How to Check Power Supply Wattage without Opening Case

How to Check Power Supply Wattage without Opening Case? We  have said it time and again on this  channel but upgradability is one of the  most appealing prospects of PC gaming  over console gaming sure the potential  to reach an unfathomable FPS count on  maxed out settings and higher  resolutions are great but few people get  to experience that however everyone can  enjoy getting to see their gaming rig  slowly evolve and get more powerful with  time as they replace old components with newer ones.

How to Check Power Supply Wattage without Opening Case


Only it's not as simple as  getting the newest CPU or GPU and  slapping it onto the motherboard  aside from checking for compatibility  you also need to make sure that your  power supply can handle the extra  wattage that often comes with more  powerful components and to do this you  need to know what power supply you have  only this isn't as easy as just opening  the device manager and looking up your  PSU s make and model there that is why  in today's video we'll walk you through.

All of the steps you'll need in order to find out what PSU you have so without any further ado let's begin in order to find what power supply your PC uses you have to consider how you bought it the assumption in this video is that you weren't the one building your own custom gaming PC.

Since this would mean that you had to handpick the PSU yourself in which case you'd likely already know the answer to your question however if you bought a pre-built PC you may be able to avoid prying open your case to physically check the power supply if you can find the serial number of your PC  you may be able to use that to identify the power supply this could work even without the specific serial number.

How to check my power supply without opening the case


If  you know the make and model of your PC  in either case you just have to go to  the manufacturers website and track down  the specs for that particular build easy  peasy unfortunately, if you don't own a  pre-built PC and you weren't the ones who  built it there is simply no reliable way  to check which PSU is powering your rig  of opening the case and looking this up  manually some power supplies are made  with built-in intelligent hubs.

They'll  let you not only see the name of your  PSU model but also, monitor the fans and  other internal components but these are  very much the exception and not the rule  so in all likelihood you're going to  have to open up your computer case, the  good news is that many cases come with  separate PSU shrouds that help eliminate  cable clutter and improve the overall  aesthetic especially with transparent cases.

Wait did we say this was good news we meant bad news PSU routes are great for making the inside of your PC look neater but they completely hide the power supply which we need to physically inspect at this point this means that you're either going to have to remove the shroud or completely remove the PSU.

How to Check Power Supply Wattage without Opening Case? We recommend removing the PSU since most units have the large sticker with all of the specs on the bottom of the PSU  anyway this will be easier if you've got a fully modular or at least a semi-modular PSU removing the shroud is probably an easier option if you've got a non-modular power supply if you're not sure what these terms mean check out the video where we go over all of the benefits and drawbacks of non-modular semi-modular and fully modular PS use make sure to note down the modularity of your PSU.

Since some models come in multiple varieties which may differ in wattage at this point. It’s a good idea to either take a picture of the spec sticker or write the important bits down somewhere so that you don’t have to go through this process ever again all this work was done mostly so that you'll know what the maximum power capacity of your power supply is.

How to Check Power Supply Wattage without Opening Case? This is a piece of info that you'll have to constantly keep in mind when upgrading your hardware since a large enough upgrade may drive the required wattage above what your current PSU can handle forcing you to upgrade the PSU as well to avoid any such unpleasant surprises.

We suggest you use a PSU calculator there are many online PC calculators that'll let you know exactly how much power you need to keep all of your hardware components in check so once the time comes to upgrade say your GPU  replace the old GPU with the new one in the online PSU calculator and you'll find out whether your power supply can handle the extra wattage or not keep in mind also that you don't want to max out your PSU capacity.

How to Check Power Supply Wattage without Opening Case? If all your PC  components require let's say 480 watts  to operate you shouldn't count on a 500  watt PSU power supplies like to take it  easy so they run on maximum efficiency  when the power draw is between 50 and 80  percent of their total output maxing out  your PSU is one of the quickest ways to  prematurely end its life and that about  does it for this video we wanted to keep short.

Since the topic is just how to find out what PSU you have but we had to throw in the bits about the optimal loads and PSU calculators since these are important pieces of information that we feel anyone looking for the model of your PSU is likely to need if you want to know even more about these power supplies there's a link to an in-depth video where we go over all of the PSU  specs down in the description so check it out if you want to know more, in any case, we hope you found this video helpful you can let us know if you have by liking it sharing it and leaving a  comment and if you want to see more videos like this one make sure to  Subscribe to our Channel and also click on the bell icon so that you don't miss any of our upcoming videos we upload new content every week so until then stay tuned in the meantime may your games be fun and your losses view and as always we'll see you next time on gaming scam.


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