All Mod Cons: Understanding Modular PSU Cables
As more and more cables started poking out of power supplies, it became increasingly obvious to PC upgraders and builders that stashing the unused ones in a big wad between the PSU body and the case wasn't a good option.
That's why most top-quality power supplies today make use of modular cable connectors: that is, cables you can plug in as you nee.
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Got Good Leads? Getting to Know PSU Cables
The individual cables coming off a PC power supply are often referred to as "leads." Intel's original ATX power spec required only a 20-pin motherboard connector, later adding a separate square four-pin "P4" connector to provide a 12-volt lead to power the CPU independently. (This latter development showed up in the specification update called "ATX.
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PSU Certifications: Understanding The 80 Plus Program
80 Plus is a power-supply certification program that guarantees a minimum of 80% efficiency across a wide variety of loads, with different levels offering increased energy savings via reduced PSU waste heat. (The more efficient the PSU, the less of the wall power that it draws is dissipated as waste heat before reaching your PC components.) The les.
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Watts The Deal: How Much Power Do You Need?
When motherboard and graphics-card manufacturers started powering CPUs and GPUs from separate 12-volt connectors, many older power supplies were still designed to put out a substantial portion of their amperage to 5-volt and even 3.3-volt leads.
That led to widespread advice and articles recommending wildly exaggerated power-supply ratings to cover.
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What fits? Power-Supply Form-Factor Basics
Power supplies, as we know them in desktop PCs, go all the way back to the original IBM PC.
But a brief history of today'sPSU designs really begins a little later, in a time before the now-familiar ATX form factor existed, to the IBM PC AT and PS/2 of the 1980s.
From these, we got the AT form-factor motherboard with dual six-pin power connectors, a.
