Decide what you want to get
I will immediately indicate possible wishes: musical background, watch movies or play, listen to music/dance, enjoy listening to music. For simple computer voice acting, the question of choosing speakers does not seem to arise. Any will do, even the cheapest ones. In this case, attention is paid to the design, workmanship and, sometimes, to the connection method.
By default, there is a 3.5” plug that can be plugged into any computer, laptop or phone, as well as a cord for a 220 volt outlet.
You can take USB speakers, which are connected with one USB cable and do not require 220V power. This may be handy for connecting to laptops. To watch movies comfortably or to immerse yourself in a gaming atmosphere, this option will no longer work; you need something more serious, more on that below.
There is a gulf between listening to music and enjoying listening. This is when you specifically sit down and turn on your favorite tracks, immerse yourself in the atmosphere, empathize with the musicians, experience deep emotions and the effect of presence. In this case, your choice is also influenced by style preferences. Almost no multimedia system, as “computer acoustics” is called, is used for such purposes.
power unit
Many people completely underestimate this seemingly insignificant element. And in vain. Anyone who has ever had a power supply burn out, killing everything that was powered by it, now knows that it’s definitely not worth saving on a power supply. But it seems to me that it is not necessary to go through this, you just need to understand that the computer power supply is an important element that must be of high quality.
Of course, a good power supply will fail sooner or later, but it is better that this happens as late as possible and, most importantly, does not harm all other components.
The main characteristic of a power supply is its power, which you first need to look at. Of course, the option “the more the better” is logical on the one hand, but on the other hand it is not universal. Still, we understand perfectly well that as the power of the power supply increases, your electricity bills will also increase, so the power supply should be selected according to the principle of sufficiency, but with some margin.
You can, of course, get confused and, using a calculator that is easy to find on the Internet, calculate the optimal power taking into account the needs of the selected components. Or you can just follow my recommendations and not bother.
1. Power
For an inexpensive average computer based on an Intel Core i5 processor, a power supply with a power of 500-600 watts is sufficient. For a serious machine, it is better to consider power supplies with a power of 700 watts and higher.
But I repeat that the power supply should always be taken with a decent margin, if only because manufacturers often overestimate the real power. The power of the power supply must be higher than the total power of all computer components. That is, if the total maximum power consumption of all computer components is 500 watts, you should consider power supplies with this power multiplied by at least one and a half.
2. Energy saving
Considering the fairly high power consumption of a computer power supply, the issue of energy saving worries many. Therefore, when choosing a power supply, you should pay attention to its compliance with one of the special certification levels “80 PLUS”.
The presence of such certification on a power supply indicates that its efficiency is at least 80% (depending on the load relative to the rated power).
There are several levels of certification (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium) and efficiency requirements increase with increasing levels. Therefore, the higher the level of certification, the more efficient the power supply will be in terms of energy consumption. Well, as you understand, this will affect the cost of the power supply accordingly.
Minimum.
For a budget computer that does not stand out with special performance, you can choose 500-600-watt power supplies like Be quiet! System Power 9, AeroCool KCAS PLUS or, for example, Chieftec GPE-500S. All of them are 80 PLUS Bronze certified.
Golden mean.
As a strong mid-ranger for a fairly powerful computer, you can pay attention to such options as Chieftec GPS-750C, Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB Gold, Corsair TX750M or Deepcool DQ750ST. All are 750 watts and gold certified.
Ideal.
For high-performance machines, you should look towards even more powerful and energy-efficient power supplies like the Corsair HX1000 or Thermaltake Toughpower iRGB.
Also, in order to reduce the overall noise from the system unit, look at the maximum noise produced by the power supply, which is usually indicated in the specifications in dBA. The lower it is, the better. Quiet power supplies include those whose noise does not exceed 20 dBA.
Some expensive power supplies have a smart cooling system - the fan only works when the temperature rises to a certain value, and the rest of the time cooling occurs passively.
There are even fanless power supplies that use only radiators to dissipate heat. It is clear that they work completely silently. However, only a passive cooling system can be effective for low-power power supplies with a maximum power of up to 500-600 watts. A passive system will not be able to effectively cool a more powerful power supply.
What types of computer acoustics are there?
There are several types of speakers: 2.0, 2.1, 5.1 and projectors (soundbars).
The most common type is 2.0 . Here there is a stereo pair consisting of two identical speakers. This type is best suited for background accompaniment and listening to music. Each speaker reproduces low, mid and high frequencies.
Next, 2.1 is an option well suited for movies and games. There are two identical speakers (satellites), they play mid and high frequencies. A separate third column is intended only for low frequencies, it is called a subwoofer. I consider 2.1 sets to be the best choice not only for movies and games, but generally for the home with a limited budget and musical preferences such as rap, dance music and heavy metal.
And this is because even inexpensive 2.1 sets, due to the subwoofer, provide deeper bass than 2.0 sets for the same or greater price. But they are not as versatile in terms of listening to music.
5.1 - this is an expanded version of 2.1 systems, 3 more speakers are added here: two rear and one center. This is the best option for movies and games. But consider whether you can place two speakers behind you and another one in the middle in front. True, there are also 7.1 and even 7.2 sets, but this is already exotic
