We made several tests with this power supply as described in the article Hardware Secrets Power Supply Test Methodology.
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.
Unfortunately our load tester can’t go a lot more over 1,000 W so we couldn’t really pull 1,100 W from this unit. A sixth pattern was included because this power supply failed to deliver 6 A at +5VSB (more on this in a bit).
If you add all the powers listed for each test you may find a value different from what posted under “Total” below. Since each output can have a slight variation (e.g. +5 V output working at 5.10 V) the actual total amount of power being delivered is slightly different from the calculated value. On “Total” row we are using the real amount of power being delivered, as measured by our load tester.
+12V1 and +12V2 are the two independent +12V inputs from our load tester and during our tests the +12V1 input was connected to the power supply +12V1 (main motherboard connector), +12V3 (peripheral power connector), +12V4 (peripheral power connector) and +12V5 (video card power connector) rails, while the +12V2 input was connected to the power supply +12V2 rail (EPS12V connector).
Input | Test 1 | Test 2 | Test 3 | Test 4 | Test 5 | Test 6 |
+12V1 | 8 A (96 W) | 15 A (180 W) | 23 A (276 W) | 30 A (360 W) | 33 A (396 W) | 33 A (396 W) |
+12V2 | 8 A (96 W) | 15 A (180 W) | 23 A (276 W) | 30 A (360 W) | 33 A (396 W) | 33 A (396 W) |
+5V | 2 A (10 W) | 8 A (40 W) | 11 A (55 W) | 15 A (75 W) | 25 A (125 W) | 25 A (125 W) |
+3.3 V | 2 A (6.6 W) | 8 A (26.4 W) | 10 A (33 W) | 15 A (49.5 W) | 22 A (72.6 W) | 22 A (72.6 W) |
+5VSB | 1 A (5 W) | 2 A (10 W) | 2 A (15 W) | 4 A (20 W) | 6 A (30 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) | 1 A (12 W) | 1 A (12 W) |
Total | 220.2 W | 443.4 W | 661.3 W | 869.3 W | 1027.5 W | 1012.9 W |
% Max Load | 20.0% | 40.3% | 60.1% | 79.0% | 93.4% | 92.1% |
Room Temp. | 48.9º C | 48.2º C | 50.1º C | 50.7º C | 52.3º C | 52.3º C |
Voltage Stability | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass |
Ripple and Noise | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | Fail | Fail |
AC Power | 253 W | 503 W | 762 W | 1031 W | 1264 W | 1245 W |
Efficiency | 87.0% | 88.2% | 86.8% | 84.3% | 81.3% | 81.4% |
Final Result | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | Fail | Pass |
The only real issue with this power supply was its +5VSB output. The label says that it can deliver 6 A but when we tried to pull this amount of current the unit would shut down after some seconds, and that is why we labeled test five as “fail”. During test five noise level at +5VSB output was higher than the maximum allowed, at 73.4 mV peak-to-peak (see Figure 21 below; compare it to Figure 19 to see how this output needed to be). Then we reduced current at +5VSB to 3 A (a more common value) and the power supply would work just fine, except that noise level at +5VSB continued to be above the maximum allowed, at 55.2 mV peak-to-peak. When we pulled other amounts of power noise level at +5VSB was inside the spec, but reaching as high as 47.8 mV during test number four (the limit is 50 mV).
Besides this problem with the +5VSB output this power supply worked just fine, even though we couldn’t pull the maximum amount of power this unit could deliver due to a limitation in our equipment. In fact we could pull more power if we increased currents at +5 V and +3.3 V but we didn’t want to do that for two reasons. First, we would be pulling more power than the labeled limits for these two outputs. Secondly, as we constantly remind in our reviews current PCs pull more current from the +12V outputs, not from +5 V and +3.3 V.
Noise level for all outputs (except +5VSB) was below the maximum allowed during all tests and the results you can see below. In fact during tests one thru four noise level at +5 V was below 14 mV, which is excellent.
Voltages were very stable all the time, being always within 3% from their nominal values (except -12 V which varied a lot more but still within the 10% tolerance set by ATX standard).
You will get a terrific efficiency with this power supply if you pull up to 80% of its labeled capacity (880 W): between 84% and 88%. But when we pulled around 1,000 W this power supply delivered 81% efficiency, which isn’t bad for a power supply delivering that much power, but is distant from the values achieved with other load levels.
Below you can see noise level when we were pulling 1032 W (test number five) from this power supply. Just to remember, the maximum allowed for the +12 V outputs is 120 mV peak-to-peak and the maximum allowed for the +5 V and +3.3 V outputs is 50 mV peak-to-peak.
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Figure 17: Noise level at +12V1 input from our load tester with the reviewed unit delivering 1032 W (66.8 mV).
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Figure 18: Noise level at +12V2 input from our load tester with the reviewed unit delivering 1032 W (63.8 mV).
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Figure 19: Noise level at +5 V input from our load tester with the reviewed unit delivering 1032 W (26 mV).
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Figure 20: Noise level at +3.3 V input from our load tester with the reviewed unit delivering 1032 W (35.4 mV).
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Figure 21: Noise level at +5VSB input from our load tester with the reviewed unit delivering 1032 W (73.4 mV).
Unfortunately we couldn’t test if this power supply could deliver more power due to a limitation in our equipment, as already explained.
