Overclocking - The Basics

Power Supplies

Overclocking every and any component will effect the power draw to some extent. Running a CPU at 2ghz and 3ghz will have a major impact on the power supply, and you will need to make sure your PSU meets several important requirements.

1. A good brand/quality PSU- Quality over quantity. A 350W Antec Smart power can smoke any generic 500-600w PSUs no contest.


2. Capable wattage- too little juice, even in the best of brands PSUs can choke a system and limit your overclock.


3. The proper power connectors!! This must be stressed, because recently motherboards have started using 24 pin ATX connectors, rather than 20 pin, and different style p4 connectors. Double, even triple check!

Different systems have very different power requirements- so its best to aim higher than what you will actually be using. Recommended PSU's vary, depending on a system, so the choice ultimately is yours. Since overkill doesn't hurt here- get a nice beefy PSU if you plan on overclocking. Even when not overclocking, a good PSU is required for stable day-to-day usage. PSU requirements have changed greatly recently, and will continue to change with hardware, so the day after an article is written, it becomes outdated. The best resources for PSU advice are Forums. A personal resource I use is "The PSU thread" over at XS. Commonly trusted brands include (in no specific order):

• Pc Power & Cooling (Currently, prettymuch THE top PSU manf. aside from servers, but those don't count...)
• FSP(fortron source)
• Sparkle
• Antec
• OCZ
• PC Power and Cooling
• Zippy/Emacs
• Enermax
• Zalman
• Tagan
• Seasonic
• Mushkin