2003 Power Supply Roundup Part II: Better Faster Cheaper
by Kristopher Kubicki on July 31, 2003 1:58 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
An alarming trend we noticed with our roundup was that power supplies with fan controls on the rear of the unit have problems keeping tight tolerances. We looked into the problem a little more and noticed that while the components on the inside of the unit were of good quality, the fan control switches themselves were not.
Often the worst cases were fan control power supplies with often poor locking mechanisms. For example, the TTGI power supplies sometimes let the control switch slip slightly, resulting in a switch that rested half way between “high” and “low”. As a result, the poor contact produced incredibly awful ripple tests as demonstrated below.
Fan Control out of Place Voltages
|
|
+12V Low |
+12V High |
|
Kingwin KWI-450WABK |
11.830 |
12.225 |
|
TTGI/SuperFlower 520SS 4Fan |
11.820 |
12.240 |
|
TTGI/SuperFlower 420SS |
11.850 |
12.225 |
|
TTGI/SuperFlower 350SS |
11.875 |
12.305 |
|
Vantec Ion 400W |
11.780 |
12.005 |
|
Vantec Stealth 520W |
11.750 |
12.010 |
Edit:Although these measurements do not show the +12V rail out of specification from the ATX12V 1.2 document, they are much different from the measurements obtained on the previous page. This change warrants some attention, since if unchecked, poor signals will damage your hardware. Newer motherboards attempt to purify signals coming on the motherboard to prevent catastrophic failure, but voltages over the rails not feeding to the motherboard are very susceptible to failure (this puts a video card or hard drive in serious jeopardy).
After contacting manufacturers with this information, we got confirmation from companies stating that they planned on dropping the fan control from their power supplies. Vantec told us that dropping this controller actually lowers their cost significantly, and the savings would be then relayed to the consumer. Consider how much you actually use the fan control on your power supply (if you have one). Our opinion is that the tradeoff will be well worth it.
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unclebud - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
i came in here today looking for just the same thing though!we needs a new ps article! thanks in advance anandtech!
JustAnAverageGuy - Sunday, January 30, 2005 - link
Dopey:It's an extremely old article. Nobody reads those except when they need to be pulled out of the vault.
Dopey - Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - link
Sad to see no comments since 2003! ???Looking for a good power supply for AMD and review indicates that both Fortron & Zalman are good at not too high price. But looking at Antec True Power 330W I read "beware of the extremely modest +12V rail. If you are running a high end video card, or an Intel Pentium 4, this power supply simply will not produce enough juice." Both the Fortron &n Zalman deliver just 180 watts on the +12V rail while the Antec True Power 330W puts out 204 watts. And if you look at the whole list of PSUs reviewed 204 watts looks like a respecatable amount of power. So ... ????????????????????
MIDIman - Friday, November 7, 2003 - link
I bought the Zalman 300w for $50 as a result of this article. Love it to death, but newegg stopped carrying it.1) What size fan is in the Fotron reviewed here, 120mm or 80mm?
2) What is the model number of the 300w alternative to the Fortron FSP400-60PFN?
3) Isn't the Sparkle FSP350-60PN reviewed here also a fotron, and what is the model number of its 300w alternative?
Anonymous User - Monday, October 27, 2003 - link
You state for those PSU's that have good amoubt of voltage for the 3,3V are good for AMD.It will also be nice to say that most new motherboard from AMD are now using 12 RAIL e.g. 8RDA3+ many more and from what ive seen all K8 mobos use 12 RAIL
all in all good review.
What i have found with my TT320W that when you stress it too much and it heats up it will shit down whole system.
Also if your PC is off for many hours if you touch the PSU its worm :S
Ordered my Antec 550W True Control
Also you should show how to short the old PSU so user can use 2 PSU in one system..
I run my whole system on a 480W ProSourse untill my 550W Antec TC is here
My GFFX5900 runs on a dedicated PSU 300W soon it will have a dedicated 480 ProSource :D
And all my 12 fans run on a 300W generic PSU
Also TT's seem not to like when to many devices are connected to it
Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
To know how much the exhaust air will heat a room you have to know not only its temperature but also its volume. It would be simpler to measure the efficiency of the supply.The tests were not very thorough at all because if they were they would have included electrical noise and current measurements and testing at full power.
Anonymous User - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
The memory errors could be due to bad filtering more than cable shielding. Putting a 'scope on the outputs would would provide a graphic portrayal of output quality. <hint, hint> :-)*TimDaniels*
Anonymous User - Sunday, September 7, 2003 - link
I enjoyed reading the article and I think it was very well written and the tests were very thorough. Although the article discusses "heat" and examines each power supply to see how well they deal with the heat issue, I think from a consumers point of view, you should have measured the difference in the temperature of the exhaust that is emitted from the power supply. For me that is a real issue as the heat that emits from my existing power supply probably raises the room temperature by 7 to 8 degress (to the point of making it uncomforable to stay in the room on a hot day). I want a power supply that doesn't blow out hot air. Which one of these blows the coolest air?Anonymous User - Friday, August 22, 2003 - link
As much care was taken in creating the title as in testing the power supplies.I hope to see another Anandtech power supply review soon, only one with proper testing. I have to give Anandtech an A for effort in this case, but I can't still give them a passing grade. Please consult with a specialist in this field for any future test.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, August 20, 2003 - link
Is it just me or does the article title seems a little off? "2003 Power Supply Roundup Part II: Better Faster Cheaper" Faster? A faster P/S?