Power Supply Summary 2007 - The Best of the Best

These days, it's not always simple to choose the ideal power supply unit for one's needs. Faced with a bewildering array of manufacturers, brands, models and wattage levels, casual buyers often judge by outward appearances, attractive prices, or nominal wattage ratings. However, seasoned hardware enthusiasts generally shop for a power supply that's earned a reputation for quality and reliability, with appropriate wattage and price as secondary considerations. The consequences of a badly-chosen power supply may include system instability, lockups, BSODs, hard-disk corruption, and even catastrophic power-supply failure which damages other components; it's not simply a case of, say, losing a few 3DMarks because one chose a stylish-looking video card that happened to have slow RAM. The power supply is fundamental to the rest of the computer, and merits as much care as any other hardware purchase.