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Summary: Replacing a power supply is reasonable common solution to some problems. Making sure you have the right wattage power supply is important. And bigger doesn't hurt. I want to upgrade my current case that has a 300W PSU to a nicer looking case, but it has a 520W PSU. Is it ok and how does the "W" difference influence PC operation? It's quite all right, and if things were working well before, you probably won't notice a difference. There, now that I've answered the question, let's look at why, and just what that "W" means. I get questions on this topic frequently. • The "W" stands for "Watts", which is a measure of electrical power. A power supply with a higher wattage rating is capable of delivering more power to your computer. That's more electrical power. It won't make your computer run any faster or give your more "computational" power - this is simply about electricity. A new power supply is typically called for in one of two situations:
In either case, the solution is a replacement power supply. In the first case, a power supply with the same rating as your old one will do; in the second case, you'll need one with higher wattage. I typically recommend replacing with a higher wattage supply, anyway, since it harms nothing to do so. "It's better to have too much power than too little."
I've heard a concern that a high-wattage power supply can somehow "force" the power onto the computer, causing overheating and burnout. Nothing could be further from the truth. A power supply supplies power in response to need; it doesn't push power anywhere. If your computer only needs 100 watts, then a 500 watt power supply will only supply 100 watts. Why have a 500 watt power supply? For "peak" usage (sometimes hardware will require sudden "bursts" of power, such as at start up or under high load) and for future expansion. It's better to have too much power than too little. Two important aspects of power supplies: Get the right size. By this I mean physical size -- there are several standard sizes out there, and they are not interchangeable. Make sure the machine is well ventilated. A higher capacity power supply will run warmer, particularly if it's providing more power. Make sure that its fan and any additional fans in your machine are working properly and that the airflow path is unobstructed. Overheating due to blocked airflow is perhaps the most common cause of PC equipment failure. Oh, and if you have a laptop - you're out of luck. Laptops come with the batteries and power supplies that they come with. There's no real way to "upgrade" their power capacity. Related:
• Recent Comments
Speaking of "peak usage", I have a friend whose computer would work just fine -- until he tried to burn a CD, at which point the system would fail. It turns out he upgraded from a CD-ROM to a CD-R drive, and the original power supply had just enough power to run the system as-built. The extra power needed to write to a CD-R pushed it over the limit. I replaced the power supply with a higher-wattage one, and everything was fine. Posted by: Ken at December 19, 2006 08:26 AMLook at these power supplies. Many of the replacement power supplies that are recommended are actually much higher wattage than the original power supply. Posted by: Matthew Thompson at April 10, 2007 09:11 PMI want to upgrade my computer power supply, do I have to buy the same physical size? or does it matter? I try searching for one that the same size but they all diffrent sizes, am afraid I buy one and it wont fit? and does the brand matter since there so many.. Posted by: dream at February 11, 2008 10:19 PMI have a Dell Dimension 4550 running XP, 1Gig RAM, Intel P4 3.06HT, Seagate 160Gig HDD. Recently I bought a BFG Geforce 7800GS OC. My PSU was only 250w and the card requires atleast 350w. So I went out and picked up the 800w BFG PSU to power the card and everything else. I start notice that when I put my machine on Stand-By for the night, I come back in the morning and the machine won't come back on. All the while, I know that the machine is powered up b/c I can hear the fans going. I have to do a hard boot. Then I start getting random reboots, the situation progrssively gets worse until one day I go to my office b/c I hear this rattling sound, it's the PSU. I turn the machine off, open up the box, take a look at the PSU, I smell it but it's not burnt. As soon as I try to reboot, I see a flash come from the PSU; it died. It has a lifetime warranty, thank God, so I call BFG and then send out a new one. I start to put the machine on Stand-By to test if the same thing happens. It doesn't, atleast not yet. A week goes by and even though I don't get the random reboots, my machine won't come out of Stand-By. The monitor is black, I wiggle my mouse, press some keys and nothing. Meanwhile the machine is on b/c I hear all the fans going. I have to do a hard boot. I call BFG again and they explain to me that they can change PSU again but the chances of the replacement being bad too are "astronomical". I agree to a certain extent. So I call Dell and they say that the machine can only handle a 250w psu. Now here's my question (finally right?!) I believe it's true that "It's better to have too much power than too little." and I believe it and understand how psu's work, why is Dell saying that my machine can only use a 250w psu? I don't get it. Can anyone help with this? Posted by: automatic_ab at June 4, 2008 12:50 PMPost a comment on "Is it safe to install a higher wattage power supply in my computer?":
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