How We Test Power Supply Units – Tom’s Hardware

The power supply unit (PSU) is the most important part of every electronic device, including, of course, computers. It is the heart of your system since it feeds energy to the other components. Consequently, if the PSU fails, everything else fails with it. This is the reason most experienced technicians start a failure investigation from the PSU before proceeding to the rest of the components. And, consequently, this is why you should pay extra attention to your choice of PSU and not make a decision based exclusively on price. After all, a good PSU will do its job for quite a long time, far outlasting the rest of your expensive system components.

To properly review a PSU, expensive equipment is required, and the reviewer needs to know not only how to operate it, but also have sufficient knowledge about electronics and a PSU’s design. The knowledge part is especially crucial since not even the most expensive equipment can make a good PSU review if the reviewer doesn’t know how to properly use it and what tests to conduct with it.