An ATX power supply unit with top cover removed. A power supply unit (PSU) converts mains AC to low-voltage regulated DC power for the internal components of a desktop computer. Modern personal computers universally use switched-mode power supplies. Contact online >>
An ATX power supply unit with top cover removed. A power supply unit (PSU) converts mains AC to low-voltage regulated DC power for the internal components of a desktop computer. Modern personal computers universally use switched-mode power supplies.
In the US, the mains voltage alternates 60 times per second, reaching a peak of 340 V or 170 V, depending on the location and supply. The UK hits a slightly lower peak, and varies a little...
There are a number of online calculators, created by PSU manufacturers, that can give you an estimate of what kind of power supply unit your PC requires (e.g. Cooler Master and BeQuiet!
The power drawn from the wall socket is slightly higher, because the power supply is not 100% efficient (80-90% is pretty typical). So if your components draw 750W, your PC will actually draw...
The power supply unit, also known as a PSU, converts the alternating current (AC) line from your home to the direct current (DC) needed by the personal computer. In this article, we''ll learn how PC power supplies work and what the wattage ratings mean.
Every single desktop PC, console, or laptop has one of these. It doesn''t boost your frame rate or churn out cryptocurrency; it doesn''t have billions of transistors and it''s not made using the latest semiconductor process node. Sounds boring, right? Not at all! This thing is super important because without it, our computers would do absolutely nothing.
Power supply units don''t break headlines like the latest CPUs do, but they''re awesome pieces of technology. So let''s put on our gowns, masks, and gloves, and pull open the humble PSU – breaking down its various parts and seeing what each bit does.
Since we can''t just dust off our hands and proudly say ''article done'' with that kind of statement, we better start having a look at one. We''re using a Cooler Master G650M – it''s a fairly generic design, with a specification found in dozens more like it, but it sports one particular feature that not every power supply unit has.
This PSU is a standard-sized one and by that we mean it complies with the ATX 12V v2.31 form factor, so it fits inside lots of computer cases.
There are other form factors, though: ones for smaller cases or unique ones for specific vendors. Not every unit follows the exact sizes set by the standard form factors, they might be the same width and height, but they could be longer or shorter.
One good analogy for the techno-speak is that electricity can be thought to be like water in a hose: voltage is akin to the pressure you''re using, the flow rate of the water is the current, and any restrictions in the pipe acts the same as electrical resistance.
The need for a PSU lies in the fact that computers don''t work with AC: they need a constant voltage, one that never changes, and it also needs to be of much lower level. Using the same graph scales, it looks something like this:
At this stage, we should warn you to not try this if you don''t know what you''re doing. Messing about with the insides of a PSU can be potentially very dangerous. There are components inside every unit that store electrical energy, and some store a lot.
The mains outlet connection to the PSU is at the top-left hand corner of the picture and the supply essentially runs clockwise around the picture, until reaching the output of the PSU (big cluster of colored wires, bottom left-hand corner).
This PSU has two stages of so-called transient filters, the first of which is directly applied to input socket, using 3 components called capacitors to do the job. Think of these as being like a speed bump for sudden changes in the input voltage.
The two little blue discs are yet more capacitors and just below them (hidden under a black plastic cover) is a metal oxide varistor (MOV). These are also used to help counter jumps and spikes in the input voltage; you can read more about different types of transient filter circuits here.
The first thing that gets done is an AC to DC conversion, and this PSU uses a component called a bridge rectifier. In the picture below, this is the flat black object glued to the chunk of metal (which acts as a heatsink).
Other supply units use passive converters, that essentially do the same job. They''re less effective but fine for low power units – they''re also cheaper, so you can guess what kinds of PSUs have these, when they really shouldn''t!
You can see 3 transformers in the picture below - the largest generates just the 12 volt output; in other PSUs, the big transformer might make all of the voltages. The next larger one creates a single 5 volt output that we''ll talk about in a bit, and the smallest one acts as an isolator for the PWM circuit, keeping it safe from harm and also stopping it from causing interference with other voltages in the PSU.
In the image below, the large chunk of metal is the heatsink for the bridge rectifiers that do this conversion. We can also see in this specific PSU, the circuit board in the middle of the picture corresponds to a cluster of voltage regulation modules (VRMs) that create the 5 and 3.3 volt outputs.
The image below shows you how this compares to what is required. The red line is the targeted constant +12V DC, the varying blue line is what we''re actually getting (although the ripple itself isn''t constant).
No matter what is used to create the output voltages and ensure they''re DC in form, there''s still a few more bits of circuitry needed before we start waving cables out the place. It all relates to managing the PSU''s outputs, ensuring that if a high demand for power is taking place on one particular voltage, then the others aren''t going to be nobbled in the process.
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