Before overloading power supplies we always test first if the over current protection (OCP) circuit is active and at what level it is configured.

OCP kicked in when we tried to pull more than 25 A from +12V2 input from our load tester (which was connected to the power supply +12V2 thru the ATX12V/EPS12V cable). The label says that each rail has a limit of 20 A, so OCP was configured the way we like: close to the limit printed on the label.

The problem, however, was that whenever we tried to overload the reviewed power supply, it would shut down in less than one minute. If this power supply implemented over temperature protection (OTP) we would say that this was the protection that entered in action, but that was not the case. Our best guess was that over current protection (OCP) or over load (OPP) entered in action after currents increased with temperature.

Then we decreased the currents we were pulling with our load tester and tried again to overload the unit, with the same results.

On our third try the power supply silently died. After we disassembled the unit we could see that we burned one of the +12 V rectifiers.

So this power supply failed our overload tests.

Another thing that we noticed during our reviews was that the auxiliary 80-mm fan was not entering in action, even thought the temperature inside our “hot box” was at 50º C and the power supply housing was measuring 53º C. With the tip of a pencil we manually moved the blades of the fan and it started spinning. So we have to give BFG the benefit of the doubt and assume that this was a problem with the sample we’ve got.