Hardware Secrets


Home | Camera | Case | CE | Cooling | CPU | Input | Memory | Mobile | Motherboard | Networking | Power | Storage | Video | Other
Content
Articles
Editorial
First Look
Gabriel’s Blog
News
Reviews
Tutorials
Main Menu
About Us
Awarded Products
Compare Prices
Datasheets
Dictionary
Download
Drivers
Facebook
Forums
Links
Manufacturer Finder
Newsletter
On The Web
RSS Feed
Test Your Skills
Twitter
Newsletter
Subscribe today!
Search




Recommended
Switching Power Supplies A to Z
Switching Power Supplies A to Z, by Sanjaya Maniktala (Newnes), starting at $94.20
Home » Power
Rocketfish 700 W Power Supply Review
Author: Gabriel Torres
Type: Reviews Last Updated: May 16, 2008
Page: 7 of 10
Real-time pricing for Cool Max CUG-700B.
Coolmax CUG-700B Green Power 700W SLI Unplug Supply CoolMax USA 14620 SED-COOCUG700 LED Electronics Usually ships in 24 hours
Amazon: $97.21 Office Depot: $159.99

Load Tests

We conducted several tests with this power supply, as described in the article Hardware Secrets Power Supply Test Methodology.

Usually we test power supplies with five different load patterns, trying to pull around 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% of its maximum capacity (actual percentage used listed under “% Max Load”), watching how the reviewed unit behaved under each load.

But since we had a bad experience with a different unit from Huntkey and also because this model is labeled by Huntkey as a 650 W product and not a 700 W one, we decided to add other load patterns to our methodology, including other loads between 80% and 100% of the power supply maximum labeled power.

We broke the results down into two tables. On the first table you see the results for loads between 20% and 80%, and on the second table you see the results for loads between 80% and 100%. Below we will explain more about this second table.

If you add all the power listed for each test, you may find a different value than what is posted under “Total” below. Since each output can vary slightly (e.g., the +5 V output working at 5.10 V), the actual total amount of power being delivered is slightly different than the calculated value. On the “Total” row we are using the real amount of power being delivered, as measured by our load tester.

+12V2 is the second +12V input from our load tester and during our tests it was connected to the power supply EPS12V – i.e., to the +12V4 rail. The +12V1 input was connected to the +12V2 and +12V3 rails.

Input

Test 1

Test 2

Test 3

Test 4

+12V1

5 A (60 W)

11 A (132 W)

16 A (192 W)

21 A (252 W)

+12V2

5 A (60 W)

10 A (120 W)

16 A (192 W)

20 A (240 W)

+5V

1 A (5 W)

2 A (10 W)

4 A (20 W)

6 A (30 W)

+3.3 V

1 A (3.3 W)

2 A (6.6 W)

4 A (13.2 W)

6 A (19.8 W)

+5VSB

1 A (5 W)

1.5 A (7.5 W)

2 A (10 W)

2.5 A (12.5 W)

-12 V

0.5 A (6 W)

0.5 A (6 W)

0.5 A (6 W)

0.5 A (6 W)

Total

173.7 W

350.5 W

514.0 W

589.0 W

% Max Load

20.0%

40.1%

61.1%

78.3%

Room Temp.

48.7º C

48.9º C

48.2º C

46.4º C

PSU Temp.

53.1º C

52.8º C

51.6º C

52.1º C

Load Test

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Voltage Stability

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Ripple and Noise

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

AC Power

169 W

337 W

527 W

701 W

Efficiency

83.0%

83.2%

81.2%

78.2%

Final Result

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Up to 80% load we saw a blue sky, but we were afraid that this power supply would burn or explode if we pulled 700 W from it. So we decided to pull 600 W and 650 W from it before trying to pull the full 700 W. So we have patterns five and six reflecting these loads. Then we have three patterns for the 100% load test. With our first 100% pattern, test number seven, we respected the power limits printed on the power supply label: 509 W for the +12 V outputs and 170 W for the +5 V and +3.3 V outputs combined. But with this pattern the power supply was delivering a little bit less than 700 W, so we decided to increase current on +3.3 V in order to get closer to 700 W (test number eight).

The problem with tests seven and eight is that in order to respect the power supply limits we were pulling a lot of power from +5 V and +3.3 V and not as much power as we wanted from +12 V. This scenario does not reflect a typical computer usage from nowadays, where load is concentrated on +12 V outputs due to the system CPU (ATX12V/EPS12V connectors) and video cards, which are connected to the +12 V line and not to +5 V and +3.3 V ones.

So with test number nine we tested this power supply with its full load the way we like: pulling a lot of power from +12 V outputs and less from +5 V and +3.3 V.

See the results below.

Input

Test 5

Test 6

Test 7

Test 8

Test 9

+12V1

21 A (252 W)

21 A (252 W)

21 A (252 W)

21 A (252 W)

26 A (321 W)

+12V2

20 A (240 W)

20 A (240 W)

21 A (252 W)

21 A (252 W)

24 A (288 W)

+5V

12 A (60 W)

17 A (85 W)

21 A (105 W)

21 A (105 W)

10 A (50 W)

+3.3 V

12 A (39.6 W)

17 A (56.1 W)

19 A (62.7 W)

21 A (69.3 W)

10 A (33 W)

+5VSB

2.5 A (12.5 W)

2.5 A (12.5 W)

3 A (15 W)

3 A (15 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)

0.5 A (6 W)

Total

602.0 W

656.0 W

688.0 W

695.0 W

683.0 W

% Max Load

86.0%

93.7%

98.3%

99.3%

97.6%

Room Temp.

47.4º C

51.4º C

47.3º C

46.4º C

51.2º C

PSU Temp.

53.3º C

57.º C

52.8º C

52.5º C

60.º C

Load Test

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Voltage Stability

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Ripple and Noise

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

AC Power

789 W

882 W

936 W

944 W

920 W

Efficiency

76.3%

74.4%

73.5%

73.6%

74.2%

Final Result

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

We were impressed to see that Rocketfish 700 W can really deliver its labeled power at 50º C. Not bad at all!

But, as we constantly say, power isn’t everything. You will only achieve efficiency above 80% if you pull up to 60% of this power supply maximum capacity (i.e., below 420 W). With 80% load (560 W) we saw a 78% efficiency, dropping below that on the other load patterns we used for loads between 560 W and 700 W (see table above).

Voltage stability was very good, with all outputs between 3% of their nominal voltage in almost all tests, which is excellent (ATX standard allows voltages to be up to 5% from their nominal values – 10% in the case of the -12 V output).  We only saw voltages outside this 3% range on tests 7, 8 and 9 on +5 V and -12 V, but they were still inside the maximum allowed.

Ripple and noise increased with load. For example, on test one noise at +12V1 input from our load tester was at 17.2 mV, jumping to 92.6 mV during test nine. Even with this increase, noise was inside specs during all tests (i.e., up to 120 mV peak-to-peak at +12 V and up to 50 mV peak-to-peak at +5 V and at +3.3 V).

On the screenshots below we show noise level for test number eight, with our power supply delivering practically 700 W.

Rocketfish 700 W Power Supply
click to enlarge
Figure 16: Noise level at +12V1 input from load tester at 695 W (83.6 mV).

Rocketfish 700 W Power Supply
click to enlarge
Figure 17: Noise level at +12V2 input from load tester at 695 W (83.2 mV).

Rocketfish 700 W Power Supply
click to enlarge
Figure 18: Noise level at +12V2 input from load tester at 695 W (30.6 mV).

Rocketfish 700 W Power Supply
click to enlarge
Figure 19: Noise level at +12V2 input from load tester at 695 W (17 mV).

Of course we wanted to see lower values here, especially for a power supply that costs USD 165. Good power supplies are capable of producing far less noise, half of the amount presented by this unit or even less.

Now let’s see if we could pull even more power from this unit and our tests of the power supply protections.

« Previous |  Page 7 of 10  | Next »
Print Version | Send to Friend | Bookmark Article | Comments (3)

Related Content
  • Huntkey Green Star 450 W (LW-6450SG) Power Supply Review
  • SilverStone Strider ST50F 500 W Power Supply Review
  • Dynex 400 W Power Supply Review
  • In Win Commander 650 W Power Supply Review
  • Rocketfish 550 W Power Supply Review

  • Recommended Deal.
    Ultra ULT-LSP750Ultra ULT-LSP750

    Ultra LSP750 750-Watt Power Supply ATX SATA-Ready SLI-Ready 135mm Fan Lifetime Warranty w/ Registration

    CompUSA: $74.99

    RSSLatest News
    Antec Announces the One PC Case
    February 9, 2012 - 8:06 AM PST
    Cooler Master Releases Elite 361 PC Case
    February 8, 2012 - 7:50 AM PST
    Microsoft Launches Kinect for Windows
    February 2, 2012 - 8:42 AM PST
    Transcend Announces SSD720 SSD Series
    February 1, 2012 - 7:55 AM PST
    .:: More News ::.


    © 2004-12, Hardware Secrets, LLC. All rights reserved.
    Advertising | Legal Information | Privacy Policy
    All times are Pacific Standard Time (PST, GMT -08:00)