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https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByNYyeEyOMlTVjBkZVQ5dnhyVG8/edit?usp=sharing is the link to my PDF of this tutorial. See the link for very high resolution images.
Power Supply Installation and Cable Management
Created by: Josh Blankenship
11/27/2013
Introduction
Welcome to an informative, graphical, and no-nonsense walkthrough depicting how to properly install and organize your new power supply. We will be covering multiple topics in detail: determining factors when purchasing a power supply, what factors are important for your application, how to test a power supply prior to installing it in your computer, proper installation of a power supply and how to manage all those cables.
Purchasing A Power Supply
When making the decision to purchase a power supply whether it be to serve as a replacement in your current system, an upgrade to help provide necessary extra power for additional components, or powering a brand new computer build, there are certain factors that distinguish the multitude of power supplies in today’s market. Whether your main focus is: gaming, programming, word processing, excel spreadsheets, internet surfing, and more; there are specific constants within them all. We all want a reliable, somewhat affordable, power supply that when pushed to its maximum or just idles for years, continues to perform. Here are a few factors to pay attention to when searching for your perfect power supply:
1. 80 Plus Rating
a. This is widely becoming a standard with most power supply manufacturers. 80 Plus has been around a while now and is one of the most important factors of any current power supply. This is due to the rating providing a standard for manufacturers to uphold, and though they have a choice to participate or not, they can get incentives for becoming 80 Plus Certified.
b. There are a few different 80 Plus levels of certification and they are:
i. 80 Plus: The initial level providing consumers with the knowledge that their power supplies will be no less than 80% energy efficient under any load percentage.
ii. 80 Plus Bronze: this provides a slight increase in the percentage of energy efficiency with a lowest value of 82%.
iii. 80 Plus Silver: Another notch above the previous two. Certifies that the power supply in question will be at least 85% energy efficient with a maximum of 88% at a 50% load.
iv. 80 Plus Gold: This list is quickly closing the gap between 80% and 100% energy efficiency and the gold certified power supplies are the first to provide a 90% efficiency rating at 50% load and only drops 3% down to 87% for a minimum efficiency rating.
v. 80 Plus Platinum: At this point your wallet will be feeling a bit empty due to the astringent price attached to any platinum certified power supply. This is because it boasts a minimum of 89% energy efficiency at 100% load! As well as a peak efficiency rating of 92% at a 50% load. This is the highest rating for standard 115V power supplies.
vi. 80 Plus Titanium: When 230V is what you require then this rating insures your power supply will be as efficient as currently possible with a maximum of 96% rating at a 50%load and no less than 90% power delivered at whatever load you’re powering.
Here is a chart depicting the information we just discussed.
c. The load discussed in the previous division refers to the computer components you’re powering with the power supply and the amount of power they require at any given time. Therefore its correct to say that if your computer is idle then the load is minimal, hopefully significantly under 50% of your power supplies maximum power rating. Also, if you are doing anything graphic intensive or any heavy computations that require your processor to peak along with other components, then your load would be closer to 80%-100% of your power supplies rated maximum power. This is all dependent on the components that comprise your system, their required power consumption added together, and then compared to the maximum power your power supply can output to those components. Hopefully I didn’t lose anyone there though if I did just know I will touch on this subject more within the walkthrough so you will hopefully comprehend this before reading this document in its entirety.
2. The power requirements of any system the power supply will be placed in.
a. This is much easier than most people think. If you know the components of your system or are currently piecing together what components you want your system to be composed of then you have all the information you need to find out the maximum power rating all those components combined will require. If you are unsure of what components are in your computer or what components you are going to build your computer with then its best to determine this prior to searching for a power supply as you will have no basis to judge your requirements off of.
b. MSI, an extremely large computer components manufacturer has created a database of about every new and older computer component that you could place in a system and placed that information on a website in the form of selectable drop down menu’s that, once filled with your systems information, will calculate the maximum power requirement for your specific system. This power requirement takes into account all the maximum power requirements of every individual component and adds them all together to provide you with the data without having to scour the data sheets and specs lists to find and calculate this on your own. I have used this resource many times and highly recommend it to anyone looking for power requirement information.
c. Here is the link directly to MSI’s power supply calculator: http://us.msi.com/service/power-supply-calculator/. This can allow you to change certain components of a system build to see how the power requirements differ.
d. Discover your budget for your power supply and try to build a system that meets the power rating of a reliable power supply within that budget.
3. This one is the most important of all three factors. Judge whether you have an understanding of what the computer is composed of and how it works together. If you are unsure on anything I’ve previously discussed then please, please, pretty please, ASK FOR HELP! No one starts out in this world with knowledge of such materials as computers. It is learned through trial and error, discovery of the unknown, and many times over being caught in a position of dumbfoundedness hoping to come across a combination of events that lead to a correct solution. We all learn from mistakes, hopefully, so don’t be afraid to try something for the first time but be smart about it and get some help.
Your Specific Determining Factors
What are you going to use your computer for? Are you a gamer, graphic designer, movie maker, photo editor, programmer, etc.? Having a proper understanding of what you will be using your computer for is a good way to determine the components required to meet those needs and therefore discover your specific systems power requirements. I won’t be spending much time on this topic due to its expansive nature exploring combinations of system components that are good for specific applications or focuses. I will, however, refer you all to check out a great resource known as www.tomshardware.com. Every month they release empirical data on the differences between a multitude of the latest computer components and search how certain components differ under specific usage. This gives everyone a free way to grasp more than a theoretical difference between certain components when compared against each other. Check it out, you’ll be glad that you did.
Testing A Power Supply Before Installation
Ahh, one easy, yet important part of any computer builder’s arsenal of knowledge. One of the worst and most annoying things that can happen to anyone replacing a power supply is to get a DOA (Dead On Arrival) unit without knowing it until you have it completely installed into your computer. It is essential to have your power supply cycle on and off a few times before you even crack open your computer case; but how can you turn on a power supply without hooking it up to your motherboard and case switches? Well, extremely easily in fact. All you will need is a paperclip. Yes, a paperclip! Make sure to have the power supply cable plugged into the wall outlet. Grab the 24 pin power connector; it looks like this:
Take your paperclip and connect one end of it into the part of the connector where the only green wire resides and the other end into the part of the connector where any black wire resides. When this happens the power supply fan should spin and if there are any lights within or on the power supply they should power on. If nothing happens then this is a sign that your power supply is faulty and needs to be returned for a working unit. For those of us that want to go a step further you can take a multi-meter and measure the voltages within the 3.3V, 5V, and 12V lines to make sure they are all at the very least meeting those voltage specifications. If this is you then use this pinout image to determine the different voltage wires from one another:
How’s that for a simple and free way to possibly save you from headaches and wasted time installing a faulty power supply into your system? No special tools required.
Proper Installation/Cable Management
You don’t need an engineering degree to comprehend how to correctly install your power supply into your computer. First and foremost please discover if your power supply mounts into the top of your case or the bottom. Most cases nowadays have their power supply mounting located at the bottom of the case though not all. From this point take both sides of your case off and set them aside; you won’t need them again till the end. To start us off I’d like to show you a great representation of cable management with a multitude of wires:
This system features a modular power supply with custom, individually sleeved cables providing that extra level of a custom look. While it looks amazing, and most of us will strive to have our personal systems look this good, it doesn’t come without extensive amounts of time spent sleeving the individual cables and in some cases making your own wire to the exact length. Not practical for the majority of us and I won’t be covering that process in this walkthrough. We will be focusing on making sure you have everything hooked up to power that is necessary for your system to function and some simple cable management techniques.
Within the last few years many computer case manufacturers have incorporated cable management holes within the motherboard mounting plate. This makes running cables out of sight and hidden behind the back side of the motherboard tray extremely easy and efficient. One good addition is the amount of space provided between the motherboard tray and the opposing side panel. This allows the routing of large cables or multiple cables to be tied together and hidden, cleaning up the look of your case and allowing for better air flow within your case. You can see the extra space in this next image:
Now it’s time to get to work. Let’s start by placing the power supply on the bottom of the case with the fan positioned one of two directions. If your case has the awesome feature of spacing the bottom of your case from the floor and providing some sort of grating for the power supply fan to intake from then place your power supply with its fan facing downward. You can see in this next image what I am talking about:
In many cases you will also receive a fan filter that can be removed and cleaned so this is a preferred orientation for mounting power supplies in modern computer cases. This next image shows an easily removable fan filter for a power supply:
This orientation provides your power supply the ability to pull fresh, cool air from the outside of your case instead of pulling hot air exhausted from your graphics card(s). If your case doesn’t support this, don’t worry as your power supply will function well in the opposite orientation, with the fan facing upward.
Next, take all your wires and place them through the lower cable management holes, shown in this next image:
After this is done you should have all of your necessary power cables sitting out the back side of your case. Go ahead and place your 24 pin power connector back into the inside of your case through whichever cable management hole best aligns with the connector on the board. Normally located on the right side of the motherboard either in the middle or the top as shown in this next image:
The second cable to plug in would be the 8 pin power connector. This is done by stretching the cable to the very top right corner of the back of the motherboard tray (when looking at the back of the motherboard tray) and pushing it back through to the inside of the case to plug in at the very top of the motherboard. The next two images will display this step.
This image displays the location of the hole at the back of the computers motherboard tray for the wire to fit through:
This image displays the location of the 8 pin power connector on the motherboard:
Once those two are plugged in then all you have to do is plug in the PCIe 6 pin or 8 pin power connectors (the connector depends on your specific graphics card(s)) to your graphics card(s), as shown in this next image:
As well as run the SATA power connectors to any SATA devices (HDDs, SSDs, Optical Drives, etc.). If you have any devices that use 4 pin molex connectors make sure they are connected as well.
This last image displays what the backside of your motherboard can look like with minimal cable ties and good placement of wires running through the cable management holes:
I apologize for the quality of this image as it is only somewhat legible.
In conclusion, we covered a few differences in power supplies, how to determine your maximum power requirement and match that to a 80 Plus certified power supply, as well as installing a power supply and basic cable management skills. I hope this document helps anyone who is looking for assistance with choosing and installing a power supply. As always this is a free document for anyone and everyone. Enjoy!
Power Supply Installation and Cable Management
Created by: Josh Blankenship
11/27/2013
Introduction
Welcome to an informative, graphical, and no-nonsense walkthrough depicting how to properly install and organize your new power supply. We will be covering multiple topics in detail: determining factors when purchasing a power supply, what factors are important for your application, how to test a power supply prior to installing it in your computer, proper installation of a power supply and how to manage all those cables.
Purchasing A Power Supply
When making the decision to purchase a power supply whether it be to serve as a replacement in your current system, an upgrade to help provide necessary extra power for additional components, or powering a brand new computer build, there are certain factors that distinguish the multitude of power supplies in today’s market. Whether your main focus is: gaming, programming, word processing, excel spreadsheets, internet surfing, and more; there are specific constants within them all. We all want a reliable, somewhat affordable, power supply that when pushed to its maximum or just idles for years, continues to perform. Here are a few factors to pay attention to when searching for your perfect power supply:
1. 80 Plus Rating
a. This is widely becoming a standard with most power supply manufacturers. 80 Plus has been around a while now and is one of the most important factors of any current power supply. This is due to the rating providing a standard for manufacturers to uphold, and though they have a choice to participate or not, they can get incentives for becoming 80 Plus Certified.
b. There are a few different 80 Plus levels of certification and they are:
i. 80 Plus: The initial level providing consumers with the knowledge that their power supplies will be no less than 80% energy efficient under any load percentage.
ii. 80 Plus Bronze: this provides a slight increase in the percentage of energy efficiency with a lowest value of 82%.
iii. 80 Plus Silver: Another notch above the previous two. Certifies that the power supply in question will be at least 85% energy efficient with a maximum of 88% at a 50% load.
iv. 80 Plus Gold: This list is quickly closing the gap between 80% and 100% energy efficiency and the gold certified power supplies are the first to provide a 90% efficiency rating at 50% load and only drops 3% down to 87% for a minimum efficiency rating.
v. 80 Plus Platinum: At this point your wallet will be feeling a bit empty due to the astringent price attached to any platinum certified power supply. This is because it boasts a minimum of 89% energy efficiency at 100% load! As well as a peak efficiency rating of 92% at a 50% load. This is the highest rating for standard 115V power supplies.
vi. 80 Plus Titanium: When 230V is what you require then this rating insures your power supply will be as efficient as currently possible with a maximum of 96% rating at a 50%load and no less than 90% power delivered at whatever load you’re powering.
Here is a chart depicting the information we just discussed.
c. The load discussed in the previous division refers to the computer components you’re powering with the power supply and the amount of power they require at any given time. Therefore its correct to say that if your computer is idle then the load is minimal, hopefully significantly under 50% of your power supplies maximum power rating. Also, if you are doing anything graphic intensive or any heavy computations that require your processor to peak along with other components, then your load would be closer to 80%-100% of your power supplies rated maximum power. This is all dependent on the components that comprise your system, their required power consumption added together, and then compared to the maximum power your power supply can output to those components. Hopefully I didn’t lose anyone there though if I did just know I will touch on this subject more within the walkthrough so you will hopefully comprehend this before reading this document in its entirety.
2. The power requirements of any system the power supply will be placed in.
a. This is much easier than most people think. If you know the components of your system or are currently piecing together what components you want your system to be composed of then you have all the information you need to find out the maximum power rating all those components combined will require. If you are unsure of what components are in your computer or what components you are going to build your computer with then its best to determine this prior to searching for a power supply as you will have no basis to judge your requirements off of.
b. MSI, an extremely large computer components manufacturer has created a database of about every new and older computer component that you could place in a system and placed that information on a website in the form of selectable drop down menu’s that, once filled with your systems information, will calculate the maximum power requirement for your specific system. This power requirement takes into account all the maximum power requirements of every individual component and adds them all together to provide you with the data without having to scour the data sheets and specs lists to find and calculate this on your own. I have used this resource many times and highly recommend it to anyone looking for power requirement information.
c. Here is the link directly to MSI’s power supply calculator: http://us.msi.com/service/power-supply-calculator/. This can allow you to change certain components of a system build to see how the power requirements differ.
d. Discover your budget for your power supply and try to build a system that meets the power rating of a reliable power supply within that budget.
3. This one is the most important of all three factors. Judge whether you have an understanding of what the computer is composed of and how it works together. If you are unsure on anything I’ve previously discussed then please, please, pretty please, ASK FOR HELP! No one starts out in this world with knowledge of such materials as computers. It is learned through trial and error, discovery of the unknown, and many times over being caught in a position of dumbfoundedness hoping to come across a combination of events that lead to a correct solution. We all learn from mistakes, hopefully, so don’t be afraid to try something for the first time but be smart about it and get some help.
Your Specific Determining Factors
What are you going to use your computer for? Are you a gamer, graphic designer, movie maker, photo editor, programmer, etc.? Having a proper understanding of what you will be using your computer for is a good way to determine the components required to meet those needs and therefore discover your specific systems power requirements. I won’t be spending much time on this topic due to its expansive nature exploring combinations of system components that are good for specific applications or focuses. I will, however, refer you all to check out a great resource known as www.tomshardware.com. Every month they release empirical data on the differences between a multitude of the latest computer components and search how certain components differ under specific usage. This gives everyone a free way to grasp more than a theoretical difference between certain components when compared against each other. Check it out, you’ll be glad that you did.
Testing A Power Supply Before Installation
Ahh, one easy, yet important part of any computer builder’s arsenal of knowledge. One of the worst and most annoying things that can happen to anyone replacing a power supply is to get a DOA (Dead On Arrival) unit without knowing it until you have it completely installed into your computer. It is essential to have your power supply cycle on and off a few times before you even crack open your computer case; but how can you turn on a power supply without hooking it up to your motherboard and case switches? Well, extremely easily in fact. All you will need is a paperclip. Yes, a paperclip! Make sure to have the power supply cable plugged into the wall outlet. Grab the 24 pin power connector; it looks like this:
Take your paperclip and connect one end of it into the part of the connector where the only green wire resides and the other end into the part of the connector where any black wire resides. When this happens the power supply fan should spin and if there are any lights within or on the power supply they should power on. If nothing happens then this is a sign that your power supply is faulty and needs to be returned for a working unit. For those of us that want to go a step further you can take a multi-meter and measure the voltages within the 3.3V, 5V, and 12V lines to make sure they are all at the very least meeting those voltage specifications. If this is you then use this pinout image to determine the different voltage wires from one another:
How’s that for a simple and free way to possibly save you from headaches and wasted time installing a faulty power supply into your system? No special tools required.
Proper Installation/Cable Management
You don’t need an engineering degree to comprehend how to correctly install your power supply into your computer. First and foremost please discover if your power supply mounts into the top of your case or the bottom. Most cases nowadays have their power supply mounting located at the bottom of the case though not all. From this point take both sides of your case off and set them aside; you won’t need them again till the end. To start us off I’d like to show you a great representation of cable management with a multitude of wires:
This system features a modular power supply with custom, individually sleeved cables providing that extra level of a custom look. While it looks amazing, and most of us will strive to have our personal systems look this good, it doesn’t come without extensive amounts of time spent sleeving the individual cables and in some cases making your own wire to the exact length. Not practical for the majority of us and I won’t be covering that process in this walkthrough. We will be focusing on making sure you have everything hooked up to power that is necessary for your system to function and some simple cable management techniques.
Within the last few years many computer case manufacturers have incorporated cable management holes within the motherboard mounting plate. This makes running cables out of sight and hidden behind the back side of the motherboard tray extremely easy and efficient. One good addition is the amount of space provided between the motherboard tray and the opposing side panel. This allows the routing of large cables or multiple cables to be tied together and hidden, cleaning up the look of your case and allowing for better air flow within your case. You can see the extra space in this next image:
Now it’s time to get to work. Let’s start by placing the power supply on the bottom of the case with the fan positioned one of two directions. If your case has the awesome feature of spacing the bottom of your case from the floor and providing some sort of grating for the power supply fan to intake from then place your power supply with its fan facing downward. You can see in this next image what I am talking about:
In many cases you will also receive a fan filter that can be removed and cleaned so this is a preferred orientation for mounting power supplies in modern computer cases. This next image shows an easily removable fan filter for a power supply:
This orientation provides your power supply the ability to pull fresh, cool air from the outside of your case instead of pulling hot air exhausted from your graphics card(s). If your case doesn’t support this, don’t worry as your power supply will function well in the opposite orientation, with the fan facing upward.
Next, take all your wires and place them through the lower cable management holes, shown in this next image:
After this is done you should have all of your necessary power cables sitting out the back side of your case. Go ahead and place your 24 pin power connector back into the inside of your case through whichever cable management hole best aligns with the connector on the board. Normally located on the right side of the motherboard either in the middle or the top as shown in this next image:
The second cable to plug in would be the 8 pin power connector. This is done by stretching the cable to the very top right corner of the back of the motherboard tray (when looking at the back of the motherboard tray) and pushing it back through to the inside of the case to plug in at the very top of the motherboard. The next two images will display this step.
This image displays the location of the hole at the back of the computers motherboard tray for the wire to fit through:
This image displays the location of the 8 pin power connector on the motherboard:
Once those two are plugged in then all you have to do is plug in the PCIe 6 pin or 8 pin power connectors (the connector depends on your specific graphics card(s)) to your graphics card(s), as shown in this next image:
As well as run the SATA power connectors to any SATA devices (HDDs, SSDs, Optical Drives, etc.). If you have any devices that use 4 pin molex connectors make sure they are connected as well.
This last image displays what the backside of your motherboard can look like with minimal cable ties and good placement of wires running through the cable management holes:
I apologize for the quality of this image as it is only somewhat legible.
In conclusion, we covered a few differences in power supplies, how to determine your maximum power requirement and match that to a 80 Plus certified power supply, as well as installing a power supply and basic cable management skills. I hope this document helps anyone who is looking for assistance with choosing and installing a power supply. As always this is a free document for anyone and everyone. Enjoy!
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