Hey all, Mark here again! Today I’m going to be touching on the best type of PSU for your PC builds, and I’ll touch on the most cost effective too. Before I begin, PSU stands for Power Supply Unit, and is an integral part of a PC build (otherwise it wouldn’t turn on!).
There are many different types of PSU, and different ratings too so I’ll start by detailing them here.
Non-modular PSU
This PSU has all of the cables required for your PC build already built into the PSU, no plugging, unplugging or cable changes needed apart from plugging into your PC components. These are popular for those first time PC builders who aren’t too confident with the types of cables and where they go.
Semi-modular PSU
This PSU has all of the cables required for your PC build pre-installed plus some additional slots should you need them, these are handy for those dual-GPU builds or builds where you require more PSU power and cannot get access to that power through a non-modular.
Modular PSU
This PSU comes with all of the cables required separately, where you need to plug the cables into the PSU yourself. These modular PSU’s are my most recommended, because if there’s ever any damage to your cables on a modular system it means that you require a whole new PSU. Besides, it’s really simple to wire & is well marked out, if you want the real PC building experience you should definitely go modular.
PSU Ratings
Different PSU’s are rated differently based on their power consumption, and their quality. For example you can have a 450W Bronze, a 1000W Platinum and everything in between. Before you choose your PSU you need to calculate how much power your system at TDP will require, and then give yourself 20% headroom on top. For example my PC pulls around 800W of power, so I have a 1000W PSU.
The wattage is simple, the ratings are a little more difficult to understand. In layman’s terms, the better the rating, essentially the less excess power will be spilled over when using your system, and the longer your PSU will last. If you are using a Bronze, you may use up to 10% more power at the wall than expected, but if you are using a platinum it may be as little as 2%, or even 1% in some cases. So although platinum PSU’s are more expensive at initial purchase, they very quickly pay for themselves.
Conclusion
When looking for your new PSU you should be looking at a good rating and based on your needs whether you need to purchase non-modular, semi-modular or modular. PSU’s go from Bronze, to Silver, to Gold and to Platinum and it is well worth the additional initial investment to save a low of spilled power over time (which will save you a lot of money over time) than to go with the cheap bronze if you can afford it.