Power Supply

A power supply unit (PSU) supplies direct current (DC) power to the other components in a computer. It converts general-purpose alternating current (AC) electric power from the mains (110 V to 120 V at 60 Hz [115 V nominal] in North America, parts of South America, Japan, and Taiwan; 220 V to 240 V at 50 Hz [230 V nominal] in most of the rest of the world) to low-voltage (for a desktop computer: 12 V, 5 V, 5VSB, 3V3, −5 V, and −12 V) DC power for the internal components of the computer. Some power supplies have a switch to select either 230 V or 115 V. Other models are able to accept any voltage and frequency between those limits and some models only operate from one of the two mains supply standards.