Published: October 3, 2008 | Source: Overclock3D | Author: James Napier

5-way High-End 1KW+ PSU Round-Up

Testing Procedure

Here at Overclock3D we take our PSU testing very seriously. For those of you who have read any of our previous PSU reviews, you will know that we employ our own custom made PSU load tester capable of drawing up to 1.3KW. While this certainly sounds more than perfect for testing the PSU’s under the spotlight today, we wanted to go one step further and really get some solid results in both the Efficiency and Power Factor of these units – something we’ve only previously been able to calculate to a reasonable level of accuracy.

With all 5 PSU’s in hand we set off down to the Enermax testing facilities in Milton Keynes where we had generously been given full access to their Chroma ATE 6310-E load tester. The plan was almost perfect….that was until we found out that Enermax’s testing equipment wasn’t geared up to test PSU’s with the newer European style power sockets (Cooler Master & Be-Quiet). However, not wanting to let the day go to waste, we set out testing the remaining three units (Enermax, Silverstone, Corsair) in the hope that the other two could be tested elsewhere.

After ringing around a few contacts we struck gold. One of our friends over in Germany had access to a rather beefy Chroma ATE 6000 setup. We promptly shipped the remaining Be-Quiet and Cooler Master units over for testing with instructions on exactly what voltage, loads and ambient temperatures to test the units with so they could at least be fairly comparable to those obtained from Enermax’s facilities.

Left: Chroma ATE 6000 – Right: Chroma 6310-E

Each of the PSU’s were tested at 50%, 75% and 100% load levels with voltage, efficiency and power factor readings being taken at each stage. Notes were also taken on the amount of noise that each unit produced but no exact noise measurements could be recorded due to the high ambient noise levels at both of the testing facilities.

The following charts show the exact load placed on each of the PSU’s tested at the various load percentages: