Best PC power supplies based on PSU rankings (2024)

The power supply unit (PSU) is one of the essential pieces of a PC build, as it's the component that brings power into your system. Therefore, it's important to get the right one. If you get one without enough power, your PC will experience all sorts of issues, up to and including shutting down randomly. It's an important component to consider when upgrading your other PC components. After all, what use is that gorgeous new graphics card if your PSU can't handle it?

Once you've found out how much power you need, it's just a matter of shopping around at that power range to find something you like. Fortunately for all consumers, we no longer live in the dark ages of power supplies where every other one had a major defect. These days, unless the manufacturer lays an egg, like with the Gigabyte GP-P750GM, you can reasonably expect your power supply to function for a long time. If you need help choosing, that's what we're here for - let's check out some great PC power supplies.

• 

  See Also

  Best PC Power Supply 2024: Top PSUs for Your Gaming PC - IGN

  Corsair AX1600i

  Best 1600W PSU

  The Corsair AX1600i is overkill for 99% of people, but those who need tons of power can get it here. This PSU is fully modular, 80 PLUS Titanium certified, and is backed by a 10-year warranty from Corsair. The warranty especially adds a bit of breathing room in case it breaks down. This one is very expensive, but that's okay because hardly anyone needs this much power anyway.

  $799 at Amazon$610 at NewEgg

• 

  NZXT C1200 Gold

  Best 1200W PSU

  The NZXT C1200 PSU is great for folks who have heavier builds, such as those containing an NVIDIA RTX 4090. Not only does it come with a long warranty and plenty of power, but NZXT also says that this PSU is designed for the kinds of transient power spikes you get from high end GPUs. It has modern amenities like a zero RPM fan mode if your system is under 40 per cent usage.

  $250 at Amazon$250 at NewEgg

• 

  be quiet! Dark Power 13 1000W

  Best 1000W PSU

  The Be Quiet! Dark Power 13 is an excellent PSU. It comes with ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 support, so it's about as future-proof as a power supply gets. It also comes with the usual good stuff like a 10-year warranty, 80 PLUS Titanium certification, and excellent build quality. It is expensive, but most good 1000W PSUs are around this price. You're getting what you pay for with this one.

  $290 at Amazon$290 at NewEgg

• 

  Super Flower Leadex VII XG 850W PSU

  Best 850W PSU

  Not a lot of people know about Super Flower. The company usually makes PSUs for other PSU companies, but also have some of their own standalone products. This 850W model is excellent all the way around. It includes ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 support along with a healthy warranty, support for NVIDIA's 12VHPWR, and more. The only downside is that it's not available at all online retailers, making it a bit hard to find.

  $180 at NewEgg

• 

  Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 750W

  Best 750W PSU

  Thermaltake doesn't always make the best power supply, but the company's GF3 PSUs are quite good for their price. This one clocks in at under $150, and it's often on sale for even less. For that you get ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 support, a 10-year warranty, and modern features like zero RPM fan mode at lower PC loads. It's also fully modular, which isn't a guarantee at this price point.

  $140 at Amazon$140 at NewEgg

• 

  Seasonic Focus PX-650

  Best 650W PSU

  $120 $150 Save $30

  Seasonic has a long reputation of being reliable and the Seasonic Focus PX-650 is part of that. It comes with a 10-year warranty like most Seasonic products along with a zero RPM fan mode. There's a button on the back of the PSU that changes the fan mode in case you want more robust cooling. In general, 650W power supplies are for midrange builds, and the $150 price is more than reasonable.

  $150 at Amazon$120 at NewEgg

• 

  Silverstone Essential Series SST-ET550-HG 550W PSU

  Best 550W PSU

  The SilverStone SST-ET550-HG is one of the few good PSUs with 550W of power that is also fully modular and also has over-current and over-power protections. It only comes with a three-year warranty in the U.S. and a five-year warranty almost everywhere else. That's par for the course when it comes to low power PSUs. In any case, this goes for under $100 and it should be right at home in a budget-oriented build.

  $94 at Amazon$94 at NewEgg

• 

  EVGA SuperNOVA 450 GM

  Best 450W PSU

  The EVGA SuperNOVA 450 GM is about as good as it gets for a 450W PSU. It's fully modular with a seven-year warranty. That combination is a little difficult to find at this price point. It doesn't come with a ton of connections in the back, just the basics that you'll need to power your system. Still, you can do a lot worse.

  $85 at Amazon

Best PC power supplies: Which one is right for me?

When it comes to power supplies, a lot of them are essentially the same these days. You get a lot of companies using Japanese capacitors along with other high quality parts. Most of the top tier manufacturers offer 10-year warranties and various protections to prevent damage to your system in case things go wrong. The power supplies we recommend almost exclusively fall into top tier status, so you can really pick any of them and be satisfied.

It's also worth noting that most of the above power supplies come in different wattages. For example, the Be Quiet! Dark Power 13 comes in 750W, 850W, and 1000W flavors. If you're shopping around for 850W PSUs, the Super Flower Leadex VII is a great 850W PSU, but you can get the Dark Power 13 in 850W as well. Every recommendation above is, in fact, multiple recommendations, so you have a lot more options than you think.

What power supply do I need for a gaming PC?

It all comes down to what components you choose for your PC. In general, you'll want to run your build through a power supply calculator to figure out how many watts it pulls at full power. From there, you'll want to go one or two steps up to give your system some overhead. The reason you want to give yourself overhead is in the case of transient spikes, which are fairly common with newer, high-end graphics cards.

If your system pulls around 550W to 600W, you'll probably want something like a 750W PSU. This gives you some overhead, so you're not maxing out your power supply during regular use and gives you over 100W of headroom for those transient spikes. Of course, you can still use a 650W PSU if it's of high quality, and it should still handle transient spikes just fine. It really depends on how careful you want to be.

Are there any PC power supplies I should avoid?

Fortunately, through the magic of crowdsourcing, we have that answer. The Cultists Network PSU tier list is among the best at-a-glance lists for what PSUs you should and shouldn't buy. Essentially, anything in the A, B, or C tiers should be fine. Anything in the D or F tiers are ones we would avoid. Every PSU on our list above is in the A or B tiers.