Corsair TX750W Power Supply Review

By Gabriel Torres on February 12, 2008

Page 5 of 8

Load Tests

Hardware Secrets Silver Award 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 49º C. During our tests the power supply temperature was between 47º and 53º 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	5 A (60 W)	11 A (132 W)	17 A (204 W)	24 A (288 W)	33 A (396 W)
+12V2	5 A (60 W)	10 A (120 W)	15 A (180 W)	20 A (240 W)	22 A (264 W)
+5V	2 A (10 W)	4 A (20 W)	6 A (30 W)	8 A (40 W)	8 A (40 W)
+3.3 V	2 A (6.6 W)	4 A (13.2 W)	6 A (19.8 W)	8 A (26.4 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 W)
Total	148 W	296 W	447 W	610 W	751 W
% Max Load	19.7%	39.5%	59.6%	81.4%	100%
Result	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
Voltage Stability	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
Ripple and Noise	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
AC Power	177 W	368 W	523 W	728 W	920 W
Efficiency	83.6%	78.8%	84.3%	83%	80.5%

We were very impressed by these results. Corsair TX750W could not only deliver its labeled power under between 45º C and 50º C but it could maintain its efficiency at 80% (the only test where its efficiency was below 80% was at test number two, where we were pulling around 40% of the power supply maximum labeled capacity and even then it was almost 80%).

The only thing we didn’t like about this power supply during our test was electrical noise at the +12 V rail, too high compared to other power supplies we’ve seen so far. For example, on test number four, where we were pulling 610 W from this power supply, noise level was at 60 mV at +12V1 and 68 mV at +12V2. On our tests with PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V pulling the same amount of power (and working at 100%, usually where we see the maximum noise level the power supply produces) we saw only 44 mV and 42 mV on these two inputs. With the power supply operating at its full load, noise level was of 90.6 mV at 12V1 input and 103 mV at +12V2 input. Even though these numbers are still inside the 120 mV limit, we’d like to see lower figures here, around 60 mV. Noise levels for the +5 V output and +3.3 V were of 8.8 mV and 16 mV, respectively, within the 50 mV limit for these outputs.

Below we show the noise level we found on the power supply outputs while the unit was operating at its full load (test number five).

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Figure 18: Noise level at +12V1 input of the load tester.

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Figure 19: Noise level at +12V2 input of the load tester.

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Figure 20: Noise level at +5V input of the load tester.

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Figure 21: Noise level at +3.3V input of the load tester.

Originally at http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/505/5

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