How to Buy a Computer Power Supply

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm James, computer hardware training coordinator for InterConnection, and today I'm going to show you how to buy a power supply. This is a power supply for a computer. If you're in the market for buying a new one, there are a few things you want to keep in mind. One, how many pins this connector is. You see they can be a twenty or a twenty-four. A lot of new ones are like this, and if you have the smaller pin connector, you can merely slide that off, now you have a twenty pin. Another thing to keep in mind, you might want to make sure you have your serial ATA connectors, if you have serial ATA hard drives. And make sure you have your handy P4 connector should you need this on your motherboard. Most power supplies you buy off the market, the Antecs and all that, typically are going to have these connectors. Another thing you want to do when you buy a hard drive is you want to look at wattage. This right here is a four hundred watt. When you buy a power supply, you don't necessarily need four-hundred watts, you don't need eight-hundred watts. What this is required for, is depending on how many hard drives and optical drives you're spending up. All of these drives have a little motors in them, they have a lot of things that move. The more you put in, the more power it requires, the more power it requires, the bigger the power supply you're going to need. So, when you're out on the market, just go find what you need. I'm James, computer hardware coordinator for InterConnection."