34 PSU Roundup -Taoyuan 2005

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23-09-2005, 10:02 AM
Steve

34 PSU Roundup -Taoyuan 2005

Quote:

So with Computex looming large, we went out and bought a whole bunch of power supplies and had them shipped out to Taoyuan City. PD and I then flew out to Taiwan a week before Computex started to test as many of the supplies as we could in the 5 days we had in the lab, to see what would shake out. The results were surprising, especially given our testing methods. Read on to find out what supplies we bought and shipped, how we used and abused them and how they all stood up to the intense scrutiny.

http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD0xMzU5

http://img.hexus.net/v2/psu/taoyuan_...ages/pdhax.jpg
Paul 'danger, high voltage' Dutton showing Rys how it's done. Note the sandals.
23-09-2005, 10:56 AM
nev_payne

looks like a sentinel is poised to strike fro m the shelving :p
23-09-2005, 11:09 AM
DR

Incredible work guys :)
23-09-2005, 12:47 PM
shiato storm

you actually had one blow up!! hahaha! got to love those qtec's...perhaps a note to the mfr.s and all shops that sell them? surely its a real health hazard to have something like that in your home! glad I dont :)

well done for the mammoooof challange. 34 PSU's..! must have taken a while.
23-09-2005, 01:18 PM
Rys

Took me five mins to test and writeup, no worries :devilish:

In reality, that's by far the biggest article HEXUS have ever published and for the poor monkey (aaahahaaaaaaaaa PD!) that had to do the testing and write it all up, it was a definite labour of love. I love technical writing but at times it tested my patience.

It took over 50 hours (seriously!) of writeup and that's after analysis of the results born from the 5 days of testing. Then there's PD's time spent, David's week-long logistical nightmare in actually getting the 30 odd PSUs out to Taiwan for me to abuse and Bob's spent some time looking at it too. Team effort, despite my name being on the top of it.

What hopefully fell out at the end is a PSU roundup that rocks and it's certainly one I'm very proud of. Hopefully it'll educate and provide a nice buying guide for those looking to buy a new PSU. Please try and read as much of it as you can!

Anyway, one for the CV when I try and climb the HEXUS ladder ;)

I did have my slippers off, but only because I was teetering on the edge of a desk snapping photos. I never found a pair that fit properly, so wobbling my fat frame around on a desk edge wearing not so good footwear might have resulted in an very injured monkey. Hilarious for pics, not so hilarious for me.
23-09-2005, 02:32 PM
Gordy

Great work! Must have been a right pain to do that but well done :)
23-09-2005, 05:56 PM
unrealuniverse

love that video. over 1KW just to provide 450W thats crazy. I think it proves a point. if you want a cheap firework for bonfire night then get one.
23-09-2005, 06:18 PM
[OK²]Pihrana

Hmmmm...... I dont want to put a downer on anything here as what you have achieved is monumental, and i am VERY pleased with the sheer number of PSU's which have been analysed !!!

However........ I am now even more unsure about what to believe and what not to believe !! I know how many people love to DIS Tomshardware and on some things i concur !! But their LIVE PSU stress test recently really got me interested and to some extent, rebuilt a little trust i had in their opinion again !!

Their roundup praised the Enermax series of PSU's and showed the Enermax Noisetaker EG701AX-VE to be a very good PSU indeed. Then moving to the Hexus test the same PSU has issues !! How can 2 different hardware sites have two very different opinions on the same PSU whilst both seeming to have very good Testing methodology? Is it, that two seemingly identical PSU's from the same Manufacturer are not actually the same? Can this situation be compared to CPU's. (Ie CPU X and CPU Y are both the same and are tested in the same PC sub-system, but CPU X O/C's better than CPU Y because as we all know, O/C'ing CPU experiences can and will vary !?!)

I own a DFI NF4 SLI-D mobo and had my fair share of problems with what PSU to choose (and the 400W i have is by DFI's standards non compliant as u have to have at least a 480W PSU to be fully compliant !!), having checked through DFI-Street and being a relatively active member on their forum, many people trust and praise the HIPER series of PSU's. Yet TOMS if i recall had problems as did Hexus with at least one PSU from the HIPER range......

Thats the sort of testing i would like to see as an addition to this sort of test. Which PSU allows a common PC setup to overclock more? (Ie Part 1 complete, now take the PSU's which passed and see what they give to a system built for O/Cing). So my Question is, whens part 2 start? - Hehehehe
24-09-2005, 02:18 AM
apesoccer

LOL...i've been looking for reviews on my Enermax EG565...<cries>...well i have been having power related issues with it...especially with my 6800s. They clock down after 3-10min depending on how hot it gets in there.

I've been in the act of looking for a new one...been everywhere looking at reviews...Still a little unsure. Down to the (decided the single 12v line was where i wanted to be so...) Zippy HP2-6500P, OCZ520ADJ, and the pc p&c 510. The 510 is a bit expensive...

Rats...can't figure out how to use the insert image button...oh well.

Anyway Nice review. <Fav'd>
24-09-2005, 03:09 AM
Mike89

Why was Antec excluded from these comparisons? They have always been top notch power supplies and are worthy to be there.
24-09-2005, 03:14 AM
Rys

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike89

Why was Antec excluded from these comparisons? They have always been top notch power supplies and are worthy to be there.

They weren't excluded, just they didn't make the trip out there. If we could have nabbed a couple, we would. As I told a reader earlier via email:

We could only take so many PSUs out to Taiwan from the UK for logistical reasons. PSUs that were easiest to obtain and represented the spectrum of units we wished to cover made the cut.

Dozens of other PSUs didn't make it either and it's just a simple matter of logistics.

Hopefully Antec will make it into the next roundup we do.
24-09-2005, 08:06 AM
DudeMiester

I do hope you include PC Power & Cooling next time. They blow away the competition in the high end. I recall one professional electrical engineer over at xtremesystems.org describing them as near medical grade. They already have a 850W PSU and a 1000W one is on the way. They are all tested at 50C, while most other PSUs are tested at 25C, which can cause up to a 30% difference in overall wattage. In fact, they were the first PSU manufacturer certified by Nvidia for use with SLI. Clearly, it would be a shame if you don't include them.
24-09-2005, 10:08 AM
jnm21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rys

Hopefully Antec will make it into the next roundup we do.

Here here! I must say that it was the first name I looked for, but hats off to Hexus for making the effort to take & test 30 PSUs. :rockon:

Others I'd like to see next time are Antec, Silenx & PCP&C.

Perhaps a UK lab will become available, then you could invite mfrs to stump up the cash to buy 5 of each model they want included - fancy testing 1000+ PSUs? :p

Anyone fancy a Qtec?
24-09-2005, 12:50 PM
Rys

Quote:

Originally Posted by DudeMiester

I do hope you include PC Power & Cooling next time. They blow away the competition in the high end. I recall one professional electrical engineer over at xtremesystems.org describing them as near medical grade. They already have a 850W PSU and a 1000W one is on the way. They are all tested at 50C, while most other PSUs are tested at 25C, which can cause up to a 30% difference in overall wattage. In fact, they were the first PSU manufacturer certified by Nvidia for use with SLI. Clearly, it would be a shame if you don't include them.

I hope I've got a couple of their models to test, too. Again, simple logistics stopped us from taking everything that we wanted. Next time!
24-09-2005, 11:28 PM
oralpain

Nice and useful review. However, I would have liked to see ripple tests.

I can confirm the pattern you are seeing with the Enermax PSUs. They defianlty list peak, not continuous power. My EG425P-VEis very quiets and runs quite cool, but I have run into some overclocking problems beacuse of the somewhat misleading amp rattings on the rails. When I put 3.2v through my memory at very tight timings and high overclocks I can sit in the BIOS and watch my memory voltage gradually drop as I am drawing more than the PSU can supply consistently on the +3.3v rail.
26-09-2005, 01:52 PM
Reaps

I bought a Hiper 560w based off the review here of the lower models and one of the modular connectors 12v supply is dead :( I tested it with a multimeter and only +5 is working off the far right one... time to take it back and get a refund. If it comes to it i'll buy the akasa as alternative as it looks just a nice.
27-09-2005, 01:14 PM
ronaldvr

Toms hardware did a stress test

Quote:

Originally Posted by apesoccer

LOL...i've been looking for reviews on my Enermax EG565...<cries>...well i have been having power related issues with it...especially with my 6800s. They clock down after 3-10min depending on how hot it gets in there.

I've been in the act of looking for a new one...been everywhere looking at reviews...Still a little unsure. Down to the (decided the single 12v line was where i wanted to be so...) Zippy HP2-6500P, OCZ520ADJ, and the pc p&c 510. The 510 is a bit expensive...

Rats...can't figure out how to use the insert image button...oh well.

Anyway Nice review. <Fav'd>

On Toms Hardware pages you can find a stress test, where the Enermax PSU's do comparatively well....
http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/200507111/index.html
27-09-2005, 01:37 PM
Goberpiles

Excellent Post and reviews.
27-09-2005, 05:08 PM
davidstone28

Would like to see some passive PSUs in the roundup eg. Antec Phanton, Silverstone NF30 etc
27-09-2005, 07:44 PM
doug-jensen

Curious that no one tests PSU's at operational temperatures, like commercial and industrial equipment manufacturers do. Get an IR thermometer or a themometer with a probe that can be inserted into the PSU, and see what the actual operating temperature is after being under full load for a while. It's way higher than the 25C that PSU vendors claim (if they claim anything at all) their ratings are measured at. No one seems to dare open their PSU and show the interior next to that of a PC Power & Cooling PSU, or to compare specs with PCP&C. There's a reason PCP&C is always the PSU in Maximum PC's annual Ultimate PC. Interesting that no one other than Maximum PC ever includes it in their "evaluations."
27-09-2005, 09:46 PM
arakasi

Enermax Noisetaker EG701AX-VE

I recently purchased an Enermax Noisetaker EG701AX-VE, after reading the stress test on THG, so am quite interested in the results for this PSU from hexus.net, and why they are different. After some research, it appears there are 2 versions of this PSU. The one tested on THG seems to be the newer one, which is rated for SLI, has a 24 pin motherboard connector, and also includes 2 PCIe connectors.
I also found this on a review done at http://www.silentpcreview.com/article221-page1.html

"Our sample is a Noisetaker version 2. The main difference between the Noisetaker revisions appears to be adherence to the newer v2.01 rather than v1.3 of the ATX12V PSU Design Guide. The actual specifications have not changed much for comparable models; according to Enermax's spec sheet, the only differences are a slightly higher rating for one of the 12V rails and the disappearance of a combined maximum wattage for the 3.3V and 5V rails."

This seems to explain why they weren't able to increase the combined wattage on the 3.3v and 5v lines above 120W, while THG had no problems pulling 600w from this PSU.

Any ideas? I'm trying to find this out, as I don't want a lot of money wasted on a PSU that can't go over 460w.
27-09-2005, 10:45 PM
Chemical_Ali

nice to see the akasa 650watt do well becuase i bought it without reading any reviews but i must say u failed to mention how noisy it is becuase its very noisy
03-10-2005, 03:09 AM
oliveroms

First off pretty good article. Lots of PSU's tested, but as others also mentioned to bad there where no antec's.

One thing I find very very supprising in this review is that the FSP and Zalman supplies perform so differently. Several sites allready mentioned that the Zalman is simply a relabeld FSP PSU. On opening this becomes clearly visible due to the PCB that has FSP markings on it.

However things can always be done better : ) And what I really miss was not only ripple analasys (as also mentioned) but inside (+outside) pics (as for example xbit did in their review here X-bit labs . Maybe add the 'weight' of the PSU (as that mostly also is a pretty good indication of built quality).

I saw a review once that went as far as measuring heatsink thinkness and area. Also very important I do belive! (Bigger heatsinks cost more, if manufactures try to save a few pennies there, what else might they be saving a bit too much on?)

My favorite PSU (allthough heavly outdated yes) is still Anandtech's

Notice the memory test they perform. Now you could argue that they have bad ram a bad motherboard or what not. But if you look at the diverse results with different PSU's on the same motherboard +cpu +ram combo, things become rather interesting. This is one of the reason's I looked for a FSP, Fortron, Nexus or Zalman. Since Zalman was the most easy to purchase I got that one and I can only praise it with it's near perfect power low heat and very low noise.
03-10-2005, 05:33 PM
apesoccer

Thx ronald, i checked that one out a while back, but thx for the heads up. I found four reviews of the product, two good and two bad. I've got them linked in various posts on different forums...=)
03-10-2005, 06:59 PM
Maxession

This is a hell of a nice review, congrats and keep up the good work! ;) :)
04-10-2005, 03:11 PM
KermitTheFrog

Lots of information to digest - thanks for doing the reviews.
07-10-2005, 11:17 PM
Danishwonder

Excellent Post and review only bad thing is that i have to go out and spend more money to get something better damm hexus
11-10-2005, 02:50 PM
Gordy

On an interesting note I was reading Custom PC while on holiday and they did a very similiar psu round up and the results were along the same lines as yours. With some big brands coming out very badly :)
11-10-2005, 03:35 PM
DR

Didn't know people read CPC ;)
11-10-2005, 04:05 PM
Gordy

I was without the web :D
08-11-2005, 03:55 AM
Hexus1

Tagan TG480-U01

'Connectivity is the Tagan's strong point, the latest revision able to power just about anything, including a pair of PCI Express graphics boards'

When I'm buying one of these how do I know that I'm getting the latest revision with 2xPCI-E connectors (SLI Ready) if they're called the same, TG480-U01? The ones that i have seen on the web seem to only have 1xPCI-E connector and nothing is mentioned that they're compatible with ATX 2.0 and BTX. Shouldn't the product have a different name if it's a later revision? Tagans website doesn't seem to be up to date, you get a bit confused. The only psu that comes close to the one presented in the article is the TG480-U22. Or maybe it's just a typo(s) in the article?

EXELLENT article btw, nice work, maybe add some more photos next time. :cool:

edit:
So, I understand now that there is a latest and older revision numbers of this very same PSU model.... so the question is, what revision number is the latest (the one that is SLI Ready and has support for BTX and ATX 2.0) and are they available on the europeing market, if so, under which SKU? How many revisions are there?

Off to google for some more information.........
15-12-2005, 06:45 PM
FrankieTBolt

Which PSU?

Hi guys,

I need help. Big help. :confused:

I've got 5 IDE drives (large capacity collected over the last 2-3 yrs) [5 x molex connectors], a CD Writer [1 x molex connector], a DVD-ROM [1 x molex connector], a DVD Writer [1 x molex connector], a floppy drive-cum-media card reader [1 x floppy connector], a 6800 GT Ultra [1 x molex connector], a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Pro [1 x floppy connector] and 4 thermally controlled case fans [4 x molex connectors]. It's all hooked to a Gigabyte 7N400L pro motherboard & an AMD Athlon XP 2500 Barton overclocked to 3200.

Now I've got a 550W Antec Trupower 2.0 PSU trying to run my gig which seems to barely keep the power fed properly to two of my HDDs. :shocked2:
Now all my HDDs are set on cable select & its the 2 slave ones that seem to be unpowered even though the BIOS can clearly detect & acknowledge their presence during boot up. The CD & DVD drives on RAID IDE connections set yo normal non-raid settings. So they run a-ok.

Should my Antec 550W PSU suffice me to run 'em all? Or should I "upgrade" to an FSP Epsilon 700W PSU to keep 'em all on the go??? :undecided
I could supply u with a better picture if need be...

Thanks. I'd appreciate all the help I can get bout this cracker... :bowdown:

:)
22-02-2006, 05:45 AM
TrekerOnLine

Man, you boys just went on a holiday, didn't you!

You boys just went to Taiwan for a holiday didn't you?! Then you had to do a few PSU power ups to justify the trip. Man, what a great job.

While I know you just want us to read every page of the review, and there are some nice facts in the individual write ups, where is the critical review? You just powered them up to full power to see if they could handle it. The graphs!!! I couldn't tell if the PSUs were in spec or not. Many of the +3.3V lines seems to be below spec. Where was the spec line on the graph(s) (3.3V, 5V, and 12V) and the upper and lower limits?

The the temperature graph, showing a maximum of ambient plus 24.5C, so total about 50C tops, yet two untis were reported as too hot to touch! 50C is not too hot to touch. Hell, the air temperature down here in Australia gets up to 45C at times!

Still, I read the review right through, no doubt generating a few cents for you from the process, clicking links and such. :)

Finally though, were you boys ever fooled by the AOpen people. Go take a look at the AO700-ALN on their Global site, http://global.aopen.com.tw/products/...O700-12ALN.htm and http://global.aopen.com.tw/Products/...O700-12ALN.pdf. No way are these the specs for a 700Watt continuous rated PSU. They quote "Normal" and "Maximum" currents the same way others quote maximum and peak currents. The maximum Amps on +12V is also 50A, not 60A as in your review. Check section 4.2 in the PDF. Must have been a good engineering sample. Tricked :Oops:
22-02-2006, 11:05 AM
YorkieBen

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrankieTBolt

Hi guys,

I need help. Big help. :confused:

I've got 5 IDE drives (large capacity collected over the last 2-3 yrs) [5 x molex connectors], a CD Writer [1 x molex connector], a DVD-ROM [1 x molex connector], a DVD Writer [1 x molex connector], a floppy drive-cum-media card reader [1 x floppy connector], a 6800 GT Ultra [1 x molex connector], a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Pro [1 x floppy connector] and 4 thermally controlled case fans [4 x molex connectors]. It's all hooked to a Gigabyte 7N400L pro motherboard & an AMD Athlon XP 2500 Barton overclocked to 3200.

Now I've got a 550W Antec Trupower 2.0 PSU trying to run my gig which seems to barely keep the power fed properly to two of my HDDs. :shocked2:
Now all my HDDs are set on cable select & its the 2 slave ones that seem to be unpowered even though the BIOS can clearly detect & acknowledge their presence during boot up. The CD & DVD drives on RAID IDE connections set yo normal non-raid settings. So they run a-ok.

Should my Antec 550W PSU suffice me to run 'em all? Or should I "upgrade" to an FSP Epsilon 700W PSU to keep 'em all on the go??? :undecided
I could supply u with a better picture if need be...

Thanks. I'd appreciate all the help I can get bout this cracker... :bowdown:

:)

strange that you are having trouble, I am running 3 hard drives, a x800 pro vivo (overclocked), a 2800+ Barton (o/c to 3000+), 2gb ram, 2 dvd-rw, floppy drive, 3 case fans etc and it is all fine on an Antec Neopower 480W psu. Yes I have a slightly less power hungry system but then again your psu is rated 70W more. Have you checked the rails on your psu (i.e. are the 3.3v, 5v and 12v lines actually producing that amount. Try using the motherboard monitor (MBM) program to find out)
17-07-2006, 12:34 PM
GoNz0

damn, i got 2 q-tek 450 watters spare here...

think im going to toss em in the bin after viewing that...

funny thing is the one i used for 3 years never blew up, and it was loaded to hell... must have been those 2 thermaltake fans i fitted insude it to get all that heat out the biatch :|

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