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Toms Hardware PSU round up

Abula

Abula

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
1,036
 
Your link goes to Microsoft.com if you don't take away the extra http prefix. Thanks for the heads up.
 
The Test Candidates In Detail
Cooler Master Real Power 450W
Antec NeoPower 450W
Nexus NX-4090
Enermax EG701AX-VE(W)
FSP BlueStorm 500
Ultra X-Connect 500W
Ultrapower AT-T460AP
Zalman ZM400B-APS
Tagan I-Xeye 420W
Tagan TG430-U22
Zippy PSM-6600P
Super Flower SF-450TS
I-Star TC-500R8P
Sharkoon SHA535-9A
NorthQ NQ-4775-400
Silverstone SST-ST52F
Epower Technology Jaguar 450
Aspire ATX-AS520W 12V

^ doesnt cut it in the legibility department so I edited your post ;)


Tom's isnt known for their stellar testing platform and proceedure
now or in the past
(though they are considerably better than most, but thats not saying much)

in this case, there are no values or ranges for load regulation,
(simply it was in spec or fluctuated some unspecified amount within spec with the odd real figure for a rail out of spec)
no measirement of AC Ripple (from the supply)
no crossload,
the proceedure itself is based on a stable load thus no test of line regulation
and the "reason" for this article "efficiency"
is poorly done when compared to one of Mike Chin's tables
which gives you a far better idea of the efficiency youd expect for a given load
and breaks out the actual Watts VAC

all in all, dont go tearing off to buy a supply based on Tom's little charts

efficiency can be a serious consideration especially in a silent rig
but its just one of several, and since the value changes with the load on the supply,
you first need to determine your "typical" load for your components

which is far lower than many imagine on average

of course selecting a power supply isnt about averages,
its about worse case senerios :p
 
I saw this on Tomshardware and was going to post here asking ice czar if this was a good review or not and here I find he's already addressed it. It seemed kind of lacking but I lack the knowlege to know what it was missing.I knew something was up when the aspire didn't explode. I couldn't put my finger on it but Ice, as always, hit the nail on the head.
 
By the way - Anyone else notice that since 2000 the larger review sites have gone to crap? Originally Tom would post the occasional review, as would Anand and Sharky. Since then Sharky sold his site to some big content provider (I stopped reading his as soon as he did that). Tom stopped posting on his and now only features articles by people computer magazines won't hire to do articles. The only thing Anand actually writes himself is captions for photos of himself getting chummy with vendors of some of the most awful looking cases in existence, from industry shows in Malaysia.

Even the topics reviews are so far removed from what home computer builders are interested in it leads one to wonder if the new hired editors have ever even built a computer before. Go to any of these sites any day of the week and you're guaranteed to find reviews about palm pilots or digital cameras or MP3 players. While these are great devices they hardly have a place being "previewed" at a computer hardware site.

Bottom line is this. The big name review sites have become little more than forums for unabashed commercials for products of dubious quality and relevance.
 
category_five said:
By the way - Anyone else notice that since 2000 the larger review sites have gone to crap? Originally Tom would post the occasional review, as would Anand and Sharky. Since then Sharky sold his site to some big content provider (I stopped reading his as soon as he did that). Tom stopped posting on his and now only features articles by people computer magazines won't hire to do articles. The only thing Anand actually writes himself is captions for photos of himself getting chummy with vendors of some of the most awful looking cases in existence, from industry shows in Malaysia.
Click to expand...

Anandtech picked up Johan from Aces recently so hopefully there stuff will get better. Aces when they get articles out the door still does a good job. The forum there seems to have become a pissing match between Paul DeMone and a few AMD boys most of the time Paranoid.....and the inane ramblings of adi---->asip. I used ot be real active on the boards there....but lately........not so much.
 
"reviewers that in all kindness couldnt find their ass if a cord was leading to it"- Ice Czar

that cracks me up every time
 
interesting that despite how complimentary the reviewer was while discussing the fortron PSU...it didn't place as a 'recommended' PSU?
maybe i'm looking for a second gunman, but...?

i love fortron stuff.
 
EnderW said:
"reviewers that in all kindness couldnt find their ass if a cord was leading to it"- Ice Czar

that cracks me up every time
Click to expand...

I like it so much I quoted it ;)
 
locutus24 said:
I guess its time to drop my dell 240w psu, it wasnt on the list either :confused:
Click to expand...

Well I wouldn't really consider that a high end PSU....but more importantly if Dell is still using that proprietary connector you would be really upset if you did ditch it :p
 
Spectre said:
Well I wouldn't really consider that a high end PSU....but more importantly if Dell is still using that proprietary connector you would be really upset if you did ditch it :p
Click to expand...
Ehh.. well ill just ditch the dell altogether, grab myself a Chieftec Dragon Case and a DFI lan party mobo. Then get a fancy psu, 500w for sure :cool:
 
of course there are many a fancy "500" that get their asses kicked by a plain jane but reliable 300W :p

its all in how well the books are cooked

cut and paste

POWER SHMOWER
or How PSU Power Ratings Mean Almost Nothing

A frustrating fact about PSUs is that there does not appear to be a stringent or regulated standard for reporting, advertising and labeling rated power. This is despite the existence of standards like ATX2.03 or Intel ATX12V.

There are well-established standards for measuring and rating HDD capacity, an engine's horsepower, or the heat generated by a furnace... but not one for how much power a PSU can deliver. There are so many cases of people with "450W" PSUs having power stability issues running a system that can't possoibly draw more than 150W. And "300W" units that keep running where the "450W" units are faltering.

It's not just about bad PSUs vs better ones. It's a dumb situation caused by uncontrolled marketing competition. Real regulation would bring PSUs out of snake oil territory and into a more sensible consumer-friendly terrain.

There are many ways PSU makers fudge to make their units seem more powerful.

1) Out and out lying. You add up the power on all the lines in many PSUs and they fall short of the rated power by 10, 20 30W or even more.

There are more sophisticated ways:

2) Limit the AC input voltage to a very narrow tolerance. The best PSUs are able to deliver their rated power given a decent range of AC input power, say 90~130V for a 120V unit. It's much more demanding to produce 300W w/90VAC input than with 120VAC, so what some PSU makers will detail in their tech specs (usually not in their consumer brochures) is to specify 115-120VAC for input power. A PSU specified this way will not deliver full power if the AC voltage sags, if there is a brown-out. Surely it causes instability more often than a PSU rated to deliver full power with 90-130VAC.

3) Specify a low operating temperature for rated output. This is quite common, but again not often seen in consumer brochures, but rather tech spec sheets provided usually only on demand by engineers or corp buyers. A typical PSU operating temp statement is somthing like this:

0ºC ~25ºC for full rating of load, decrease to zero Watts O/P at 70ºC

Examine what that says. Full power (let's say 400W) is available when the unit is at 0ºC ~25ºC. Hmmm. Think about this.

Have you ever felt air blown out of a PSU in a PC running absolutely full tilt (which it would have to do to get anywhere near 400W output) that felt cool to the fingers? 25ºC airflow would feel exactly that: Cool, given that normal body temperature is 37 °C.

So this PSU cannot deliver full rated power when its temperature goes over 25ºC. OK, what happens to the max power output capacity above that temp? It decreases gradually so that by the time the PSU temp reaches 70ºC, the PSU cannot deliver any power at all. So if you assume that this power drop as temp rises is linear, then max power capacity will drop by ~9W for every degree over 25ºC.

Now having examined as many PSUs as I have over the last 2~3 years, I have to say there's not a single PSU in ANY PC I have ever used or examined that would not measure at least 30~35ºC almost anywhere inside the PSU under almost any kind of load. And if/when it is pushed, 45ºC is nothing at all, especially for or near hot running components like voltage regulators.

So let's say 40ºC is a fairly typical temp inside a PSU. This 400W rated unit would actually be able to deliver a max of just 220W at that temp. Hmmm. Interesting, isn't it? At 50ºC, the available power would drop to just 130W. No wonder some PSUs have 3 fans each capable of 50 cfm!!

Here's a simple fact: Really high quality PSUs are actually rated for full power output at as high as 40ºC. The trick is get a hold of the spec sheets that tell such information so you can compare apples to apples. Or ask.
Click to expand...


from dansdata
Unethical PSU Marketing 101.

Here's how to make overly optimistic power supply specifications. It's really simple.

First, power the thing up. You can make an ATX power supply that isn't connected to a motherboard turn on by grounding pin number 14 on the big motherboard power connector. It's easy to spot that pin, because it's the only one with a green wire going to it.

Use any handy bit of wire - like the paper clip in this picture - to connect pin 14 to any ground contact. The ground contacts are the ones with the black wires going to them. Presto, the PSU will turn on.

Now, break out your brick-sized power resistors and load the heck out of one of the output rails - the +5V rail, for instance. Measure the current as you increase the load, until the voltage sags unacceptably far below the rated voltage.

How do you tell what an unacceptable voltage sag is? Well, you could choose a nice conservative small permitted sag - say, 0.1 volts - so that your results are genuinely useful to your customers. Or you could just ignore the voltage and say that when a fuse (or some other component...) blows, that must have been the limit, right there.

OK. Now you've made a big fat amperage number for the +5V rail. If you blew up the PSU in the process, get another one, and repeat the process for +12V and +3.3V, and for the low current rails as well.

On no account, though, should you test more than one rail at a time. This is the key to the whole scam.

A big beefy PSU may be able to deliver 50 amps (say) on the 5V rail when nothing else is under load, and 25 amps (say) on the 12V rail when it's similarly all alone. But the 12V and 5V rails together may only be able to deliver, say, 350 watts between them, when they're both under load. Watts equals amps times volts.

In a real PC, all of the power rails will always be under load together.

But you're not testing what the PSU can really do - you're making pretty numbers for the sales brochure!

So test all of your rails alone, get an amperage figure for all of them, multiply that figure by the voltage of the rail it came from (the nominal voltage, not whatever the voltage had sagged to as the PSU pumped electrons through the dessert spoon you'd soldered to the circuit board), then take all of the resulting wattage figures and add 'em up. That's a wrap, folks. Ship it!
Click to expand...


total wattage means absolutely nothing if its capacity on the wrong rail, or if its "ghost" capacity that simply isnt there when a supply is derated for temperature
you learned how to integrate components and employ your OS, well now-a-days, you need to learn how to buy a PSU or risk frying some pretty expensive components
there are plenty of object lessons to go around ;)
 
too bad they didn't have the antec phantom in that roundup, it claims 85% efficiency.
 
category_five said:
By the way - Anyone else notice that since 2000 the larger review sites have gone to crap? Originally Tom would post the occasional review, as would Anand and Sharky. Since then Sharky sold his site to some big content provider (I stopped reading his as soon as he did that). Tom stopped posting on his and now only features articles by people computer magazines won't hire to do articles. The only thing Anand actually writes himself is captions for photos of himself getting chummy with vendors of some of the most awful looking cases in existence, from industry shows in Malaysia.

Even the topics reviews are so far removed from what home computer builders are interested in it leads one to wonder if the new hired editors have ever even built a computer before. Go to any of these sites any day of the week and you're guaranteed to find reviews about palm pilots or digital cameras or MP3 players. While these are great devices they hardly have a place being "previewed" at a computer hardware site.

Bottom line is this. The big name review sites have become little more than forums for unabashed commercials for products of dubious quality and relevance.
Click to expand...

I agree, which is why I rarely read reviews anymore. It's a lot easier to get good info from a few different forums, like here. I needed a PSU recently and after reading some of the threads here I decided on the Fortron Blue Storm. I'd have to say I've been very happy with it so far. I'm even more impressed with it then the Antec NeoPower I also bought recently. Reviews are nice, but talking with people in the forums that have hands on experience with actually using the product instead of someone who spent a couple days with it makes a big difference... ;)
 
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