DC Output Stability and Quality








The DC output regulation is excellent with this power supply. Both the 3.3V and 5V rails have a regulation little over 2%; even at maximum loads of over 1000W, they stay just 1% under the ideal output. The standby rail has a larger regulation of around 6%, which is still within specs and seldom a cause for concern. As always, we combined all 12V rails into one graph. This time it represents six 12V rails, which is why the graph is so thick. With six rails, the various outputs will never be identical, and we measured a difference of roughly 0.15V at higher loads. Despite the spread between the 12V rails, we still get a voltage regulation of around 3%, which is a very good result.






The 3.3V and 5V output quality is okay, and the 3.3V rail is the worst we'll see from this PSU with a ripple result of 14.6mV. 12V1 has the lowest ripple with up to 17.79mV while the other 12V rails reach up to 30mV, but the overall results are similar to 12V1.

Testing with the Chroma ATE Programmable Load Efficiency and PFC
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  • xaris106 - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link

    sorry if my english are not good. its not my first language.
    Aside from that i know what a kilowatt and losses are. I`m not saying they did something wrong. I just wanted some more info on the matter for the pros and cons...
  • araczynski - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link

    i suppose they're putting all that tech into the very high end market for the same reason as all other techs do; its easy to charge an extra premium (above the normal premium) from those buyers.

    sooner or later the technology will trickle down into the 'normal' market, where there is more serious volume.

    but that's alright, the very high end market just ends up paying our share of the R&D costs that get passed on to them, instead of us.

    'bleeding edge' or something they call it? 'bleeding' green :)
  • JarredWalton - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link

    The real problem is trying to get all of the necessary parts into a "reasonable" PSU, like something in the 600W or lower range for example. I'd guess they probably put around $100-$150 worth of parts and components into this design, making it fit for the high-end but not much else. If you want to sell 500W PSUs, pricing needs to be below $100 for sure to be competitive, and it's just not all that practical to get there with top-end components (IMO).

    Keep in mind that most people run PSUs at around 50% load if they want peak efficiency, so this PSU is really ideal for anyone running a ~500W system. GTX 280 SLI with an overclocked quad-core would be just about right I think... if you have enough extra HDDs. That it *can* run anything from 200W to 950W with 85% efficiency (and even beyond if you use 230VAC and want to overload the PSU) is extremely impressive.
  • Phew - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link

    "When I first saw the filtering stage, I asked the representatives at Enermax if CWT is the ODM"

    I consider myself pretty savvy about computer hardware, and I have two engineering degrees (mechanical), but that sentence was meaningless to me.

    If you are going to use multiple obscure acronyms in one sentence, please at least include links to what they stand for and some description. It shouldn't take an electrical engineering degree to understand an article on a 'mainstream' computer hardware website.
  • yeti514 - Friday, November 7, 2008 - link

    I don't know about this PSU, but the PSUs in the link below sure look like some Thermaltake units that were made by CWT to me.

    http://www.enermaxusa.com/catalog/product_info.php...">http://www.enermaxusa.com/catalog/produ...sCsid=e8...
  • nevbie - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link

    Channel Well Technologies (company..)
    Original Design Manufacturer (..which was the manufacturer)

    Or along those lines.

    Note that this is a mainstream enthusiast computer hardware website. =P
  • Phew - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link

    When your computer hardware website has a power supply review listed right next to a digital camera review and a Guitar Hero article, that is about as 'mainstream' as it gets.

    Thanks for the acronym explanation
  • petersterncan - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link

    I will never buy this line of PSUs unless they came out with a 300-350W model.

    The systems I build use on-board graphics, on-board audio, one HD, one energy efficient CPU and one optical drive. Fully configured, the systems I build for myself only use around 110 watts. Anything over 350W results in wasted electricity.

    Look at the minimum power consumption and efficiency at low power draws! That's the most relevant info for me when selecting a PSU.
  • Calin - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link

    You can have in USA electrical power on 240V. And the power source will go just as well at 220/230V of Europe as with 240V
  • strikeback03 - Thursday, November 6, 2008 - link

    Problem would probably be getting the proper cable for the US. Might have to make it yourself.

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