- Apr 10, 2006
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80Plus - The official explanation is here.
80plus.org certifies power supplies to be at least 80% efficient at room temperature. The more efficient a power supply is, at various loads, the higher the certification... 80plus, 80plus Bronze, 80plus Silver, 80plus Gold. It should be noted that real world operating temperatures are not always ideal, so the efficiency found in the 80plus labs may not be what the user experiences, depending on the PSU. 80plus certification also indicates the PSU is capable of its rated power, at 25c. (Example: The PSU received 80plus Gold certification.)
Amps - common abbreviation for amperes.
Ampere is the measurement of the flow of electricity. In simple terms you could think of it as the gallons per minute coming out of your garden hose, but not the FORCE of the water, that's different (volts). (Example: These PSUs can all produce at least 32 amps on the 12V rail.)
APFC - Active Power Factor Correction
This helps define your power supplies relationship with the power grid. It doesn't do much for you personally unless you live in a country that requires it. However, it does help reduce the strain on your electrical utility company, and so the environment indirectly. These days, any PSU without APFC is probably very old or very cheap (and not sold in Europe). Power supplies with APFC have no voltage selection switch on the back, because they don't need it.
Caps - Capacitors
What a capacitor does is probably beyond the scope of this glossary. In a power supply, it often looks like a little can of varying size, on two legs. Caps have to be able to do their job for long periods under a certain amount of heat. If they fail or are insufficient for their assigned task, they can cause problems. It's easy for an expert to look at the brand of capacitor and what it is rated for, when determining how good a PSU should be. Thus, you see capacitors mentioned in good reviews of PSUs often.
Crossload
A large load is placed on a single rail with very little load on another, often done in extreme power supply tests. Another indicator of quality.
Group regulated
The rails are controlled as a group so a larger load on one rail can affect the voltages on other rails. Cheaper to produce but can go out of spec on extreme crossloads.
Heatsinks
A heatsink is a device that conducts heat away from something, usually transferring it to the surrounding air. Various parts inside your PC need to have heatsinks because they produce a lot of heat. Your PSU will have heatsinks inside for the same reason, and will almost always use a fan to keep the heatsinks cool. Most often the heatsinks in your PSU will be made from aluminum.
Independently Regulated Rails
The load on one rail will not effect the voltage of the other.
Modularity
In a modular PSU, the extra cables can be removed to eliminate an ungainly clump of unused cables. Fully modular is when all the cables can be removed. Hybrid or partially modular is when some important cables, such as the cpu power and 24pin motherboard power cable are hardwired, while the rest of the connections are modular.
OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer
Most PSU companies do not make the PSUs they sell. Knowing who actually made a PSU can sometimes help you decide if it's likely to be a quality unit or not.
PCB - Printed Circuit Board
Primary Circuit
Takes the 60Hz AC input, filters, rectifies, and converts it into a much higher frequency to feed into a PSU's transformer(s).
PSU - Power Supply Unit
The PSU in a modern computer converts power from the alternating current found at the wall into direct current. It outputs three kinds of direct current: 12V, 5V, and 3.3V. (Example: This PSU can produce up to 70 amps on the 12V rail.)
PUC This refers to a design by the OEM Channel Well Tech (CWT). It's used for larger power supplies where completely separate 12V sources are included in one PSU. An internal shot of one of these looks like two power supplies on one PCB.
Rail
This has meant various things in the past in regards to a power supply. Here we mean a separate channel for electricity produced by the PSU. There are always at least 5 rails on every PSU: +12VDC (VoltsDirectCurrent), -12VDC, 5VDC, 3.3VDC, 5 VSB (VoltsStandBy) Sometimes, more than one +12V rail is used. Sometimes, a PSU seller will claim to have more than one 12V rail, but really it's just one that has been split. For 12V rails to be real, they have to have something separating them, like independent over-current protection. Some PSUs have very separate sources inside the PSU for the 12V power, and these have been called "true independent 12V rails" or something like that.
Regulation - voltage regulation
A power supply needs to provide voltage that falls within a certain range. It must do this at all the various loads it's going to receive. This range is + or - 5%. So for instance the +12V rail is allowed to be anywhere from 11.4V to 12.6V. That does not mean you want such a loosely regulated PSU.
Ripple
Ripple (fluctuations) and noise (spikes) are undesirable AC currents remaining in a power supplies DC outputs. Ripple decreases the lifespan of the capacitors and increases voltage instabilities in the high speed and very low voltage circuitry in today's computers.
The ATX specification for allowable ripple is measured in mV, or millivolts. A millivolt is 1/1000th of a volt. The spec is 120mV for all the 12V rails, and 50mV for the others... but the lower the better of course.
Secondary Circuit
The "low voltage" area of the PSU, where the voltages your PC needs are produced, and load monitoring is done to see how high the duty cycle on the Primary side needs to be to meet the demand.
Soldering
Solder is made up of tin and other metals. It has a low melting point and is used to bond metal pieces together. Because it can be very conductive, it is used a great deal on circuit boards and wiring. The prickly silver dots on the bottom of the psu's circuit board are solder, for instance.
Transformer
"Transforms" an oscillating input voltage into a different output voltage using principles discovered by Michael Farraday that link magnetism and electric currents; each can induce the other. They are not the most efficient devices, particularly at low frequencies, which is why a modern switching PSU uses much higher frequencies than the 60Hz (or 50Hz in Europe) that comes over the mains.
Volts - It's the measure used to describe the difference of electrical potential, but you can think of it this way: If you turn your garden hose on and then put your hand over the end, the amount of pressure or force trying to push your hand away would be like volts. The amount of FLOW out of the hose would be like amps.
Watts - Also wattage.
A measurement of energy conversion, meaning when energy is converted to work or another form of energy such as heat.
When we talk about wattage of a PSU, we are talking about the total amount of work it can do. Volts multiplied by amps equals watts, or V x A = W.
PSUs are commonly categorized by total watts available. Some companies give the max possible watts, while other companies give the continuous watts. This means their PSUs can operate all the time providing that many watts.
However, a PSU might be able to do work that you don't need. Perhaps a lot of it's rated work comes from the 5 volt variety of power... not so useful for your gaming computer.
This is why there is a new trend to discuss PSUs using the 12 volt amps - the amount work the PSU can do using 12 volts.
80plus.org certifies power supplies to be at least 80% efficient at room temperature. The more efficient a power supply is, at various loads, the higher the certification... 80plus, 80plus Bronze, 80plus Silver, 80plus Gold. It should be noted that real world operating temperatures are not always ideal, so the efficiency found in the 80plus labs may not be what the user experiences, depending on the PSU. 80plus certification also indicates the PSU is capable of its rated power, at 25c. (Example: The PSU received 80plus Gold certification.)
Amps - common abbreviation for amperes.
Ampere is the measurement of the flow of electricity. In simple terms you could think of it as the gallons per minute coming out of your garden hose, but not the FORCE of the water, that's different (volts). (Example: These PSUs can all produce at least 32 amps on the 12V rail.)
APFC - Active Power Factor Correction
This helps define your power supplies relationship with the power grid. It doesn't do much for you personally unless you live in a country that requires it. However, it does help reduce the strain on your electrical utility company, and so the environment indirectly. These days, any PSU without APFC is probably very old or very cheap (and not sold in Europe). Power supplies with APFC have no voltage selection switch on the back, because they don't need it.
Caps - Capacitors
What a capacitor does is probably beyond the scope of this glossary. In a power supply, it often looks like a little can of varying size, on two legs. Caps have to be able to do their job for long periods under a certain amount of heat. If they fail or are insufficient for their assigned task, they can cause problems. It's easy for an expert to look at the brand of capacitor and what it is rated for, when determining how good a PSU should be. Thus, you see capacitors mentioned in good reviews of PSUs often.
Crossload
A large load is placed on a single rail with very little load on another, often done in extreme power supply tests. Another indicator of quality.
Group regulated
The rails are controlled as a group so a larger load on one rail can affect the voltages on other rails. Cheaper to produce but can go out of spec on extreme crossloads.
Heatsinks
A heatsink is a device that conducts heat away from something, usually transferring it to the surrounding air. Various parts inside your PC need to have heatsinks because they produce a lot of heat. Your PSU will have heatsinks inside for the same reason, and will almost always use a fan to keep the heatsinks cool. Most often the heatsinks in your PSU will be made from aluminum.
Independently Regulated Rails
The load on one rail will not effect the voltage of the other.
Modularity
In a modular PSU, the extra cables can be removed to eliminate an ungainly clump of unused cables. Fully modular is when all the cables can be removed. Hybrid or partially modular is when some important cables, such as the cpu power and 24pin motherboard power cable are hardwired, while the rest of the connections are modular.
OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer
Most PSU companies do not make the PSUs they sell. Knowing who actually made a PSU can sometimes help you decide if it's likely to be a quality unit or not.
PCB - Printed Circuit Board
Primary Circuit
Takes the 60Hz AC input, filters, rectifies, and converts it into a much higher frequency to feed into a PSU's transformer(s).
PSU - Power Supply Unit
The PSU in a modern computer converts power from the alternating current found at the wall into direct current. It outputs three kinds of direct current: 12V, 5V, and 3.3V. (Example: This PSU can produce up to 70 amps on the 12V rail.)
PUC This refers to a design by the OEM Channel Well Tech (CWT). It's used for larger power supplies where completely separate 12V sources are included in one PSU. An internal shot of one of these looks like two power supplies on one PCB.
Rail
This has meant various things in the past in regards to a power supply. Here we mean a separate channel for electricity produced by the PSU. There are always at least 5 rails on every PSU: +12VDC (VoltsDirectCurrent), -12VDC, 5VDC, 3.3VDC, 5 VSB (VoltsStandBy) Sometimes, more than one +12V rail is used. Sometimes, a PSU seller will claim to have more than one 12V rail, but really it's just one that has been split. For 12V rails to be real, they have to have something separating them, like independent over-current protection. Some PSUs have very separate sources inside the PSU for the 12V power, and these have been called "true independent 12V rails" or something like that.
Regulation - voltage regulation
A power supply needs to provide voltage that falls within a certain range. It must do this at all the various loads it's going to receive. This range is + or - 5%. So for instance the +12V rail is allowed to be anywhere from 11.4V to 12.6V. That does not mean you want such a loosely regulated PSU.
Ripple
Ripple (fluctuations) and noise (spikes) are undesirable AC currents remaining in a power supplies DC outputs. Ripple decreases the lifespan of the capacitors and increases voltage instabilities in the high speed and very low voltage circuitry in today's computers.
The ATX specification for allowable ripple is measured in mV, or millivolts. A millivolt is 1/1000th of a volt. The spec is 120mV for all the 12V rails, and 50mV for the others... but the lower the better of course.
Secondary Circuit
The "low voltage" area of the PSU, where the voltages your PC needs are produced, and load monitoring is done to see how high the duty cycle on the Primary side needs to be to meet the demand.
Soldering
Solder is made up of tin and other metals. It has a low melting point and is used to bond metal pieces together. Because it can be very conductive, it is used a great deal on circuit boards and wiring. The prickly silver dots on the bottom of the psu's circuit board are solder, for instance.
Transformer
"Transforms" an oscillating input voltage into a different output voltage using principles discovered by Michael Farraday that link magnetism and electric currents; each can induce the other. They are not the most efficient devices, particularly at low frequencies, which is why a modern switching PSU uses much higher frequencies than the 60Hz (or 50Hz in Europe) that comes over the mains.
Volts - It's the measure used to describe the difference of electrical potential, but you can think of it this way: If you turn your garden hose on and then put your hand over the end, the amount of pressure or force trying to push your hand away would be like volts. The amount of FLOW out of the hose would be like amps.
Watts - Also wattage.
A measurement of energy conversion, meaning when energy is converted to work or another form of energy such as heat.
When we talk about wattage of a PSU, we are talking about the total amount of work it can do. Volts multiplied by amps equals watts, or V x A = W.
PSUs are commonly categorized by total watts available. Some companies give the max possible watts, while other companies give the continuous watts. This means their PSUs can operate all the time providing that many watts.
However, a PSU might be able to do work that you don't need. Perhaps a lot of it's rated work comes from the 5 volt variety of power... not so useful for your gaming computer.
This is why there is a new trend to discuss PSUs using the 12 volt amps - the amount work the PSU can do using 12 volts.
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