Tom's Hardware Compares Power Supplies 317
Some guy wrote in to say "Tom's Hardware Guide takes a hard look at power supplies to find out if we are getting what we paid for. The results of the testing were very surprising." Very useful to anyone who has built their own machine from scratch or burned out a cheap power supply.
Power Supplies (Score:3, Interesting)
that was an accident..
the other was when he flipped the voltage on a system that wouldnt power on... that was an interesting smell, let me tell you...
Tom's Recommended/NOT-Recommended Power Supplies (Score:2, Interesting)
From the article:
Fortron FSP, Verax and Herolchi
With its generous maximum output of 390 watts (at which point it powers down in an orderly fashion), the Verax FSP300-60ATV is an impressive performer. Thanks to its quiet fan, the Verax is practically inaudible in use. Also recommended is the Fortron FSP. This model achieved a maximum output of 450 watts - and it was quiet. The Herolchi HEC-300LR-PT was one of the least expensive units in our test. Despite its low price of about $50, this 300-watt power supply performed well. It also addressed safety issues adequately with a built-in safety cutout.
For those looking for a more readily available solution, we recommend the Antec True Power 380P. Antec has done a good job in making their products available from a variety of sources including many local retailers. Chances are that you will have no problems being able to find the Ture Power 380P. The True Power 380P offers a good balance of performance for the money, but expect to pay a little more for this unit, but you will get excellent packaging and a manual that is ahead of the others.
To sum up: More support for consumers
Our comparative power supply test indicates, beyond question, that some manufacturers need to make serious quality and accuracy improvements in the information provided with their products and with the performance statistics claimed in order to make these products perform as represented. Time and time again, our lab measurements were unable to verify the output figures represented on the model identification sticker. And how, exactly, is a computer purchaser supposed to check the output of a power supply? This kind of feature marketing is not possible with other hardware components, such as processors or graphics chips, because the user can check for performance using benchmark-testing software.
Here are some of the salient facts from our lab test. The 520-watt rating of the Maxtron TOP520P4 was overly optimistic. In our test, it burned out well before this, when it reached a combined load of 446 watts. The Leadman LP-6100E also performed well below its manufacturer's specification; the specification claimed a 500-watt rating, but in practice it only delivered 426 watts. On the other hand, the power supplies from Conrad, TSP and Verax were able to provide stable voltages, even when stressed in excess of their specification. With a measured peak output of 454 watts, the Fortron FSP exceeded its specification by 23%. The 300-watt Verax was able to deliver an astonishing 390 watts.
We do not recommend the models we tested from Noise Magic, PC-World and Maxtron, as none of these models offer any safety overload protection (auto cutout) and their capacitors explode with an audible "bang!" well short of their maximum rated output.
There are a few surprises for the potential power supply customer in the area of price. With the exception of the SCS, retailing at approximately $30, all of the other test models retail for at least $50. The highest priced example is from Engelking, with its 300-watt model retailing at about $235.
Non-custom built power supplies poor? (Score:5, Interesting)
I realize that me and the half of my friends and family that are not hardware-savvy only make up a small sampling. But none of the people that I know that have bought pre-built machines have had a problem with power supplies. Whereas at work, where my office is filled with machines constructed from the parts of other machines, we've had two instances of power supply failure.
Of course the machines at the office are older and are used more often than the home-based ones, but I figured I'd put in my 2 cents.
Good article, wish I could have written it! (Score:4, Interesting)
I remember blowing a power supply on an Apple IIe once as I turned it on. Scared the shit out of me too! Since then I've never had any more trouble with the supplies in Apple's Macintosh computers (which weren't reviewed here, but seem fairly solid nonetheless). I did once get a nice big fucking jolt off of one of their monitors though, numbed my right arm to the elbow and left my right side sore for a couple days from the violent muscle spasm it caused. Had it been my left arm, I probably wouldn't be typing this right now...
Enermax - only "satisfactory" rating... wtf? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Antec Power Supply (Score:4, Interesting)
Not only do they have varible speed fans in them, but they have a 2 wire lead to run 3 case fans (I only have 2) at varible speed.
With the front fans of the Lian-Li case that blow over the hard drives that are variable on their own, my machine is pretty quiet when doing nothing, but comes up to a nice wurr when compiling the newest glibc with "make -j2" (yes, I know it isn't parallel safe, but you only have to do it twice to catch the one file that hangs things up).
PSU Fans versus CPU Fans (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:don't you think? (Score:2, Interesting)
I know I'll get modded down for this...even slashdot isn't immune from morons who think they know something about computers because they can build one...if you need a support group for people who spend insane amounts of money to make their quake3 framerate go up, then by all means, go visit Tom.
NO SPECS for boards, no overload indicators... (Score:5, Interesting)
Why isn't every board and component clearly marked with its power consumption?
Why isn't every system clearly marked with the amount of power available to devices on the bus (power supply minus consumption of preinstalled components?)
Why isn't there some kind of built-in INDICATOR that WARNS you when the drain is approaching the power supply capability?
None of this is rocket science. It requires fourth grade arithmetic, a multimeter, and a little honesty.
On minicomputers, the power supply was sized for the worst-case set of boards that could be installed in it. That's probably too much to expect from PC vendors, but at the very least there should be an easy way to TELL.
"This is a real good power supply and it should be OK unless you put in an awful lot of boards that take a lot of power" just isn't the way to do things.
We expect this stuff to be clearly marked on our light bulbs, our vacuum cleaners, and our fuse boxes. Why shouldn't we expect it in our computers?
Dual PSU's (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Enermax - only "satisfactory" rating... wtf? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:PSU's with builtin UPS! (Score:2, Interesting)
Although the integration of the components makes it cheaper for the manufacturer to produce (to a certain extent) what happens to you when one part fails? You are screwed! PSU dead with working UPS = useless. Likewise the inverse. At least if they are separate you can repair one or the other and not have both sent out. If you have a tv/vcr combo and the vcr goes out, you are out of tv until it gets fixed. If the TV goes out, well, doesn't do any good to have a vcr, plus you won't have it anyways since it will be out for service.
But the corporations love selling people this integrated crap, because they know that you will sooner buy a new one than wait for it be replaced or repaired. Have you seen the cost of repairing electronics recently?
ngoy
Re:You get what you pay for (Score:5, Interesting)
Very true. The problem's one of brand differentiation.
At the low end (vast majority), there's Joe Sixpack, who doesn't know anything about what's inside his box, and who doesn't even think there are modular components in it. "Dude! I got a Dell!"
At the midrange (20%), there's most of us. "It's an ASUS or ABit mobo, an AMD/Intel CPU, and an nVIDIA or ATI card. Umm, and a power supply that came with the box."
At the high end (5%), there's folks who know that no-name power supplies suck (IMHO) and Enermax rox (IMHO). But only because we've read from...
Unlike ATI-vs-nVIDIA, where the midrange and high-end folks can plunk in an "upgraded" video card and immediately see the difference between "good" brands and "shitty" card manufacturers, brand names in power supplies have trouble gaining traction, because while they're working, they're indistinguishable from each other.
And of course, when they stop working, it's too late. For that reason, always keep a spare supply handy. Even a "free" no-name supply ($5 bucks from a surplus store) will last you a week until your "real" power supply arrives from the web merchant.
Rule of thumb: Put your hand over the PS's exhaust fan. If the air's significantly warmer than the air in the PC's case, get a bigger power supply.
(I learned it the easy way - a d00d at work got a dual Athlon mobo and just tossed it into his old case, and wondered why it was so warm under his desk while his CPU temperatures were normal. Answer: 2-year old 300W supply + dual athlon + two 7200 RPM disks = one massively overloaded P/S. We threw in a 365W "spare" for the weekend and ordered a 450W that got there by Monday. Air flow out the back was much cooler. Frankly, I'm amazed the 300W supply was even able to boot before blowing itself to hell.)
Failures should be reported to UL and CPSC (Score:5, Interesting)
The relevant safety standard is UL 60950 (or the identical EU 60590 in Europe), "Safety of Information Technology Equipment". One of the required tests is a full-load worst-case temperature test. No way should those units have received UL or CSA certification.
UL's certification search engine is broken today, so I can't check the power supplies listed to see if they really passed. But those certifications are public information; you can check.
Current CPSC product recalls in the computer area include PowDec power supplies for NextLevel DSL modems [cpsc.gov] and several batteries for laptops. Sounds like that list needs some additions.
Spec Fudging: A Long and Sordid History (Score:3, Interesting)
If anyone from Tom's is looking in, perhaps they may want to try out this test rig we developed for testing power supplies.
Back when I was working for NTG (later acquired by 3DO), our chief hardware designer, Dave Needle, assigned one of the engineers to test power supplies. It had to supply 5V at some large number of Amps, absolutely flat, and do it on continuous duty. Dave informed me -- to my utter, youthfully naive astonishment -- that the specs on power supplies couldn't be trusted.
The test rig the engineer came up with was several low-Ohm high-wattage resistors wired in parallel, submerged in a pan of distilled water. He then turned on the juice and watched the output on a 'scope. The room where these tests were carried out came to be known as The Steam Room.
I think he went through about a dozen prospective supplies before he found one that was acceptable.
Schwab
Where do you buy these? (Score:3, Interesting)
I've always had a really hard time finding these "secret" premium low-noise components. I would love to make my desktop quieter, and I would love to believe that these products will do the job. But if they're so awesome, why doesn't anybody sell them?
Re:Tomshardware (Score:1, Interesting)
Guess whatall those case fans and such use for power connectors? The little ones may plug into the motherboard, but many, many fans plug into floppy power cables. Of course, most of them come with pass-through connections so it doesn't actually hog the cable, but there IS a use for floppy connectors even if you don't use floppies (which most people I know still DO use, so quit trying to "shine highly on products that fit [your] personal views").
Re:Failures should be reported to UL and CPSC (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:sparkle power supplies (Score:2, Interesting)
The reason the power supply is idle is because I'm building a system to replace my agonizingly slow laptop (my only concession to PC's so far) and I'm getting bits of the system over time. Novemer is monitor month and looks to be an NEC 1700 job.
I was hoping for the much ballyhooed Serial ATA drives to come out, but see Seagate's ST380023AS (80G, also the 120G) drives have been pushed back from late October to late November. :-/
Re:Failures should be reported to UL and CPSC (Score:2, Interesting)
Sometimes it's predone (as in stuck on the Power Supply in China). Usually these stickers are cheap fakes. I personally recall some "CSB" approved power supplies coming into Canada at some point.
The worst is when its done inside the country. I've seen computer companies send CSA stickers to IT shops because they got tired of hearing "This computer isn't CSA certified" complaints.
It sucks if you have to double check all your power supplies for conformance, but I think its worth the time if you're planning to buy quite a few.
Phony/UL-uncertified power supplies (Score:5, Interesting)
UL's testing agrees with Tom's Hardware. All devices that really passed UL certification were found OK by Tom's Hardware. No UL-certified device blew up, caught fire, burned out, or failed to perform at rated load. All the units that failed lacked valid UL certification. The Leadman LP-6100 E did fail under full load at Tom's Hardware, but it shut itself down properly without damage. UL hasn't rated it, although they've rated previous Leadman models.
The Tom's Hardware article shows the data plate from the Chieftek power supply, which bears a UL marking. It's not in the database. It looks like many of those power supplies have fake UL certification, and for good reason - they don't meet specs or they're outright hazardous.
So if it's not in the UL database, don't buy it. There are plenty of good power supplies that have real UL certification. Corporate shops probably should check for those phony brands and take appropriate action. And tell UL; they will take action for phony markings.
i wonder the final score of Enermax (Score:1, Interesting)
I really wonder how they RATE their powersupplies, it is specified to be 350W powersupply which deliver s 389W so i think it's something else than crappy, it has variable speed fan control among other things.
I actually own a Enermax EG365P-VE powersupply which has been very good, is AMD approved having two fans, and yet still it isn't making much noise. Yes they have EG365AX-VE model, they have two of those on the specs screen, WHY DO THEY DIFFER from each other? huh, i'll say you what THG isn't neutral judge, even the TASK supply which claimed to give out 300W and gave out only 204W was rated higher, this is definately last time i read a review or test from THG Lab, if they cannot see which one is better. Huh, next time they prolly take a 20USD cheap powersupply which claims to give 250W delivers 150W and wins the comparison. THG Lab has lost it's value in my eyes. They apparently aren't professionals even many would claim something else.