What's the difference in power supplies?

Question

What does that wattage really mean?

will a 300 w ower supply make your computer run slowered thatn a 400w?

Is it possible to have to much wattage, too little?

is it like "this is how much energy you have availiable" and as long as I don't have a jacuzzi hooked to my USB, it won't matter?

Thanks!!

Answer 1

Nothing is for free. Peripherals you put inside your computer take certain amount of power. Motherboard, keyboard, mouse, graphics card, hard drive, cd drive, and etc. etc. all require certain amount of power.

The issue with have a good power supply isn't about speed. It's about stability. Your power supply is in charge of converting the AC current from the wall to DC. An ideal power supply will provide stable DC current with very little ripple current. Ripple current is the deviating fluctuation that is present in all DC current provided by a power supply.

And it is possible to have too much wattage but only in extreme cases. Electronic device like power supplies work with tolerance levels usually given in percentages. So two different rated power supplies built with 5% tolerance will have different tolerances. With a lot of power you lose a precision. With precision you use a certain amount of power. (Analogy would be fidelity and power in audio terms.)

Answer 2

Actually, it doesn't matter if you have TOO much. There's never such a thing as too many watts. I would say in today's day and age, 300W is too little. Depending on the system, 400W is probably adequate. But if you are building (or want to upgrade) a gaming system then you will need in the order of 500W to 600W and even more if you want to run two PCIe graphics cards in either SLi or Crossfire mode.

The thing you want to look for is good amperage on the 12V rail, everything else is secondary. You will want a good 20A on the 12V rail. I wouldn't get anything less than 26A but I purchased a SLi certified power supply that provides 36A on the 12V rail.

Most power supplies are the same size. Usually the more watts the more expensive it is but that may or may not be the case. The more watts it generates, it will generate more heat and that may be a problem if you don't have good airflow in the case.

Answer 3

its a measure of how much power it can deliver. Not enough and things will stop working, often in a very odd way. Can't have too much except it will take up more space, make more heat, cost more...