**Choosing the Right Power Supply for Your Build**

When it comes to building a computer, one of the most critical components is the power supply unit (PSU). A good PSU can make all the difference in ensuring that your system runs smoothly and efficiently. In this article, we'll discuss some key factors to consider when selecting a power supply unit, including the importance of efficiency, wattage, and build quality.

**Power Supply Units: A Healthy Middle Ground**

For our needs, let's assume we're looking at a 750-watt straight power 11 be quiet unit. This is a healthy middle ground that we've used for many of our graphics card and CPU tests. We link it with some nice custom sleeved cables from Cable Odd, which feature orange and black accents that match the Be Quiet logo. With this setup, we're covering all the bases when it comes to build quality.

**Efficiency: A Key Consideration**

Now that we've chosen our power supply unit, let's talk about efficiency. This is an important factor to consider, as a more efficient PSU can save you money in the long run and reduce wear on your components. The 80 Plus rating system attempts to promote power efficiency with respect to load wattage, and there are several tiers to consider, including Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Titanium. The closer to Titanium we get, the more efficient our PSU will be at that predetermined power load.

**Understanding the 80+ Rating System**

So, what does it mean for a PSU to have an 80 Plus rating? In simple terms, an 80 Plus certified PSU must meet certain efficiency standards at various power loads. For example, an 80 Plus Gold certified PSU must be 80% efficient at 20%, 50%, and 100% of its rated capacity. This means that the PSU will actually deliver more power to your components than it pulls from the wall. In our case, the Pure Power 11 has an 80 Plus Gold rating, which is a good starting point for most builds.

**Why Higher Efficiency Matters**

So why is higher efficiency important? Simply put, it means that your PSU is using less of the electrical energy it's receiving to deliver power to your components. This can lead to several benefits, including reduced wear on your PSU, lower electricity bills over time, and even improved reliability. Additionally, more efficient PSUs tend to be built with higher-quality components, such as cutting-edge capacitors and transformers.

**Calculating the Right Wattage**

Another important consideration when choosing a power supply unit is wattage. We want to make sure that our PSU can deliver enough power to meet the needs of our system, without overloading it. A good rule of thumb is to choose a PSU with at least 20% more wattage than your system's base requirement. This allows for some flexibility and headroom in case your components require more power than expected.

**The Importance of Build Quality**

Finally, let's talk about build quality. A good PSU is built to last, with high-quality components and a robust design that can withstand the rigors of heavy use. Cheap PSUs can be prone to failure and wear out quickly, which can lead to costly repairs or even complete system failure.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, choosing the right power supply unit for your build requires careful consideration of several factors, including efficiency, wattage, and build quality. By choosing a reputable brand like Be Quiet, with a high-quality PSU that meets our needs, we can ensure that our system runs smoothly and efficiently. Remember, investing in a good PSU is an important part of building a reliable and high-performance computer.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enpicking a power supply can seem like a daunting task I get it I think we've all been there at some point at least for our first build how many watts do I need does efficiency matter what about size that's why this video exists and we've partnered with be quiet to explain these factors and make your decision just a bit easier it's the PSU is a pretty vital component of any PC right it converts AC a fresh from the wall into DC and splits power on Rails to feel the various components in a rig and while the marketing jargon can be a bit overwhelming at times I'll admit there are a three key elements to picking the correct power supply size wattage and efficiency sizes the first one will tackle because it's the most straightforward the majority of computer cases in the market support one of two psu form factors that's ATX and sfx there are several others but mainstream uses for these and desktop computers are few and far between ATX is a size you'll probably see the most and that's because they can be used in most mid towers full towers and even some I TX cases that support this form factor the units look something like this right here this is a straight power 11 from be quiet and it's just under 9 centimeters tall it will vary to an extent in terms of depth though so make sure that the case and power supply you choose are compatible because some cases aren't very deep a site like PC port picker will often list these potential incompatibilities as you go about selecting your components it's a great site I recommend it especially if you're a first time builder but even people who have done this before can use it and often do we've linked it down below if you are interested in checking it out but in short most of you will be looking at an ATX PSU of some sort cases that only support IT XPS use will often indicate this somewhere on their product pages so keep a lookout now on the wattage is how many watts does your system need and well actually PC par picker can be pretty good for that as well after selecting all of your components you'll see a wattage estimation in the top right hand corner there are several sites that do this but we'll stick with PC port picker we talked about it earlier and it give you a good idea of where you should be aiming another reliable way to calculate load wattage is with the be quiet PSU calculator simply input your system specs and the site will use those parameters to determine which of their PSU is our most optimal using the same system we built in PC part picker be quiet calculates a max wattage of 301 watts and from here you can designate whether you prefer a TX or SFX units and whether you prefer a modular or non modular design I've linked it down below if you're interested in checking it out you can also reference TDPS though these metrics do not indicate specific power requirements under load in fact TDP is often a slight under estimation of peak power draw because of what the metric is actually attempting to do it's more or less four coolers it's a thermal principle or not necessarily a power draw principle although they are related a safe bet I've discussed in the past is multiplying primary product TDPS by a safety factor of 1.5 consider an 80 600 K from Intel that TDP is 95 watts multiply this by 1.5 to account for the occasional power spike manual overclocks MCE whatever else you might be doing with a chip it's just again a buffer this will also partially account for other components in your system that consume less power like your motherboard storage drives and fans now add this product here 143 to the product of our GPUs TDP and the same safety factor if we consider a standard 16 60 TI for example that'll put us at 180 watts the sum of 143 and 180 is 323 Watts know that this is pretty close to what PC port Baker says and now we can multiply this by another 1.5 safety factor which accounts for a power supply's efficiency curve more on this later that puts us at 485 watts which we can safely round up to 500 watts and there we go for this system I'd recommend a 500 watt power supply now sure we could go higher than this I mean heck we could even go lower arguably but I've found that this little equation goes a long way for most builds and once you've found your ideal wattage you can begin shopping be quiet hosts a wide range of units I've got a few back there the straight power 11 series the dark power pro 11 series and the pure power 11 these units are more budget oriented and the straight power units throw a few added perks like quieter silent Wings fans full cable modularity and a sleeker design beefier systems could benefit from those dark power pro power supplies but most of the time you'll be just fine with either a pure power 11 or straight power 11 one of my favorite features about the straight power 11 series is the fact that there are no external wire stemming from the circuit board these often trap and prevent fans above from appropriately dissipating heat and while some PSUs have fans that turn off at idle be quiet ops to keep fans running at all times since PSUs are always releasing heat this is where silent Winx fans come into play you'd never even know they were turning just small details like this you may want to look into for your next power supply so let's assume for the sake of argument that you've got your mind set on gonna pull this again this 750 watt straight power 11 be quiet unit a healthy middle ground that we actually use for many of our graphics card and CPU tests we link it and pretty much all of those videos and we pair them with very nice custom sleeved cables from cable odd orange and black accents and the orange matches the be quiet logo so this point there's still one more variable to consider that's efficiency now this particular unit actually this entire series has a fixed efficiency rating so you want to worry about it if you've already made up your mind but a B+ goal in this case is perfectly fine for a vast majority of builds out there you want to be more efficient just to be even safer you could certainly do that there are more expensive units typically out there but 80 plus gold is a good medic round anyway what am I talking about what the heck is 80 plus gold well the 80 plus rating system attempts to promote power efficiency with respect to load wattage and there are several tiers to consider you've got regular 80 plus some call it 80 plus white you have 80 plus bronze silver gold platinum and titanium the closer to titanium you get the more efficient your PSU is at that predetermined power load at 80 plus efficiency the PSU in question must be 80% efficient at 20% 50% and 100% power loads so for a 500 watt unit like this pure power 11 it would need to be 80% efficient at 100 250 and 500 watt loads the resulting power input from the wall would need to be higher than this value by the way and we can calculate this by dividing the load by the efficiency so PSU efficiency equals output power that's the power that sent to your components divided by input power that's the power pulled from the wall but this pure power 11 has an 80 plus gold rating and the gold standard requires 80 percent efficiency at both 20% and 100% loads and 90% efficiency at a 50% load so you can see why a higher efficiency rating would be more desirable the more efficient the power supply the smaller the ratio between power pulled from the wall and power sent to your components more efficient units can actually save you small amounts of money in the long run each month on your power bill as a result assuming you use your PC quite a bit for gaming or whatever they also tend to be built a bit better since more expensive and cutting-edge capacitors transformer isn't alike or required to maintain said efficiency standard and this ties back in to what I said earlier about that second 1.5 safety factor multiple power supplies are most efficient at around 50 percent load so you'll always want a power supply capable of outputting a higher wattage than your systems base requirement you don't want to be you know using a 300 watt power supply with a system that pulls roughly 300 watts from the wall under load likewise you don't want to pair a 3000 watt unit with a system it's only gonna pull 100 watts from the wall most people think this is ok but it's actually not if a power supply is barely outputting any power and it's you know water trading is really high then that can also be extremely strenuous on the power supply you can calculate the idea what it's more specifically if you'd like but I found that 1.5 is pretty consistent for most builds out there and that's why I've stuck with it for several years I've even talked about it in this video right here by the way the great thing about be quiet power supplies is that even their lower end units like the pure power 11 I have here boast an 80 plus gold rating sure they aren't the cheapest units on the market I mean be quiets not claiming that they are but this is one area of your next bill where I really don't recommend you cheap out it's super easy to just opt for a $20 a 30 dollar unit that's not even 80 plus sufficient and yeah if that thing dies you could take the rest of your system with it and and that's that's scary because I have replacing a power supply is pretty cheap for the most part when seen in the context of your entire build now with that said you can find these power supplies linked below if you're interested I have used be quite power supplies for a long time I do recommend them that's why I had no problem with them sponsoring this informative video if you guys like this one hit that thumbs up button consider subscribing if they haven't already and I'll catch you in the next one this is science to do thanks for learning with uspicking a power supply can seem like a daunting task I get it I think we've all been there at some point at least for our first build how many watts do I need does efficiency matter what about size that's why this video exists and we've partnered with be quiet to explain these factors and make your decision just a bit easier it's the PSU is a pretty vital component of any PC right it converts AC a fresh from the wall into DC and splits power on Rails to feel the various components in a rig and while the marketing jargon can be a bit overwhelming at times I'll admit there are a three key elements to picking the correct power supply size wattage and efficiency sizes the first one will tackle because it's the most straightforward the majority of computer cases in the market support one of two psu form factors that's ATX and sfx there are several others but mainstream uses for these and desktop computers are few and far between ATX is a size you'll probably see the most and that's because they can be used in most mid towers full towers and even some I TX cases that support this form factor the units look something like this right here this is a straight power 11 from be quiet and it's just under 9 centimeters tall it will vary to an extent in terms of depth though so make sure that the case and power supply you choose are compatible because some cases aren't very deep a site like PC port picker will often list these potential incompatibilities as you go about selecting your components it's a great site I recommend it especially if you're a first time builder but even people who have done this before can use it and often do we've linked it down below if you are interested in checking it out but in short most of you will be looking at an ATX PSU of some sort cases that only support IT XPS use will often indicate this somewhere on their product pages so keep a lookout now on the wattage is how many watts does your system need and well actually PC par picker can be pretty good for that as well after selecting all of your components you'll see a wattage estimation in the top right hand corner there are several sites that do this but we'll stick with PC port picker we talked about it earlier and it give you a good idea of where you should be aiming another reliable way to calculate load wattage is with the be quiet PSU calculator simply input your system specs and the site will use those parameters to determine which of their PSU is our most optimal using the same system we built in PC part picker be quiet calculates a max wattage of 301 watts and from here you can designate whether you prefer a TX or SFX units and whether you prefer a modular or non modular design I've linked it down below if you're interested in checking it out you can also reference TDPS though these metrics do not indicate specific power requirements under load in fact TDP is often a slight under estimation of peak power draw because of what the metric is actually attempting to do it's more or less four coolers it's a thermal principle or not necessarily a power draw principle although they are related a safe bet I've discussed in the past is multiplying primary product TDPS by a safety factor of 1.5 consider an 80 600 K from Intel that TDP is 95 watts multiply this by 1.5 to account for the occasional power spike manual overclocks MCE whatever else you might be doing with a chip it's just again a buffer this will also partially account for other components in your system that consume less power like your motherboard storage drives and fans now add this product here 143 to the product of our GPUs TDP and the same safety factor if we consider a standard 16 60 TI for example that'll put us at 180 watts the sum of 143 and 180 is 323 Watts know that this is pretty close to what PC port Baker says and now we can multiply this by another 1.5 safety factor which accounts for a power supply's efficiency curve more on this later that puts us at 485 watts which we can safely round up to 500 watts and there we go for this system I'd recommend a 500 watt power supply now sure we could go higher than this I mean heck we could even go lower arguably but I've found that this little equation goes a long way for most builds and once you've found your ideal wattage you can begin shopping be quiet hosts a wide range of units I've got a few back there the straight power 11 series the dark power pro 11 series and the pure power 11 these units are more budget oriented and the straight power units throw a few added perks like quieter silent Wings fans full cable modularity and a sleeker design beefier systems could benefit from those dark power pro power supplies but most of the time you'll be just fine with either a pure power 11 or straight power 11 one of my favorite features about the straight power 11 series is the fact that there are no external wire stemming from the circuit board these often trap and prevent fans above from appropriately dissipating heat and while some PSUs have fans that turn off at idle be quiet ops to keep fans running at all times since PSUs are always releasing heat this is where silent Winx fans come into play you'd never even know they were turning just small details like this you may want to look into for your next power supply so let's assume for the sake of argument that you've got your mind set on gonna pull this again this 750 watt straight power 11 be quiet unit a healthy middle ground that we actually use for many of our graphics card and CPU tests we link it and pretty much all of those videos and we pair them with very nice custom sleeved cables from cable odd orange and black accents and the orange matches the be quiet logo so this point there's still one more variable to consider that's efficiency now this particular unit actually this entire series has a fixed efficiency rating so you want to worry about it if you've already made up your mind but a B+ goal in this case is perfectly fine for a vast majority of builds out there you want to be more efficient just to be even safer you could certainly do that there are more expensive units typically out there but 80 plus gold is a good medic round anyway what am I talking about what the heck is 80 plus gold well the 80 plus rating system attempts to promote power efficiency with respect to load wattage and there are several tiers to consider you've got regular 80 plus some call it 80 plus white you have 80 plus bronze silver gold platinum and titanium the closer to titanium you get the more efficient your PSU is at that predetermined power load at 80 plus efficiency the PSU in question must be 80% efficient at 20% 50% and 100% power loads so for a 500 watt unit like this pure power 11 it would need to be 80% efficient at 100 250 and 500 watt loads the resulting power input from the wall would need to be higher than this value by the way and we can calculate this by dividing the load by the efficiency so PSU efficiency equals output power that's the power that sent to your components divided by input power that's the power pulled from the wall but this pure power 11 has an 80 plus gold rating and the gold standard requires 80 percent efficiency at both 20% and 100% loads and 90% efficiency at a 50% load so you can see why a higher efficiency rating would be more desirable the more efficient the power supply the smaller the ratio between power pulled from the wall and power sent to your components more efficient units can actually save you small amounts of money in the long run each month on your power bill as a result assuming you use your PC quite a bit for gaming or whatever they also tend to be built a bit better since more expensive and cutting-edge capacitors transformer isn't alike or required to maintain said efficiency standard and this ties back in to what I said earlier about that second 1.5 safety factor multiple power supplies are most efficient at around 50 percent load so you'll always want a power supply capable of outputting a higher wattage than your systems base requirement you don't want to be you know using a 300 watt power supply with a system that pulls roughly 300 watts from the wall under load likewise you don't want to pair a 3000 watt unit with a system it's only gonna pull 100 watts from the wall most people think this is ok but it's actually not if a power supply is barely outputting any power and it's you know water trading is really high then that can also be extremely strenuous on the power supply you can calculate the idea what it's more specifically if you'd like but I found that 1.5 is pretty consistent for most builds out there and that's why I've stuck with it for several years I've even talked about it in this video right here by the way the great thing about be quiet power supplies is that even their lower end units like the pure power 11 I have here boast an 80 plus gold rating sure they aren't the cheapest units on the market I mean be quiets not claiming that they are but this is one area of your next bill where I really don't recommend you cheap out it's super easy to just opt for a $20 a 30 dollar unit that's not even 80 plus sufficient and yeah if that thing dies you could take the rest of your system with it and and that's that's scary because I have replacing a power supply is pretty cheap for the most part when seen in the context of your entire build now with that said you can find these power supplies linked below if you're interested I have used be quite power supplies for a long time I do recommend them that's why I had no problem with them sponsoring this informative video if you guys like this one hit that thumbs up button consider subscribing if they haven't already and I'll catch you in the next one this is science to do thanks for learning with us\n"