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
We took a long look at every valuable bit of data we could manage to squeeze out of the power supplies available. If anything, the most startling data we found in this review was the disappointing problems with some fan controls. We recommend not buying a power supply with an onboard fan control.
Overall, the surprise victors of this roundup were Fortron and Zalman. Both included virtually identical units in the review and both performed extremely well, especially in the sound tests. However, since the Fortron units are priced about $20 lower than the Zalman units, we have to give our editor’s choice award to the Fortron. ThermalTake came in very strong, with very low noise and very high stability. The $74 cost is high, but considering the other external fan control power supply costs $60 more, we think the cost is easily justifiable.
As with the last roundup, we were very impressed with the Enermax power supplies. If their price was not so inhibitive, we would give them a stronger recommendation. Kudos to Enermax on both of their power supplies represented.
The PC Power & Cooling TurboCool 475 surprised us the most. It had excellent performance, low heat and relatively good price. However, when on, this power supply sounds like a train. One could easily modify the fan, but this would probably throw the unit out of spec and change the performance.
Unfortunately, like with any roundup, we can not include everyone. Fortunately, our power supply roundups are cumulative. Next time we do another PSU roundup, we will include the models we have listed here as well as a few other ones. If you have a particular PSU you would like to see included, feel free to drop a line in our forums so we know for next time!
Once again we would like to thank Directron.com for sponsoring this review and donating the hardware for us to test. Furthermore, we would like to thank the folks at Maxpoint, Kingwin, Case-Mod.com for providing hardware and testing equipment.
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Anonymous User - Friday, August 1, 2003 - link
1. No amp measurements were listed, a serious deficiency because without them there is no way to know how well each PS met its amp specs, and many brands are known to fall short.2. No overload testing results for shorts, excessive power draw, excessive temperature.
3. Ripple is not just slow voltage variation also short term variation, such as for each AC cycle (60 Hz for the incoming AC, about 60,000 Hz for the output DC). I would have liked to see how the latter correlated with the memory noise test results.
4. I hope you were careful when you tested the PS heatsink temperatures because some heatsinks are live with high voltage.
Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
Well for the observent people who can differentiate between orange and blue, its not an issue. Also waiting a full second before clicking it reveals the location on both the bottom left and the mouse cursor. but i can see how it does get annoying.Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
yeah those in page advertisements are REALLY annoying...those have got to go. i never know when i'm going to link to another anandtech article or to an ad...i guess that's the point but it's still unacceptableAnonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
I would like to see the review include a Heroichi Electronic power supply, I hear they are very good but I haven't used one.Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
Some of your "In Page Advertising" links seem to be missing closing links tags or something so that it results in having a <link> in the middle or end of a sentence. Ex. "We had a lot of troubles with Vantec’s last power supply, the Stealth. We found an error in the production label<link>, which quickly led to a change in all the labeling on all Stealth power supplies."KristopherKubicki - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
#3 and #4, thank you for spotting these errors. I have updated and fixed them.Cheers,
Kristopher
Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
I hope the ripple for the PC Power & Cooling 3V wasn't 2.295.. Possibly 3.296??? 1 volt drop is unacceptable.Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
The REAL price of the pc power&coolinghttp://www.directron.com/pcpower.htmlAnonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
a little more content per page in some cases would be nice too......but good to see content on the site at all...and seemingly more regularly too...
Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
woah guys, the tables need some work...