 |
| PCStats Test System Specs: |
| processor: |
intel pentium 4 540 |
| clock
speed: |
16 x 200 mhz = 3.2 ghz |
| motherboards: |
gigabyte ga-8anxp-d, 925x |
| videocard: |
msi rx800xt-vtd |
| memory: |
2x 512mb crucial ballistix pc-5300 |
| hard drive:
|
74gb wd raptor |
| cdrom: |
aopen 8x dvd+/-rw |
| powersupply: |
raidmax lp6100e 500w
psu | |
*all voltages were read from the motherboard bios.
| Listed Voltages |
AMP |
Lower Voltage |
Upper Voltage |
Jitter |
|
| +3.3V |
30A |
3.30v |
3.33v |
0.03v |
|
| +5.0V |
50A |
4.97v |
5.01v |
0.04v |
|
| +12V |
25A |
11.84v |
11.96v |
0.12v |
|
| -12V |
0.8A |
12.00v |
12.00v |
0.00v |
|
| -5.0V |
0.3A |
5.00v |
5.00v |
0.00v |
|
| +5.0Vsb |
2A |
5.00v |
5.00v |
0.00v |
Voltage
values are pretty stable
and accurate all around, despite using a pretty hefty test system. There's plenty of 3.3V
and +5.0V power to split among the various system devices, but we were a bit surprised to see
the +12V rail dip to 11.84V in the BIOS. The system was idle during this test, and when
it's under load, the voltage would most likely dip further. Our test system was completely
stable during testing though, and did not exhibit any sign of problems even
when we ran Prime 95.
When looking at the Seasonic Power Supply test results we see two values, wattage
and volt-amps. Since it might not be clear what they measure, here's a brief
overview.
The
volt-amp (VA) value is how much real power is being consumed by the power supply
being tested to provide the wattage (W) value. The higher the VA value is, the
more electricity is being used by the power supply. Because no electrical device
is 100% efficient, there will always be some loss when converting AC to DC. The
closer the volt-amps and wattage figures are to each other, the more efficient a
power supply is. This is called the Power Factor: wattage / volt-amps = PF.
Since we're testing with a 120W dummy load, the
load on the power supply (wattage) should be as close to this figure as
possible. Anything above this load in apparent power describes the overhead and
wasted energy (given off as heat) for the particular power supply being tested.
For the unloaded tests, the wattage and volt-amp
figures should be as close as possible to one another. The lower the figures
are, the less power is being used.
|
Seasonic Load
Tests |
| Power Supply |
Wattage |
Test |
Load |
Unloaded |
| Seasonic SuperTornado |
400 W |
Active Power |
177 W |
6 W |
| Apparent Power |
182 VA |
7 VA |
| Vantec iON2 |
350 W |
Active Power |
192 W |
10 W |
| Apparent Power |
277 VA |
21 VA |
| Ultra X-Connect Green UV 500W |
500 W |
Active Power |
193W |
22 W |
| Apparent Power |
307 VA |
40 VA |
| AOpen Silent Power AO400-12AHN |
400W |
Active Power |
179W |
9 W |
| Apparent Power |
275 VA |
18 VA |
| Seasonic S12-430 |
430W |
Active Power |
179W |
6W |
| Apparent Power |
180VA |
9VA |
| RAIDMAX LDE6001E |
500W |
Active Power |
187W |
12W |
| Apparent Power |
275VA |
24VA |
As the
results indicate, the RAIDMAX LDE6001E is not very power efficient,
pulling only around 68% efficiency that the ATX 1.02 standard requires. Compared to the
other power supplies we've tested recently, the Raidmax LDE6001E is not the worst in terms
of power inefficiency, but you should definitely take notice of how much power your
PSU draws before you notice it on your power bills.
Better than generic...
RAIDMAX is not a
name you'd associate with high-end power supplies; and this is not a
high end powersupply. The company delivers a mainstream-quality component at near generic price levels.
If it comes down to a generic 500W
power supply or the RAIDMAX LDE6001E which retails for $60 CDN ($49 US)
, the choice is should be obvious. During testing the LDE6001E performed well; the
+12V rail voltage dipped a bit at 11.84V with the system idle, but we did not
experience any stability problems with our Pentium 4 system running Prime95. The
other voltages were rock solid, which is good because there are many components inside a computer
that can fail if fed bad power.
In the Seasonic load tests
we saw that the RAIDMAX LDE6001E performed poorly, but then again all non-PFC (Power
Factor Correction) enabled power supplies do so in this area. If you can afford to, we'd
recommend opting for a PFC powersupply. If you're on a tight
budget the RAIDMAX LDE6001E might be an economical choice for a low end
system, since it's not much more expensive than
a no-name unit. However, if you have
a reasonable budget to build a PC with, do yourself a favour and invest it in a powersupply
that has more power connectors and is more power efficient; qualities that the Raidmax LDE6001E misses the mark
on completely.
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Newsletter today! Catch all of PCstats
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Related Articles
Here are a few other articles that you might enjoy
as well...
1. Antec TruePower 330W Power Supply Review
2. PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510-PFC Power Supply
3. Seasonic Super Tornado 400W Power Supply Review
4. Vantec iON2 350W Power Supply Review
5. Ultra X-Connect Green UV 500W Power
Supply
Seasonic Load
Tests
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