What Power Supply should I get? How many Watts? Who made it? Guide Inside.

Table of Contents:
-Five Important Rules to follow for Power Supply Unit (PSU) selection
-Good/Bad Units List
-General wattage calculator
-Further Links
-Who Really Made this Power Supply Unit? (thanks to flazing1)
-Notes

 This is the third major revision of the PSU guide, originally written by bigandy, revised by fedz, and heavily modified with multiple user contributions as presented before you here. It takes into account all the comments posted. Also, read the disclaimer at the bottom.

Copyright Notice: You MAY NOT re-post or redistribute any distinct portion of this thread (or its preceding revisions, as linked in the previous paragraph) in any form without proper credit. Please private message the original poster of this thread (kram 2.0) with comments, questions, inquiries, etc. Thanks!

Five Important Rules to follow for Power Supply Unit (PSU) selection:
In no particular order
1) Do NOT skimp on the power supply unit - you are entrusting an expensive investment you've made in your computer to this unit.
2) Brand/Manufacturer reputation is VERY important
3) Rated/Advertised Wattage is NOT an indicator of quality or unit power.
4) Do NOT trust a PSU that weighs less than your CPU to power your system.
5) Research - let others do the testing for you and read about them. That's what this thread is for.

 NOTE: To emphasize the point, "reputable" generally refers to companies that make high quality units while "Less Reputable" refers to manufacturers that produce normally faulty units. Like with any electronic product, there is a chance of failure with any unit, so please keep that in mind as you shop for a power supply unit.

Reputable:1 Top quality PSU's in blue bold, high quality in blue - for high-end builds. Note that external hyperlinks are also blue on most browsers, but usually also underlined. AMS Akasa (PowerGreen, Power+) Antec (almost all models) AOpen (select models) BFG Technologies (800W model) Channel Well Chieftec (non-bundled) Cooler Master (UCP) Corsair (Best PSU Manf., CustomPC) Delta E-Power Enermax Enlight Fortron Source Hi-Power Jeantech Mushkin OCZ (EliteXStream, EvoStream, ProXStream) PCMCIS PC Power & Cooling PowerMan Raidmax (ONLY select models from Tagan/Topower) Seasonic SilenX Silverstone (ZF, ZM) Sparkle Tagan Thermaltake (select models) TTGI/SuperFlower (select models) Tuniq Verax Xclio (only GreatPower) Zalman

Questionable/Less Reputable: Achieve Allied Apevia (formerly Aspire, same quality) Bestec Codegen CoolMax Cyberzone DEER Dragon Eagle Tech EYE-T Foxconn Greenline Hiper (most low-wattage models) HIPRO JSP-tech KingStar Kingwin L&C Linkworld Okia Orion PowerMagic PowerTek PowerUp Powmax Q-Tec Raidmax (almost all non Tagan/Topower) Rosewill Skyhawk Startech Turbolink Ultra (esp. X-Connect) Win Xion Youngyear

Not Enough Info/Undetermined: AGPB Ahanix Astec Broadway Com (mixed bag) Dynapower USA Gigabyte HEC Levicom Mad Dog (mixed bag results) NSpire Soyo Vantec (mixed reviews)

General PSU Calculators:
Please note these should be used as GUIDES - as noted on their disclaimers, they cannot take into account every component, every part that is drawing power. As a general guidelines, it's a good idea to marginally overshoot the calculated wattage in order to cover for the entire system.

Newegg Power Supply Calculator

eXtreme PSU Calculator

Load on 12V Rail for Common ATI HDx Graphics Cards (originally from VGA Source)

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

http://www.pcpowercooling.com/maxpc/cases.htm

  Further links:

• Tom's Hardware: Who's Who In Power Supplies: Brands, Labels, And OEMs (thanks to EzyStvy)
• FiringSquad PSU Unofficial Listing
• JonnyGURU's Bargain Basement PSU Review
• HardOCP: Five $50 Power Supplies Tested (thanks to Cricket. glc: "Yet another Deer literally blows up.........")
• HardOCP: 450W-500W Battle Royale (Apevia PSU disintegrates during test)
• Directron: Weight vs. Power Efficiency
• nVidia Forums: The Who and Why of Power Supplies, With purchasing suggestions
• Who Really Made this Power Supply Unit?
• Tom's Hardware: Deceptive ratings: 21 PSU's compared
• Tom's Hardware: High-End PSU Comparison
• Tom's Hardware: Power Supplies Under Full Load
• PC Stats: Most common ways to kill a PC

 Notes:

- PSU's inside manufacturer's cases, like Dell or HP, can sometimes use power supply units that may or may not be sufficient to allow for upgrades. In other words, you may need to upgrade your PSU in the real chance that the unit cannot handle the added load. Take note, and do your research first.

- Dell has often been using PC P&C for their PSU. HP, eMachine, Compaq, and Gateway USUALLY use either/or Bestec and Hipro.

- With modular power supplies, avoid lower-quality models that normally come with lower price tags. Like with normal attached units, reputable brands will perform.