The Often Overlooked Power Supply

by Dave
(Canada)

Many times when people build a computer, they'll simply use the power supply that came with their case, or just buy something cheap. I know, not only have I seen a ton of computer builds like this, I used to do it as well. I'm here to shed some light on why it's a bad idea.

We all know computer electronics are very sensitive electronic components, yet for some reason, it took me many years to realize how important a role a power supply can play. Currently a standard voltage for RAM is between 1.5V and 2.1V. To overclock this RAM, it can often be done with a .1V increase. Yeah fine you don't overclock, so what does it help you. Let me give you an example.

Several years back, I worked on an Asus motherboard with an AMD 9750 BE CPU. I got the multiplier up to 14x with about a .25V increase. Stock is 12x. About 2 months after this overclock, the power supply went and needed to be replaced. Not only was it under powered, a 350W in a system with 4 hard drives, a video card and 2 DVD roms. But it was the power supply that came with the case. I looked up power supplies online, this was the first time ever. I came across a brand name called Ultra that had a great promotion.

Some research later, and a lifetime warranty if you register along with the price of $50, how could I go wrong. Several days later when the power supply arrived I immediately took the temporary power supply out, and popped in this shiny black power supply.

What I will tell you now, will forever change the way I think about power supplies and since this experiment I've repeated results like this several times.

I powered up the computer and went to work on the overclock, since the temporary power supply would only boot my computer with default clock speeds, I had a feeling a new better 650W Ultra power supply would increase my results. I was right, the previous 14x multiplier with a .25V increase in voltage was now running stable at stock voltage at 15x. With the same voltage 16x.

Now even if you're not into overclocking you can clearly see the impact of the power supply on the stability of the computer.