It's one of the most important components in your computer. Nothing will work without it, and yet it doesn't receive a fraction of the attention it deserves. It's the power supply.

Why is the power supply so important? The reason is simple: every other component in the PC depends on stable power for trouble-free operation. Even relatively slight deviations in voltage can lead to crashes and component failures, a fact many users are still unaware of. When a PC is unstable, the first things they suspect as the cause are overly-aggressive memory timings, an overheated graphics card or an overclocked CPU. Very rarely does the power supply unit come under scrutiny, despite its being one of the most problem-prone components! Reason enough for THG to take a closer look at these critical parts.

ATX12V 2.01 - The New Specification

The PC world is going through a time of upheaval. With the advent of PCI Express, DDR2 memory and Serial ATA, many new components are arriving on the scene. Taking its place among them, almost unnoticed, is ATX12V 2.01, a new power supply standard destined to replace ATX 1.3.