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Power Supply Torture Test
An anonymous reader writes "With the latest batch of power hungry graphics cards, the PSU in your computer is more important than ever. If you're looking for a new power supply, check out this group test. They've tested 19 PSUs - some good, some bad and some downright explosive!"
If you ask me (and i think you did) the power rating on power supplys useless. I have seen 300W power supplies (good ones) with better power output then cheap 400W.
Its the same scam the PMPO ratings on speakers.
Cruise TT
In soviet russia power supply torture tests you
Maybe the guys at Trusted Reviews don't use the recommended Power Supply of it has been /.ed
http://www.michel.eti.br
Mirrordot link to Trusted Reviews power supply review
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
I always stress the importance of getting a good power supply when I give advice for building PCs, but it seems like something people are largely willing to gloss over, and just go for some cheap no-name with high wattage. It's nice to see a review for these, finally...
But, of the companies on here, I've never even [i]heard[/i] of Tagan, and it seems a bit sketchy that Tagan wins best honors in their review... which was conducted in Tagan's lab.
Furthermore, why aren't Sparkle or Antec power supplies tested? Along with Enermax, they're widely regarded as some of the best around.
noise measurements. A l33t PSU is no good if it sets up a howling gale in my room.
In college, I was the guy to go to if you had a computer problem. One night, one of the football players comes knocking on my door, "Hey Mark, my computer's acting weird, can you come look at it?" I agreed and we walked down the hall to his room. Strangely, the machine was off so I reached my hand out and turned it on. I jumped back at the sound of a loud pop and the sight of flames and smoke coming out of the back of the power supply. Immediately, I reached for the cord and pulled the plug.
:-)
"So can you fix it," he asks in all seriousness. I just looked at him in total disbelief and said, "Man, your computer was just on fire. No, I can't fix it."
He was really good at football though!
Mark A. McBride -- OmniNerd.com
That page is annoying, it keeps jumping up and down while I'm trying to read it, because of that stupid javascript ad.
It's kinda silly anyway, the article's premise is that they got access to this $20,000 power supply testing equipment... A set of simple $10-$20 high wattage load resistors would have worked just as well.
A $1000 scope might help if you want to catch a load dump overshoot, startup transient, or ripple, but it looks like they aren't even concerned with such important specs of a power supply, specs that could burn our your system.
Anyway, some testing is better than no testing, which seems to be the norm for computer power supplies, so I am thankful that someone with access did these tests, but it would have been more useful if they had tested more than simply steady state load.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
I was having consistent random crashes - the computer would suddenly reboot (all the way to bios, instantly) with no warning. The only clue was it happened most often when I was doing a disk-intensive task (which meant I had several crashes while the system was writing the FAT... BAD news).
For months I troubleshot all kinds of stuff, to no avail. New mobo, new processor, rearranged hard drives, reinstalled software, new network card, you name it - one step at a time, but no effect. The crashes continued.
Finally I happened upon some similar accounts of instability and they mentioned power supplies. I thought I was okay with a 300w supply and my Athlon. Nope. As soon as I replaced it, instant stability.
Some things to note about my experiences:
I upgraded to the Antec TruePower 430. It's an extremely quiet supply, even quieter than my processor fan, with a temp-controlled variable-speed fan and a second case fan molex connector that also is temp-controlled. It rarely runs above idle, but my case is always cool. That alone was worth the upgrade price.
I was loading the supply more than I had realized: I run dual graphics cards, two hard drives, and two CD/DVD drives. The crashes were apparently caused by the hard drives - it's apparently well-known (in some circles) that the highest instantaneous current draw in a PC is when the hard drive head starts to seek (lots of current is needed to get rapid motion and get the seek times down). So anytime I was doing a disk-to-disk operation - like a backup or CD burning - I was loading the power supply dangerously close to its limit. One step over the line, and the processor would hiccup. Boom, instant bad FAT table and a week of rebuilding.
Finally, this wasn't an overnight problem. I brought it on over time by adding things to my PC incrementally... hey, let's add another drive... hey, a spare graphics card... I can keep the case - it's working fine, right?
So word to the wise: get a GOOD power supply, and get one that's rated well ABOVE your expected average load. Pay attention to those current draw numbers on the hard drives; wattage alone doesn't tell the whole story, and small spikes can kill you.
--Brandon / Split Infinity Music
To tie a cheap oem 300watt power supply to a whopper of a PC that you just blew a few thousand dollars on is the biggest mistake most people make, and overlook. Dirty unreliable power supplies that feed your PC are like heart attacks waiting to happen. If you're going to invest heavily into building a new computer, do not over look your PSU. If you do a little research (other than compare maximum power to price) regarding Max power @ watt operating temperature, you'll see that most cheap PSU's are rated say 300watts, but for a nice 30 degree Celsius operating temp. Now let's think about that. How many PC's operate that cool? Also, your better built PSU's will typically weigh a lot more, because they're simply better built. Nice and heavy means beefier power supplies, larger capacitors (to give your board that extra oomph it requires when you boot, or when you load it up), and it might even mean you have PFC included--a Power filter controller. These PSU Companies aren't always out to get the consumer by the jugular.
Man, I remember an Atari ST enthusiast back in 1987. He owned the only ST shop in town, and he imported about AUD$14,000 worth of gear for demo purposes (big HD, controller cards, etc - this was before Atari Megadrives. My Megadrive cost me around AUD$1750, so that kind of dough wasn't excessive.) He hooked up a DX7 keyboard with midi cables, both monitors (via switchbox), laser printer ... the whole works.
Then he plugged it in and fired it up.
Pity the external hard drive transformer was 110v, and Aussie power is 240.
A year or so later he could laugh about the way the drive heads were fused to the platters when he opened it up for a look. At the time he was somewhat distraught.
Another less expensive tale - the tech at a computer shop I used to work for ordered in an 80mb hard drive for a customer in the days when 20mb was the standard. (yes - MB. It was a long time ago...) This thing cost around AUD$800 (about US$600 at current prices), and unfortunately the molex socket on the drive was quite flexible and his glasses weren't quite strong enough. So he put the Molex power plug in upside down.
End result: I found him wreathed in magic blue smoke, explaining to the distributor that a sudden fault had arisen with the new and very expensive hard drive.
Hal Spacejock: Science Fiction with Nuts
First - I spent the better part of 20 years designing military and aerospace switching power supplies and systems. Admittedly these toys were commercial products, but I think I'm qualified to say the following:
:) )- the latter is seldom accurate.
a) purely resistive loads are a poor model for PC load characteristics, as are purely constant-current loads. But the CC load is a tougher test.
b) transient line and load response (or lack thereof) can preclude operation at the steady-stete levels tested.
c) I just skimmed the article as it was loading strange, but I didn't note any specific cross-regulation tests. These types of tests may yield poorer performance measurements. They almost always do.
d) Testing to see if a PS will run at full load is not the same as seeing if it will START under FL. I didn't notice these tests. Likewise Starting at low or hi input is tougher that running at same.
e) we ps designers had an expression: Power supplies are like assholes - everyone has one and everyone thinks they're an expert. The former is true (some folks have two
OK - flame away. I'm gonna go eat lunch.
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
Looking up HIPER in the UL database, HIPER has a few products listed, but none of them are computer power supplies. So that's a brand to avoid.
Consistently, every power supply with a valid UL mark passed. And every power supply that blew up lacked a valid UL mark.
UL tests power supplies by loading them up to their rated load at their maximum rated temperature and running them for hours or days. They also test for safe behavior if short circuited, overloaded, or overvoltaged. They're not concerned with power quality, just safety. The device must not blow up or catch fire, even after a single component failure.
Report phony UL marks to UL at 1-877-UL-HELPS (854-3577). They arrange for seizure at U.S. Customs, and catch about $12 million a year of hazardous components, which are then crushed.