Testing Mushkin's First Power Supply
The price of energy is increasing world wide, and any
reduction in the amount of power a computer draws is welcome in our books. Power
supplies which employ power factor correction (PFC, or A-PFC) help ensure
efficient conversion of AC to DC, and reduce the amount of energy wasted as
heat. The following power tests were all conducted with an Extech Model 380803
Power Analyzer located between the mains 120AC supply and the power
supply. Power jitter is measured with a Mastech MS8230B Multimeter at the device
power connectors .
Here is a picture of the test set up for the Mushkin
Enhanced XP-650 650W power supply.
Power Jitter Observations -
Motherboard |
|
Voltage jitter is read by
accessing the power options displayed in the motherboard BIOS, with the system obviously in an unloaded state. *All voltages
were read from the BIOS of an ECS RS480-M motherboard.
| Listed Voltages |
Lower Voltage |
Upper Voltage |
Jitter |
| +3.3V |
3.27V |
3.35V |
0.08V |
| +5.0V |
4.97V |
4.99V |
0.02V |
| +12V |
11.7V |
11.8V |
0.01V |
| -12V |
-11.99V |
-12.00V |
0.01V |
| -5.0V |
-4.99V |
-4.99V |
0.00V |
| +5.0Vsb |
5.0V |
5.0V |
0.00V |
The 12V rail readings in the BIOS are a
bit on the low side, it's nothing out of the ordinary however a bit lower than
we expected. Luckily there are
internal pots to adjust the voltages, too bad you'll have to void your warranty to do
so.
| Power Jitter Observations
- Multi-meter |
|
Voltage jitter was read by a Mastech MS8230B Multimeter with the system in an
unloaded state. During testing the power supply is was still connected to a full
computer and voltage values.
| Listed Voltages |
Lower Voltage |
Upper Voltage |
Jitter |
| +3.3V |
3.33V |
3.4V |
0.07V |
| +5.0V |
5.0V |
5.0V |
0.00V |
| +12V |
11.9V |
12.0V |
0.01V |
It's
interesting to see here that the digital multimeter is reporting much better
values. The 12V rail
is hovering at around 12V which is great to see. Next, load tests with the Seasonic PSU tester and then our final conclusions on this unit.
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
wasted.
Measurements were taken with the Extech 380803 Power Analyzer.
|
Seasonic Power Load
Tests |
| Power Supply |
Wattage |
Test Type |
Loaded |
Unloaded |
| Seasonic SuperTornado |
400 W
(A-PFC) |
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 |
| Antec TruePower 330 |
330 W |
Active Power |
195 W |
22 W |
| Apparent Power |
289 VA |
38 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 |
400 W |
Active Power |
179W |
9 W |
| Apparent Power |
275 VA |
18 VA |
| Seasonic S12-430 |
430 W
(A-PFC) |
Active Power |
179W |
6W |
| Apparent Power |
180VA |
9VA |
| PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 Express/SLI |
510 W
(A-PFC) |
Active Power |
200 W |
29 W |
| Apparent Power |
202 VA |
32 VA |
| HEC Ace Power 580UB |
580 W |
Active Power |
183 W |
12 W |
| Apparent Power |
272 VA |
26 VA |
| HEC Win 550UB |
550 W |
Active Power |
184W |
10W |
| Apparent Power |
263VA |
22VA |
| Akasa PowerPlus AK-P550FF |
550 W
(A-PFC) |
Active Power |
194W |
38W |
| Apparent Power |
197VA |
40VA |
| AOpen Prima Power AO700-12ALN |
700 W
(A-PFC) |
Active Power |
172W |
3W |
| Apparent Power |
181VA |
9VA |
| PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW
|
1000 W
(A-PFC) |
Active Power |
205W |
25W |
| Apparent Power |
207VA |
32VA |
| Seasonic S12 600 |
600 W
(A-PFC) |
Active Power |
164W |
7W |
| Apparent Power |
173VA |
9VA |
| Mushkin Enhanced XP-650 |
650 W |
Active Power |
192W |
22W |
| Apparent Power |
279VA |
43VA |
When it
comes to power efficiency, the Mushkin Enhanced XP-650 sits in the middle of the pack. It's not
the most efficient power supply we've tested but then again it's not the worst
either. The applied load is 120W, so keep that in mind when looking
at the above values and comparing against the other power supplies.
|
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