Product ReviewsPSUs
It's easy to imagine that all power supplies are the same, and when you can buy a "no-name" unit for a tenner you might wonder why you'd pay anything more. But dirt-cheap models can't always provide the advertised wattage, leading to intermittent crashes or even a complete burn-out at higher loads. They can be woefully inefficient, too, wasting as much as a third of the power they draw. If you value the stability of your system - and want to keep electricity bills to a minimum - it makes sense to invest in a high-quality supply and let the savings on your electricity bill offset the extra cost. See also: PC cases roundup. This month, we've taken eight big-brand power supplies
The good news is that all of them proved comfortably able to deliver the promised power levels, and all ran stably, with no rail deviating more than 3% from its proper voltage (the ATX standard allows for 5% deviation on the main rails). We also tested for power efficiency and all achieved better than 80% - see the chart opposite for each supply's average efficiency across our tests. But that isn't to say they're interchangeable: each has its own strengths, and there's a huge range of capacities on offer. Click the links below to read the reviews: By Darien Graham-Smith
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