How does the computer know how much power it needs?

Chemical1125 · Nov 17, 2015

If I bought a 1000 watts psu and connected the wires to a computer, and it only needs 200 watts, will it explode or something?

BadActor · Nov 17, 2015

No, it only draws what it needs.

daswilhelm · Nov 17, 2015

electricity knows. but if you only need 200w, don't buy a 100w psu.

mjslakeridge · Nov 17, 2015

No. The PSU is capable of delivering 1000 watts maximum (probably less in reality). If the components in the computer only draw 200 watts, that is what the PSU will deliver.

ss202sl · Nov 17, 2015

It will only use what it needs. The PSU will only supply what the PC needs. Just because you have a PSU capable of 1000 watts output doesn't mean that it will use 1000 watts all the time.

johnmanth · Nov 17, 2015

Every modern psu has a "pull"(or something similar, i cant realy remember) technology which means that the pc will get only the desired wattage, no your pc is perfectly safe and there is no change of it to explode

Hawkshot · Nov 17, 2015

It can only really be a problem to a PSU if you are running it Below 20% of the PSU total W for long periods of time, i know your example was an extreme example but in reality if you had a system that used 350W and your PSU was 650 or even 750W there wouldn't be a problem, but if your system under load only used 200W and your PSU is 1000W then it could cause a problem long term.

oczdude8 · Nov 17, 2015

johnmanth :

LOL.

sorry I thought this was kinda funny. There is no such thing as pull technology. Its basic physics.

Your power supply supplies a potential difference (voltage) across a load (such as your GPU). Then, based on the resistance of the load, only a certain amount of charge will flow through it. Therefore, the load (your PC components) determine how much power they receive from the PSU.

Its like connecting a big water reservoir to a small tube. The water pressure is the potential difference, and the water flowing in the tube will be the charge. Intuitively, you know that not all the water will flow through the tube at once, since it can only handle a certain amount of water.

Similarly, when you connect your cellphone to charge in a wall outlet, it doesn't draw all the power in the electricity grid, and instead uses 10W. You can think of the PSU being the electrical grid of your city, and your components as the cellphone charger.

If you want more information, you can google "Ohms law" to learn more. I hope this helped.

johnmanth · Nov 20, 2015

oczdude8 :

johnmanth :

LOL.

sorry I thought this was kinda funny. There is no such thing as pull technology. Its basic physics.

Your power supply supplies a potential difference (voltage) across a load (such as your GPU). Then, based on the resistance of the load, only a certain amount of charge will flow through it. Therefore, the load (your PC components) determine how much power they receive from the PSU.

Its like connecting a big water reservoir to a small tube. The water pressure is the potential difference, and the water flowing in the tube will be the charge. Intuitively, you know that not all the water will flow through the tube at once, since it can only handle a certain amount of water.

Similarly, when you connect your cellphone to charge in a wall outlet, it doesn't draw all the power in the electricity grid, and instead uses 10W. You can think of the PSU being the electrical grid of your city, and your components as the cellphone charger.

If you want more information, you can google "Ohms law" to learn more. I hope this helped.

tell that to my xfx psu's manuall

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How does the computer know how much power it needs?

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daswilhelm

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mjslakeridge

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johnmanth

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Hawkshot

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oczdude8

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johnmanth

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