It must have adequate power. Calculators available on the Internet are useful in its calculation. It is also worth establishing a proper plant for new components and that the power supply is not trimmed.
In terms of power, another important thing is important, namely the power on individual 12V lines. The 12V1 line always powers only the processor. We must remember that it has sufficient power if we are installing a power-consuming processor. Components such as the motherboard or disks do not consume enough electricity to be taken into account, unless we have many of them. However, further 12V lines, such as 12V2, 12V3 etc. are very important ... They supply, among others, a graphics card, and while some cards consume as much as 250W, some power supplies are not able to provide such power on a single line.
The next issue is the total power on several lines. For example, we have 2 12V lines, where we have a maximum of 150W available for 12V1, 200W for 12V2, but a maximum of 300W on both. Podovnie is dealing with 5V and 3.3V lines.
In addition, the length of individual beams is an important issue. While with most cables we should not have a problem (nevertheless, it is worth making sure), when mounting the power supply at the bottom of the case there are cases where the processor power harness (4 or 8 pin at the top of the board) is too short.
Then the number and types of plugins. The 24pin power supply plug is the same everywhere (in modern designs) although here and there it is divided into 20 + 4. Now a virtually useless function. Then the processor power plug - some boards have 4 pin sockets, others 8 pin. The power supply also better have the same, although on 4pin it will work. 8pin plugs are usually divided into 4 + 4 so they fit into every board. Now power up graphics cards. They are powered by various combinations of 8 and 6 pin. It is important that these 8 pin are different from those of the processor. 8pin plugs are usually divided into 6 + 2, so they also fit into 6 pin sockets. It is important here that their quantity is sufficient for our set. SATA and molex 4pin power plugs are also important for powering drives and peripherals, so we need them in the right amount.
The next issue - noise. There are loud power supplies, they are quiet. They are with a fan, they are without (passive). Even a few with water cooling will be found. What who needs.
Then the brand - it is better to choose higher-end power supplies, but if you buy it for an old computer from the last decade, then you do not have to - such a Fortron for 4 smokes is also enough.
We still have efficiency. The higher the better, because the computer consumes less power, less heat up and is quieter. However, such power supplies are more expensive. Certificates are efficiency indicators. You've probably heard of a designation like Bronze 80. It's worth reading about them on the internet. Unfortunately, such power supplies can be more expensive. The sticker costs. Sometimes a company releases the same 2 PSU models - one with a sticker, the other without. The first one is more expensive. Usually there is absolutely no difference between them, because everything comes from one production line. But a dumb sticker costs what you can do. That is why sometimes it is not worth paying for it.
The power supplies also have different dimensions. The standard on computers is ATX. There are also ITX, SFX and others. Also look on the net how it looks. It's important that ATX come in 2 lengths, and the longer ones are roughly half the length of the shorter ones.
I think that's all. Regards.
