculations must be carried out in any case. On some elements such as the processor and video card, there are two requirements for power supply: active voltage and peak load. You need to focus your calculations on the maximum parameter.

Finger to the sky

There is a strong opinion that for a resource-intensive system you need to choose the most powerful power supply that is on the storefront. This decision has logic, but it does not fit with rationality and economy. Money, because the higher the power of the device, the more expensive it costs. You can buy a price that exceeds the cost of all elements of the system (30,000 rubles and more), but such a solution will be very expensive for the consumer in the future.

For some reason, many users forget about the monthly electricity consumption that is necessary to operate a personal computer. Naturally than more powerful block power supply, the more electricity it consumes. Thrifty buyers cannot do without calculations.

Standards and power losses

The bigger, the better

Many experts, in their advice on how to choose a power supply for a computer, recommend that all beginners pay attention to the number of connectors and cables - the more there are in the device, the more efficient and more reliable system power supply There is logic in this, because manufacturing plants carry out testing before releasing products to the market. If the power of the unit is low, then there is no point in providing it big amount cables, because they will still be unused.

True, in Lately Many careless manufacturers use a trick and provide the buyer with a large wire clamp in a low-quality device. Here you need to focus on other indicators of battery efficiency (weight, wall thickness, cooling system, presence of buttons, quality of connectors). By the way, before connecting the power supply to the computer, it is recommended to visually inspect all the contacts coming from the head unit and make sure that they do not intersect anywhere (we are talking about cheap representatives of the market).

Top seller

Seasonic, a company specializing in the production of batteries, is known throughout the world. This is one of the few brands on the market that sells products under its logo own production. For comparison: famous manufacturer computer elements- Corsair company - does not have its own factories for the production of power supplies and purchases finished products from Seasonic, equipping them with its own logos. Therefore, before choosing a power supply for a computer, the user will have to become more familiar with the brands.

Seasonic, Chieftec, Thermaltake and Zalman have their own factories for the production of batteries. Products under famous brand FSP is assembled from spare parts produced at the Fractal Design plant (by the way, they have also recently appeared on the market).

Who to give preference to?

Gold-plated computer power supply connectors are good, but is there any point in overpaying for such functionality, since it is known for certain from the laws of physics that current is better transmitted between homogeneous metals? But it is Thermaltake that offers users such a solution. As for the rest of the products of the famous American brand, they are impeccable. In means mass media There is not a single serious negative response from users about this manufacturer.

The trusted products on the shelf include the brands Corsair, Aercool, FSP, Zalman, Seasonic, Be quiet, Chieftec (Gold series) and Fractal Design. By the way, in test laboratories, professionals and enthusiasts check the power and overclock the system with the power supplies listed above.

Finally

As practice shows, choosing a decent power supply for a personal computer is not easy. The fact is that many manufacturers use all sorts of tricks to attract buyers: they reduce the cost of production, decorate the device to the detriment of efficiency, and present a description that does not correspond to reality. There are many mechanisms of deception, it is impossible to list them all. Therefore, before choosing a power supply for a computer, the user must study the market, familiarize himself with all the characteristics of the device and be sure to find positive reviews about the product from real owners.

The power supply is the most important component of any personal computer, on which the reliability and stability of your build depends. The market is quite big choice products from various manufacturers. Each of them has two or three lines or more, which also include a dozen models, which seriously confuses buyers. Many people do not pay due attention to this issue, which is why they often overpay for excess power and unnecessary bells and whistles. In this article we will figure out which power supply is best for your PC?

The power supply (hereinafter referred to as PSU) is a device that converts high voltage 220 V from the socket in computer-friendly values and equipped necessary set connectors for connecting components. It seems like nothing complicated, but upon opening the catalog, the buyer is faced with a huge number various models with a bunch of often incomprehensible characteristics. Before we talk about choosing specific models, let’s look at what characteristics are key and what you should pay attention to first.

Main parameters.

1. Form factor. In order for the power supply to fit into your case, you must decide on the form factors, based on from the parameters of the system unit case itself . The dimensions of the power supply in terms of width, height and depth depend on the form factor. Most come in the ATX form factor, for standard cases. In small system units of the microATX, FlexATX standard, desktops and others, units are installed smaller sizes such as SFX, Flex-ATX and TFX.

The required form factor is specified in the characteristics of the case, and it is by this that you need to be guided when choosing a power supply.

2. Power. The power determines what components you can install in your computer, and in what quantities.
It is important to know! The number on the power supply is the total power across all of its voltage lines. Since the main consumers of electricity in a computer are CPU and the video card, then the main power line is 12 V, when there are also 3.3 V and 5 V for powering some components of the motherboard, components in expansion slots, powering drives and USB ports. The power consumption of any computer along the 3.3 and 5 V lines is insignificant, so when choosing a power supply for power, you should always look at the "characteristic" power on line 12 V", which ideally should be as close as possible to the total power.

3. Connectors for connecting components, the number and set of which determine whether you can, for example, power a multiprocessor configuration, connect a couple or more video cards, install a dozen hard drives and so on.
Main connectors except ATX 24 pin, This:

To power the processor, these are 4 pin or 8 pin connectors (the latter can be detachable and have a 4+4 pin entry).

To power the video card - 6 pin or 8 pin connectors (8 pin is most often collapsible and designated 6+2 pin).

For connecting 15-pin SATA drives

Additional:

4pin MOLEX type for connection outdated HDDs With IDE interface, similar disk drives and various optional components, such as rheobass, fans, etc.

4-pin Floppy - for connecting floppy drives. They are very rare these days, so such connectors most often come in the form of adapters with MOLEX.

Extra options

Additional characteristics are not as critical as the main ones in the question: “Will this power supply work with my PC?”, but they are also key when choosing, because affect the efficiency of the unit, its noise level and ease of connection.

1. Certificate 80 PLUS determines the efficiency of the power supply unit, its efficiency (coefficient useful action). List of 80 PLUS certificates:

They can be divided into the basic 80 PLUS, on the far left (white), and the colored 80 PLUS, ranging from Bronze to the top Titanium.
What is efficiency? Let's say we are dealing with a unit whose efficiency is 80% at maximum load. This means that at maximum power the power supply will draw 20% more energy from the outlet, and all this energy will be converted into heat.
Remember one simple rule: the higher the 80 PLUS certificate in the hierarchy, the higher the efficiency, which means it will consume less unnecessary electricity, heat less, and, often, make less noise.
In order to achieve the best efficiency indicator and obtain the 80 PLUS “color” certificate, especially top level, manufacturers use their entire arsenal of technologies, the most efficient circuit design and semiconductor components with the lowest possible losses. Therefore, the 80 PLUS icon on the case also indicates high reliability, durability of the power supply, as well as a serious approach to creating the product as a whole.

2. Type of cooling system. Low level heat dissipation of power supplies with high efficiency, allows you to use silent systems cooling. These are passive (where there is no fan at all), or semi-passive systems, in which the fan does not rotate at low powers, and starts working when the power supply becomes “hot” under load.

When selecting a power supply, you should pay attention to for the length of the cables, the main ATX24 pin and the CPU power cable when installed in a case with a bottom-mounted power supply.

For optimal installation of power wires behind the rear wall, they must be at least 60-65 cm long, depending on the size of the case. Be sure to take this point into account so you don’t have to bother with extension cords later.
You need to pay attention to the number of MOLEX only if you are looking for a replacement for your old and antediluvian system unit with IDE drives and drives, and even in a significant quantity, because even the simplest power supplies have at least a couple of old MOLEX, and in more expensive models There are dozens of them in general.

I hope this small guide to the DNS company catalog will help you with such a complex issue at the initial stage of your acquaintance with power supplies. Enjoy the shopping!

In turn, the thermal power that is released when heating the power supply element will directly depend on the strength of the current that passes through all consumers.

It should be remembered that the sum of all powers consumed by components should not exceed output power power supply.

How to correctly calculate the power of a computer?

When calculating PC power, it is important to take into account that the system consumes power unevenly. The maximum takes the moment you turn on the computer or separate device, reading/writing disks, transferring information from/to HDD, simultaneous launch of many programs, etc. For devices that, due to their specific nature, consume a large number of energy, manufacturers often indicate the peak power value. It follows that the maximum that the system as a whole will consume can be calculated by simply adding the powers of all devices that are connected to the power supply.

Next, we will offer you an approximate diagram of power consumption by various computer components:

The central processor consumes on average from 50 to 120 W. Moreover, the more clock frequency, the more power it consumes.
The motherboard consumes an average of 15 to 30 watts. Moreover, if the board has integrated devices, for example, sound card, then, accordingly, such a board requires more power.
power consumption graphic editor– from 60 to 130 W. And if the video card has additional power, it consumes more than those that do not. Accordingly: 50-70 W – without additional food and 100-130 with him. In moments maximum load(for example, during demanding games) power consumption modern video cards can increase to 300-400 W.
modules random access memory consume from 5 to 20 W. Consumption directly depends on the module capacity. In addition, if there are various “attachments” on the memory module, such as filter capacitors, power consumption increases.
hard drives consume between 15 and 60 watts. Moreover, when the hard drive is actively working (searching for files, copying or recording information), power consumption is reduced to a maximum. It also happens when the computer is turned on, when the hard drive undergoes diagnostics, which is necessary to identify critical errors.
CD/DVD drives consume from 10 to 25 W. The meaning itself depends on maximum speed rotation of disks, as well as from real mode work. Moreover, if the disc is scratched or simply poorly recorded, much more is consumed. more power, since the drive constantly has to change its rotation speed. The record holders for power consumption are the so-called Combo drives, which combine the capabilities of reading CDs and DVDs and writing CD-RW.
Floppy drives consume between 5 and 7 watts. IN in this case, power consumption depends mainly on the manufacturer. Since the speed of their operation remains the same in any mode.
The sound card consumes 5-10 W. Here, the higher the class sound device, the higher the power consumption. Thus, Hi-Fi devices require an order of magnitude more power than mid-range sound cards.
Cooling system fans consume 1-2 W on average. However, it should be remembered that there can be five, six, or even more fans in a computer: on the processor, video card, hard drive, in the power supply itself, etc.
input/output ports consume 8-10 watts. IN modern computer There are usually six such ports: one COM port, 4 USB and one LPT. In addition, the sound card also adds a line input/output, plus a microphone input.
Network cards consume 3-5 W on average.

Here are some more factors that you should pay attention to when we consider such an issue as computer power. Having calculated the approximate power indicators, before purchasing a power supply, you should take into account that it is necessary to leave some reserve due to the upcoming possibilities of upgrading the system and installing additional devices.

Let's remember simple truth- To prevent the power supply from breaking down or burning out, you should not overload it. In addition, you should pay attention to cleanliness, as simple dust can contribute to critical overheating of the power supply and its failure.

Some power supply manufacturers provide these “Online calculators for calculating the power of a power supply”, where you can make a fairly accurate calculation.

Thus, having summarized the information presented above, having become acquainted with the principle of operation of the power supply, as well as with the indicators of power consumption of all the main devices of the computer, we hope that now the question “how to calculate the power supply for a computer” and choose the optimal power supply for it will not seem to you solvable. After all, to do this you just need to make simple mathematical calculations.

If you have any questions about how to calculate the power of your computer and choose a suitable power supply, you can always contact the center computer help website, our engineers will advise you on all issues of interest. In addition, you can order installation of a new power supply in your system unit from us.

Instructions

If you follow the hardware market, you will notice an increase in the productivity of modern internals. For every passing year, at least 2 new products are released. The operating frequency of these new products, as a rule, increases from 1.5 to 2 times. Accordingly, blocks nutrition forced to increase their power. Today block nutrition 500W is considered no longer powerful. Blocks have appeared nutrition at 1500W. Reasoning logically, we can find out the power computer devices. The appearance of 2, 3, 4-core ones increased power consumption from 90W to 160W. New ones also have power costs. It is this factor that is worth paying attention to.

To calculate suitable future power block nutrition, you need all the components of your computer and add up the power they consume. Take into account the quantity, whether it will be double or you regular one will do option. Latest versions motherboards also consume more power than older models.

The most the best option is the power calculation block nutrition via online-. There are an endless number of such services on the Internet now. The peculiarity of these calculators is that when choosing specific model any device, the program calculates the real volume of this device, and not the one stated on the label. For example, at one time in stores you could come across a block nutrition with a power of 440W, but its actual power was 390W. The fact is that the number 440 was included in the name of the product model. This misled many buyers.

Sources:

selection of power supply
All about PC power supplies

Selecting a power supply is usually required in two cases. The first is when buying a new one, if you prefer to choose the components yourself rather than buy ready-made computers. The second is during modernization or when components break down.

Instructions

Take your time with your choice block nutrition and do not buy the first option offered to you by consultants in the store. This is especially true in cases where the consultant simply advises you to purchase this or that block nutrition, without even specifying the configuration of your computer.

Determine the optimal power block nutrition. To do this, you need to find out the total power required to operate the installed components, then round it into big side. As a result, you will get the optimal power supply. If you buy a block nutrition with less power than necessary, the computer may malfunction.

If you do not want to do such calculations, think about what you plan on the computer. If you need it to watch movies and pictures, work with documents, etc., then it will be quite enough for you block nutrition power about 400 W. If you work with programs designed to create and edit 3D objects, or use a computer for games, then you should choose a more powerful power supply - from 500 W and above.

Pay attention to the number of loops nutrition hard drives. If you plan to use not one, but several hard drives, then there should be enough cables to provide power to each of them. By the way, it is worth paying attention to the length of the cables, especially if your PC case is not compact.

Evaluate the cooling system block nutrition, in particular the diameter of the fan. The larger it is, the greater the cooling air flow and the lower the noise level. In addition, some block models nutrition equipped with special circuits that monitor the temperature of the power supply unit and change the fan speed in accordance with it. Thus, with sufficient cooling, the noise level will be relatively low.

Good day, dear readers of the blog site. This time, I would like to talk to you about how to calculate the power supply power for a computer, without any special effort from your side. Next, I will talk about two methods that will help you calculate the power of the power supply for a computer of any configuration with the necessary accuracy.

Why is it so important not to make a mistake with the power of the power supply? Because if you select more power (if the power supply turns out to be more powerful than is necessary for your configuration), nothing may happen (well, unless more electricity is consumed + you will overpay for the unit itself), but if it’s the other way around - i.e. when the power of the unit is not enough, the computer’s performance will drop; it may also periodically glitch, freeze, or simply not turn on. When upgrading computer hardware It is also necessary to recalculate the power; you may have to change the power supply to a more powerful one.

If you buy a ready-made computer in a store, most likely the power supply is already installed there. However, I personally am categorically against such decisions, due to the general incompetence of collectors in matters the right choice components. For the same reason, power supplies in such computers are often installed “I don’t understand what brand”, or not at all of the power that needs to be installed. Therefore, it is best to choose a power supply yourself, and the first thing you need to do here is figure out which minimum power must have a power supply for the computer being assembled.

And you can do this in two ways, by using online calculator power supply, as well as manually. Naturally, the result obtained manually will be much inferior to the first one in terms of accuracy, so I suggest starting with the first option.

To do this, you need to go to the link outervision.com/power-supply-calculator, which will open the “advanced power calculator” of the service for calculating the power of the power supply from the well-known company Coolermaster. You can also go to standard calculator, which offers fewer calculation options by simply clicking on the "Standard" link in the top right corner. In most cases standard version should be enough, so let's start with it.

So, in the field System Type in the vast majority of cases the value will be "1physical CPU". Means - the number of processors in the system, almost all personal computers equipped with one central processor.
In field Motherboard indicates the type of motherboard. If you do not have a server at home, which most likely is the case, we indicate here Regular-Desktop, or High End-Desktop - if you have a sophisticated gaming or overclocking motherboard with a large number of slots installed.
Concerning CPU (central processing unit), its model and the type of socket in which it is installed can be found out, for example, through a utility called CPU-Z, downloading it from the official website
Video Card- video card model. You can find it out using the same “CPU-Z” utility by going to the Graphics tab. Unfortunately, in the simplified version of the calculator there is no way to specify several video cards at once if you have them, for example, in SLI mode.
In field Optical Drives You must indicate the number of installed optical drives; please note that a Blu-Ray drive is included as a separate item.
Well, the last point here is the number of hard drives. After all the steps taken, press the Calculate button and voila, the value of the minimum power of the power supply recommended by the calculator will be written below. This is exactly minimum value, i.e. Below this value it is better not to take a block, it may simply not be enough.

As you can see, a simplified version of the calculator has a number of disadvantages, for example: it is impossible to specify several video cards at the same time if they are installed on the computer; it is impossible to specify the rotation speed hard drive(for some reason, only one option is available - IDE 7200 rpm); Plus, the power consumption of overclocked components is not taken into account here, and the difference, I must say, is not so insignificant. Advanced Mode allows you to avoid these problems, although you will have to explain something, since not all points in it may be understandable.

"Advance" mode of the power calculator

In the CPU Utilization (TDP) field of the advanced mode, I recommend setting it to 100%, which means the energy consumption of the processor when it is 100% loaded. If you overclocked the processor, then check the corresponding box and indicate the frequency and voltage values after overclocking. By pressing the Overclock button, the value of the power consumed by the processor after overclocking will appear in the field on the right. Naturally, this value should be slightly higher compared to the drain.

As you can see, where in standard version There was only one field for a video card, but there are four of them. In addition, it is possible to specify the type of connection between video cards - SLI/CrossFire. There have also been some changes in the hard drive selection section, in particular - now you can specify hard interface disk and its class (approximate number of revolutions): Regular SATA - 7200 rpm; High rpm SATA - over 10,000 rpm; Green SATA - 5200 rpm. You can specify the number of SSD drives, if any.

In the PCI Cards section, you can specify devices (expansion cards) that provide advanced functionality - for example, a TV tuner or sound card. In Additional PCI Express Cards indicate expansion cards connected accordingly PCI interface Express (the slot where the video card is installed and others below), excluding the video card itself.

The External Devices section lists all devices connected to the computer in this moment which feed exclusively through USB port. It could be a fan Wi-Fi module(which is usually always connected to system unit) etc. All kinds of printers and scanners are not included in this category, since they have their own power sources.

The next broad category is Fans (fans, coolers). As you may have noticed, in the simplified mode there was not even a mention of this, although they consume significantly, especially the larger their diameter and number. Also, just below is the Water Cooling item - here you can specify the water cooling parameters of your system, if you have one.

The last item in the extended calculator is the System Load item - here you can set percentage of the entire system load generally. By default, this field is set to 90%; I still recommend setting it to 100%, since there should be even a slight power reserve. Capacitor Aging - as I understand it means capacitor aging percentage in the power supply, please correct me if there is anything wrong. This percentage is taken from the initial state (completely new block food) and changes directly in proportion to the number of hours worked.

And although this parameter wears very conditional character, I still recommend taking it into account too, you need to calculate something like this: 5 years of operation (in nominal mode - that is, not under 100% load and not 24 hours a day) - 20-30%, i.e. It's like a loss of power due to aging. It turns out that, having approximately estimated how long your unit will work, you can thus buy a unit with a power reserve; in general, this is exactly how you need to choose a power supply - with a reserve, try not to buy what is called “back to back”.

That's it, after all the fields are filled in, click Calculate and see the recommended power value. The difference for me was about 18 watts.

Manual power calculation method

And although the calculation method considered allows us to obtain the most accurate result, however, such a calculator may not always be at hand; sometimes it is necessary to at least approximately “estimate” the recommended power of the power supply manually. I think you've already guessed how to do this, just adding values power consumption of all computer components. However, the result obtained from manual method will be even more inaccurate in comparison with the very first option (simplified mode of the online calculator "Standart").

Below is a list approximate values power consumption of various components:

Energy consumption motherboard ranges from 50 to 100 W, in most cases - 50 W, on inexpensive gaming motherboards up to 75 W.
One stick of DDR2 RAM consumes 1 W of power, 1 stick of DDR3 memory consumes 3 W.
A regular hard drive (not Green series) 7200 rpm consumes up to 25 W, Green series hard drives (environmentally friendly) - approximately 7 W. SSD drive consumes 2 W.
Appetite optical drive averages 23 W. As a rule, this is a drive that can read/write DVD/CD discs, the so-called Combo drive.
Fans. If we're talking about About case coolers, the most common option among them is 120 mm - 5 W, 140 mm-200 mm - 10 W. LED lights On coolers it takes an additional 1 W of power. CPU coolers(80-90 mm) - 8 W.
Expansion cards (TV tuners, sound cards) - 30 W. Devices powered by USB - 7 W.
It is not possible to indicate the power consumption of your specific video card and processor here, even approximately, there are too many models of different video cards, so the spread in power is simply cosmic. However, you can look at their power consumption in the specifications, maximum consumption processor power can be viewed in CPU-Z program in the Max TDP field.

Adding all the above values we get required power. As a result, the power supply power for my system when calculated manually was about 325 W, which is quite close to the result obtained from the calculation standard calculator. Thus, I have to admit that manual calculation can take place. If you are planning to do overclocking components, then add another 15-25% to the obtained value.