We made several tests with this power supply as described in the article Hardware Secrets Power Supply Test Methodology. All the tests described below were taken with a room temperature between 45º and 47º C. During our tests the power supply temperature was between 47º and 48º C.
First we tested this power supply with five different loads patterns, trying to pull around 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of its labeled maximum capacity (under “% Max Load” we list the actual percentage that was used), watching how the reviewed unit behaved under each load. On the table below we list the load patterns we used and the results for each load.
+12V2 is the second +12V input of our load tester and on this test it was connected to the power supply EPS12V connector. Keep in mind that power supply uses a single rail design.
Input | Test 1 | Test 2 | Test 3 | Test 4 | Test 5 |
+12V1 | 4.5 A (54 W) | 8.5 A (102 W) | 16 A (192 W) | 25 A (300 W) | 33 A (396 W) |
+12V2 | 4.5 A (54 W) | 8.5 A (102 W) | 10 A (120 W) | 10 A (120 W) | 10 A (120 W) |
+5V | 1 A (5 W) | 2 A (10 W) | 4 A (20 W) | 6 A (30 W) | 8 A (40 W) |
+3.3 V | 1 A (3.3 W) | 2 A (6.6 W) | 4 A (13.2 W) | 6 A (19.8 W) | 8 A (26.4 W) |
+5VSB | 1 A (5 W) | 1 A (5 W) | 1.5 A (7.5 W) | 2 A (10 W) | 3 A (15 W) |
-12 V | 0.5 A (6 W) | 0.5 A (6 W) | 0.5 A (6 W) | 0.5 A (6 W) | 0.8 A (9.6 A) |
Total | 128 W | 232 W | 359 W | 486 W | 607 W |
% Max Load | 21% | 38% | 59% | 80% | 99.5% |
Result | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass |
Voltage Stability | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass |
Ripple and Noise | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass |
Efficiency | 86.5% | 88.2% | 87.3% | 85.3% | 83.6% |
As you can see this power supply could not only deliver its labeled power at 45º C but could keep an efficiency of at least 83%, going as high as 88% when we were pulling around 230 W or 38% of its capacity. As for noise, the maximum level we’ve seen was of 47 mV peak-to-peak on +12V1 input during test number four, which is well below the 120 mV maximum allowed.
After being happy with these results, we tried to pull even more power from Silencer 610 EPS12V but we couldn’t: after increasing one amp at +12V1, +12V2, +5V or +3.3V the power supply wouldn’t turn on.
Then we started our next test, which was trying to figure out the maximum peak power this unit could handle. We started at load 1, then switched to load 2 and so on, after reaching load 5 we increased the current at +12V1, +12V2, +5V and +3.3V to the maximum possible with the power supply not shutting itself down and with the voltages and noise level within the proper working range. We came out with the following maximum peak specs for this unit:
Input | Maximum Peak |
+12V1 | 33 A (396 W) |
+12V2 | 18 A (216 W) |
+5V | 10 A (50 W) |
+3.3 V | 10 A (33 W) |
+5VSB | 3 A (15 W) |
-12 V | 0.8 A (9.6 W) |
Total | 720 W |
% Max Load | 118% |
Efficiency | 82% |
As you can see even at this extreme condition the power supply efficiency was above 80%.
The power supply, however, couldn’t work constantly at these specs, however, and that is why we are calling them “peak”. We made this test just to let you know how much is the maximum power you can draw from this power supply for very short periods of time. After some minutes noise starts increasing until the power supply shuts itself down. But this is an impressive result, as we are talking about a room temperature of 45º C.
Also all important protections worked as expected, as the power supply shut down automatically under over power and over current situations – cheap power supplies simply burn when stressed out due to the lack of such protections. The bottom line is: Silencer 610 EPS12V survived to our load tests, working just fine after them.
Also the power supply fan started spinning faster as the temperature increased. In fact this power supply uses a good name, “Silencer”: we could only hear the fan spinning under high load.
