If you are considering building your own custom computer, the Power Supply that you select to handle all that new hardware is extremely important.
As you move up in Motherboards, you will have noticed by now that the CPU requires a separate power connector on the board. Originally it was 4 Pins, then 6, now 8. So, upgrading to a newer Motherboard using an older Power Supply was out of the question. I could have bought an adapter to match the number of pins needed, but if you are moving up to a bigger machine with double the memory, bigger hard drive, more powerful USB ports. (remember the old USB Ports locking up the machine do to lack of power?) It’s time to consider a newer power supply, 300-400-500 watts just won’t cut it any more. I purchased a 750 watt power supply. The biggest I saw was 1200watts. (That’s about 10 amps to run on your power strip, add a few more items and you start tripping breakers at 15 amps) Just something to consider. Besides, the 1200 Watt was over $250-$700. (out of my budget on this project). You will also need…
new power cables for Sata drives and other new peripherals, only available on newer power supplies.
The Motherboards are also offering more features. We are not so much concerned about CPU speed (unless you are a gamer) than the peripherals speed. Front side and back side bus speed and memory speed. For years I had the “I can always upgrade attitude”. By the time you got upgrade the CPUs won’t fit your sockets, the cost of older slower speed memory is out of this world. (I could by a new PC for the cost of memory for my HP dual Xenon processor workstation…so I did).
Having an underpowered power supply can cause headaches in troubleshooting unknown or seemingly random machine lock-ups. I remember the original PC had 63 watts of power and it was not enough to drive a hard drive. You either bought a newer power supply or the hard drive came with an external power supply. (OK that was in 1983) Then the PC/XT came out with enough power for a hard drive (because it came with one) XT stood for eXtended Technology.
So, in summary, I ‘ll recommend to buy the power supply with the most watts (600 and up) that you can budget for your new DIY custom computer. This way you will be covered just in case that you would like to add more peripherals to your case, extra memory or a more powerful graphic card.
Also note the ATX standard power supply has had many revisions (10). The current is rev 2.3. An ATX power supply is typically controlled by an electronic switch connected to the power button on the computer case, and allows the computer to be turned off by the operating system. In addition, many ATX power supplies have an equivalent-function manual switch on the back that also ensures no power is being sent to the components. When the switch on the power supply is turned off, however, the computer cannot be turned on with the front power button.
