Power Analysis

On Figure 13 you can see this power supply label containing all its power specs.

click to enlarge
Figure 13: Power supply label.

The power label says that the combined power for the two +12 V rails is 312 W and that combined power for the main positive outputs (+3.3 V, +5 V and +12 V) is 401.5 W. This is a joke, right? Because if the label is right, this is a 420 W power supply. And if the manufacturer knows that this is a 420 W unit, why they labeled this power supply as being a 460 W unit? Of course we will test this power supply to see what its real maximum capacity is.

As you can see this power supply has two +12 V virtual rails. These rails are distributed as following:

• +12V1: Main motherboard cable and all peripheral cables.
• +12V2: ATX12V connector.

This is a typical distribution for a dual-rail power supply.

Let’s now see if this power supply can really deliver 460 W of power.

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