What is the power supply of the computer and what is the role of the computer power supply?

November 30, 2022

The power supply is the hub of the normal operation of the computer, the quality of its strengths and weaknesses on the computer system has a great impact, perhaps you can appreciate that friends in the daily installation of the computer, are more focused on the CPU processor, motherboard, graphics card, monitor and other components. However, if the purchase of a poor quality power supply will be directly related to the stability of the system, the life of the hardware, because of the small loss is not chagrin? Although the development of technology can reduce the power of the CPU, but the emergence of high-speed hard disk, high-end graphics cards make part of the power supply difficult to load, which will bring many problems to the user. Thus, no one can take the power supply lightly, but how to choose it?

A. Power supply weight

Through the weight can often observe whether the power supply meets the specifications, in general: good power supply shells are generally used high-quality steel, good material, quality and thick, so the heavier power supply, the material are better. The internal parts of the power supply, such as transformers, heatsinks, etc., equally heavy is better. A good power supply should use a heatsink made of aluminum or even copper heatsink, and the larger the volume the better the cooling effect. General heatsink are made of comb, teeth are deep, the more divided, the greater the thickness, the better the cooling effect. Basically, it is difficult to see the heatsink without disassembling the power supply, so the intuitive way is to judge it from the weight. A good power supply will generally add some components to improve the safety factor, so the weight will naturally increase. Poor quality power supply will omit some capacitors and coils, the weight is relatively light.
Green Leaf Fast Shipment 750w 80plus Gold Pc Power Supply Full Voltage Modular 80plus Gold Certified Power Supply Pc Desktop1

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Second, the transformer

The key part of the power supply is the transformer, a simple way to judge is to look at the size of the transformer. The general location of the transformer is in the two heatsinks, according to common sense, 250W power supply transformer coil inside diameter should not be less than 28MM, 300W power supply shall not be less than 33MM, you can use a ruler to measure its length externally, you can know whether the material is real. After the transformer, the current is output through the rectifier output coil. At the current output, you can see the rectifier output coil, most manufacturers use the code 10262 and 130626 two, 250W power supply rectifier output coil should not be less than 10262 rectifier output coil. 300W power supply rectifier output coil should not be less than 130626 rectifier output coil. Next to the upright capacitor in the power supply, there will be a black bridge rectifier, and some use 4 diodes instead. As far as stability is concerned, the stability of the bridge rectifier power supply.

Third, the fan

The fan plays an important role in the working process of the power supply for the configuration of heat dissipation. The radiator is only the heat will be distributed into the air, if the hot air can not be dissipated in a timely manner, the cooling effect will certainly be greatly reduced. The arrangement of the fan plays a decisive role in the cooling capacity. Traditional ATX2.01 or higher PC Power Supply fans are used to draw air outward to dissipate heat, which ensures that the heat within the power supply can be discharged in a timely manner to avoid heat buildup in the power supply and chassis, and also to avoid external dust from the power supply into the chassis during operation. General Pc Power Supply will use the fan has two specifications: oil seal bearing (Sleeve Bearing) and ball bearing (Ball Bearing), the former is quieter, but the latter has a longer life, of course, if the use of magnetic levitation fan will be even better!

In addition, some quality power supplies will use a dual fan design, such as an additional 8cm fan in the air inlet to speed up the air flow. However, the use of dual fan design, there is a disadvantage: it will make the internal heat of the power supply increased, bringing noise. In this regard, some manufacturers will use a high-sensitivity temperature-controlled bass fan, the fan with thermal diodes to adjust the fan speed according to the different temperatures in the chassis and power supply, and the second is to increase the air intake into the air inlet, so that the power supply inlet fan and outlet fan to run at different speeds to ensure that the hot air generated inside the power supply itself and the hot air drawn in from the chassis are discharged in a timely manner.

Moreover, the fan can drive the air flow per unit of time has a direct relationship to the cooling effect, without special instruments this is difficult to consider, so generally the problem is simply the speed of the fan, which in turn becomes the power and converted to current. Generally speaking, the rated current becomes an important indicator for the purchase. Under the same voltage, the higher the current, the higher the fan power and the stronger the wind, which is the only criterion to judge when we buy. To the general power supply using 8 cm 12V DC fan, for example, its rated current is generally between 0.12 ~ 0.18A.

Fourth, safety specifications

PC power supply in use, there is a possibility of being connected to the wrong or short circuit, in addition to the power supply itself may also fail to cause the output voltage is not normal, in this case in order to prevent or reduce the serious consequences, the power supply to be able to stop working, which is the power supply protection function. Therefore, in the design and manufacture of power supplies, safety specifications is a very important part. The protection of the power supply has two aspects, one is to prevent burning other accessories, and the other to protect itself from damage.

Power supply to the external protection is mainly overvoltage and undervoltage protection, that is, when the output voltage of the power supply is high or low to abnormal, the power supply should stop working. This is very important for the whole machine, because all the expensive components, such as CPU, hard disk, etc., are relatively fragile and can easily be burned out due to excessive voltage.

To prevent this from happening, the power supply needs to be monitored for each output voltage. The power supply designer's approach is to sample the output voltage through a sampling circuit, and the signal coming back from the sampling is passed through a comparator and then received to the control section. Once the output voltage is abnormal, the sampling signal is instantly reflected and the control section is notified to shut down the power supply. This can effectively protect the motherboard, CPU, memory, hard disk, optical drive and other valuable components. Whether the power supply has a fast overvoltage protection is very important for the whole machine. In order to prevent excessive current from causing burnout, power supplies are set up with fuses.

The main work of the fuse is that when the current is suddenly too large, the fuse first blows, as long as the fuse can be replaced to continue to use the power supply, so the placement of the fuse is very important, it must be designed to be replaceable, now there are some manufacturers in order to save costs, the fuse directly welded to the power supply PCB (printed circuit board), once the fuse is blown, the whole power supply will be scrapped together.

Good power supply more than the use of fire-resistant material PCB, consumers in the purchase of power supplies, you can look carefully through the heat sink hole to see if the power supply PCB use fire-resistant materials. Generally use the number 94V0 fireproof material, can withstand 105 degrees of heat. As for the use of 94V1 fireproof material, can withstand the temperature is even higher. In addition, each part of the power supply must be added to the outside of the heat shrink film for protection, to prevent electronic parts because of moisture or dust caused by short circuit. If not, it is easy to malfunction.

Some brand-name manufacturers to ensure that the phenomenon of overvoltage does not occur, the use of two independent overvoltage protection circuit, and even some for the use of triple overvoltage protection.

Five, wire and heat sink hole

The thickness of the wire used in the power supply, and its durability has a lot to do with it. The thinner wire, long time use, often burned due to overheating. In addition, the power supply shell is more or less above the cooling holes, the power supply in the process of work, the temperature will continue to rise, in addition to cooling through the fan attached to the power supply, cooling holes are also an important facility to increase air convection. In principle, the larger the area of the power supply's cooling holes, the better, but pay attention to the location of the cooling holes, the location of the right to make the power supply internal heat discharged early.

Sixth, the suction port, the design of the air outlet

There are many holes in the shell of the power supply, the hot air in the chassis is from these holes into the power supply and thus exhausted to the outside. General power supply air intake part of the output line side, this design of the power supply can generally directly inhale the hot air near the 5-inch drive, but the internal structure of the chassis determines whether it can smoothly inhale the hot air generated by the board inside the chassis. In addition, another problem with this design is that the intake hole to the exhaust fan is just between the power supply's internal coils, capacitors dense part of the airflow will be greatly impeded, which in turn fundamentally affects the ability of the power supply to suck hot air from the chassis. However, this design has an obvious benefit in that the air drawn from the outside will flow directly through the heatsink, which can improve the cooling effect of the heatsink. For the above problem, some manufacturers have improved on top of the traditional one by opening additional grid holes in the bottom of the power supply with a large area. Through the grid hole can be directly inhaled by the hot air generated by the board, completely independent of the structure of the chassis, its suction capacity obviously remittance single enhanced. On the other hand, the internal air duct of this design of power supply is also very smooth, from the air intake grille hole to the exhaust fan space is completely open.

The design of the air outlet has a great impact on the air flow. The general power supply outlet grille is wider, bringing greater obstruction to the flow of air, while some power supplies use a sparse steel mesh to further reduce the obstruction of air while ensuring safety.

Author:

Mr. ken

E-mail:

ken@greenleaf-pc.com

Phone/WhatsApp:

+86 13713859947