Choosing the best power cord for your computer a layman's guide

Choosing the Best Power Cord for Your Computer: A Layman's Guide

Most of the businesses run on computer these days. The way they have become contingent for conducting daily business activities, they need proper power supply. If they don’t get their electrical oxygen, they may suffer from crashes, boot failures, or even explode into fumes. In order to prevent occurrence of these incidents, one needs to choose the best power supply cable​ ​for their PC.

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Although these power supply cords are the heart for PCs; computer builders and daily operators often overlook them.

They choose the power supplies depending on its wattage capacity only. Assuming the higher the wattage, the better is the cord. And often ignore other vital factors. This ignorance not only ends in wasting money and electricity but even ruins all the component parts of computer.

You need to select a computer power cable that ensures stability and reliability for years. For that, you might need to go by these points in order to make the right choice.

Wattage The computer models, their makeover and build-up companies differ. And so do their wattage capacity. When you choose a computer power cord, check your model and its wattage capacity which you might find in the user manual. In case, you don’t find in there, there are Power Supply Unit (PSU) wattage calculators with the help of which you can pick the right cord.

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Below given is information on different power supply capacity: ● 400 Watts: The most common power cords carry a capacity of 400 watts and can replace the most branded computer power supply units. They are available at a low price and can handle all the component computer parts in a systematic manner. However, they are not feature-rich, not modular and at the max can give 2 years warranty. ● 430 Watts​: These power cables are better than 400 PSUs with 30+ more units. They encompass necessary features and provide 3-5 years warranty. However, even these are not modular. ● 500 Watts: As you are already aware, PCs differ from each other. If you have a custom-built PC, you should prefer a cord that has 500-600 wattage capacity. As you are likely to get 3-5 years warranty with a better appearance and quality.

Further, these help in building a high end graphic card and renders better cable management.

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● 700 Watts: If you are ready to invest money and install second graphics card with more features and modularity, go for power cords that have 700 wattage capacity. Moreover, you get a 5 years warranty on this. ● 750 Watts: This is the maximum wattage capacity any computer needs even if you are playing games.

Thereafter comes 1000-1200 wattage capacity power cords which anyone would need only if they run 3 or more graphic cards and 5+ hard drives.

After all, you need to choose a PSU that matches with your PC capacity plus 20% buffer as it renders safety and future proofing. Ultimately it all depends on your activities and budget constraints.

Efficiency Standard Once you figure out the power consumption needs of your computer, you need to consider energy saving options too. And therefore, it worth talking here about 80+ power efficiency. It simply describes those computer power cables that don’t waste ​ 4​

a lot of electricity. There are 6 categories under the 80+ certified power supplies. Let us have a look at all those categories and how much power they save. ● ● ● ● ● ●

80+ White saves 80% power 80+ Bronze saves 85% power 80+ Silver saves 88% power 80+ Gold saves 90% power 80+ Platinum saves 92% power 80+ Titanium saves 94% power

Do remember that your computer rarely uses the total wattage unit from the cord. Instead, it only pulls how much it needs. For example- if you watch videos and surf on the web, your PC will use only a couple hundred watts. So, of course you can go with a more efficient power supply depending upon good deals if available, your budget and activities.

Modularity One important aspect to consider while choosing ​computer power cord is modularity check. Let me tell you it has become very easy to figure out the type of cable for your computer as there are only 3 options available: ● Direct Cable: ​Ideally, these power cables come directly from power supply houses. As they are cheaper in ​ 5​

production and design and are therefore available to consumers at low prices. But, these are not suitable for a technology-oriented person as they prefer to change their settings according to changing times. Which is not possible in case of direct cables. Moreover, cable management becomes difficult as there are a number of cables to deal with. ● Semi-Modular: ​Technocrats may prefer buying semi-modular cables. As they provide flexibility in their removal at one’s own will. These semi modular cable connectors like Molex (4-pin) and SATA (15-pin) offer middle ground pricing and provide easy cable management solutions. ● Full-Modular: ​Technocrats may prefer to use these cables as they are removable thereby making the installation process sleek and easy. It enables frequent changing of built up production or design thereby making it fully modular.

Conclusion Hope, you understood why power cords are so vital for PCs. Furthermore, we hope this information comes of help and enables you to choose the best computer power cord depending on various factors. ​ 6​