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What is a PSU? What you need to know when building a PC

In This Article

In This Article

A power supply unit or PSU is what connects your computer to the electrical outlet. It also supplies electricity to your PC’s internal components, including the motherboard and any other devices you add.

It’s important to get the right power supply for your PC because having enough electricity at all times will allow you to run your computer from anywhere. In many cases a cheap power supply won’t do, since it won’t be able to provide enough electricity for your computer. That being said, there are plenty of things you should know before buying the best power supply for your PC.

In this article, we will explain everything you need to know about choosing the right one, as well as potential risks and benefits of each type of PSU on the market today.

What is a power supply?

What is a power supply?

Simply put, a power supply is the device that gets your computer the electricity it needs to run. A power supply has both an upstream and a downstream side. On the upstream side, it connects to your computer, while on the downstream side, it gets connected either to a circuit or a device such as a motherboard.

How to choose the best power supply for your PC?

There are tons of factors to think about when choosing the best power supply for your PC, from compatibility to price. We recommend trying to narrow down the choices by focusing on the most important factors first. These include:

Advantages of a quality PSU

If you invest in a quality PSU based on the above factors then you’ll get a variety of benefits. These include:

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Alastair is in charge of Trusted Reviews Limited’s editorial strategy and output across all its sites. He has over a decade’s experience as a journalist working in both B2C and B2B press. During this …

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Why trust our journalism?

Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.