AnandTech Power Supply Test Methodology

Conclusion... for now

For many, power supplies are unfortunately still not considered an important component, but this attitude is definitively a mistake. Power supplies deliver the voltage to each and every single component in the PC and make them work. It is the heart of the system and the provided electricity works like blood in the human body. If the delivered electricity is faulty or unstable it can ruin even the greatest high-end rig instantly.

It is important that readers understand the importance of power supplies in today's PCs and we will do our part from now on to deliver the necessary tests. In addition we will explore the manufacturers themselves; good quality starts with a good engineering team that develops upcoming power supplies. We will visit the offices and factories of the manufacturers to show how and where power supplies are made.

When testing power supplies we will pay attention to important aspects of the units. It begins with the design of the PCB and the components used. A power supply might look very good from the outside but the build quality and structure inside could be just rubbish. To help determine the quality of these aspects of a power supply, we will open the test units and analyze the structure and important components on it. These days, power supply efficiency is a very important factor to consider, and it is very dependent on the components that are used. As we will see in the various reviews, better components result in improved efficiency as well as improved results in our other tests.

PCs often play an integral role in today's households. To make having them around more pleasant, it is very important to eliminate - or at least reduce - any noise pollution from the PC. By looking at the temperature of the heatsinks and the exhausted air and by checking the fan speed, we can get a better idea of what design decisions have been made in regards to reducing noise, as well as whether or not the design decisions are effective. Nothing is worse than a noisy power supply that still gets hot!

As a final thought, our tests are based on today's applications and circumstances, but we will also be pushing power supplies to their limits. If a power supply fails during testing, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a truly bad design. Failures can occur for a variety of reasons, and we will be sure to provide a detailed explanation of any failures, why they happen, and what they mean in the broader view of things. For example, we may see a few PSUs that perform extremely well, provided you don't exceed certain loads on some of the voltage rails.

Now that we have introduced our test equipment all that remains is to commence the actual testing and publication of results. Of course, that's not the end of the story, and we will be able to build opinions that will shape our future testing. We took a great deal of time planning, developing, and building our power supply test lab and we are sure it will do what it was built for: to deliver the most accurate and meaningful results possible. Stay tuned as we begin to cover this important area of computer components.