400-450W PSU Roundup
by Christoph Katzer on November 6, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Ultra DC Outputs
If our earlier comments seemed derogatory, you can now see the reason why. Obviously, this type of power supply will not withstand modern test methodologies. Every rail except the 12V rail falls far out of spec before we even reach 300W of load. This is the worst result we have seen so far, and we could see that there is no Under Voltage Protection installed since we measured just 2.6V on the 3.3V rail. You might be able to use this power supply in a budget system, but we would even hesitate to use it there.
Efficiency
Efficiency results are not the best either. Ultra achieves a maximum 75% efficiency, but with increasing loads it rapidly drops below 70%.
Ripple & Noise Results
| Ultra V-Series 400W | ||||
| PSU Load | 3.3V | 5V | 12V1 | Wattage All Rails |
| 10% | 1.34A | 2.24A | 1.95A | 41W |
| 20% | 2.68A | 4.47A | 3.90A | 73W |
| 50% | 6.71A | 11.18A | 9.76A | 198W |
| 80% | 10.73A | 17.89A | 15.61A | 308W |
| 100% | 13.42A | 22.36A | 19.51A | 378W |
| 110% | 14.76A | 24.60A | 21.46A | 411W |
If our earlier comments seemed derogatory, you can now see the reason why. Obviously, this type of power supply will not withstand modern test methodologies. Every rail except the 12V rail falls far out of spec before we even reach 300W of load. This is the worst result we have seen so far, and we could see that there is no Under Voltage Protection installed since we measured just 2.6V on the 3.3V rail. You might be able to use this power supply in a budget system, but we would even hesitate to use it there.
Efficiency
Efficiency results are not the best either. Ultra achieves a maximum 75% efficiency, but with increasing loads it rapidly drops below 70%.
Ripple & Noise Results
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Christoph Katzer - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
Yep, otherwise it's just getting too long and I thought actually nobody is too interested in that analyses anyway. Let me work something out for the next ones...Ripple is also coming today, I updated the 1200-1300 roundup already.
Super Nade - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
Good to know! I understand that it is going to take a considerable amount of work at the outset, to do a bit of design analysis, but once you have the popular topologies employed figured out it should be a lot less work.The length of the review is unimportant if it makes an interesting read. (Hypothetical example) Having 10 pages on the fans employed is going to be be boring. Since you have a wide audience with varying degree of technical appetite, the length of the review should not matter if the content is arranged appropriately.
Best wishes,
S-N
floffe - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
When referring to the 8800GT article, it'd be nice to point out that those 327W from the wall was with SLI. A single card didn't get much over 200W, so even the Ultra should be able to run that, however horrible it otherwise is a a PSU.As for the market, I just wish someone would produce a high quality 300W modular PSU. That'd be plenty for my needs.
xsilver - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
Would you be ok if they charged you the same as a 400w PSU? because for the manufacturers, they're not going to the trouble of making another PSU that costs them almost exactly the same to make.(its like asking for a car with only 15hp because thats all u need ;)
jonnyGURU - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
Exactly. The cost difference at that level is rarely more than a $1. So if it costs me $30 to build a 400W, and $29 to build a 350W, etc. why would I bother?Souka - Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - link
maybe because some people "think" a 350w power supply consumes 50w less than a 400w power supply...:)
Hinkdog - Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - link
My 430 watt Antec Earthwatts that I bought in 2008 just failed. 12 years, pretty cool. Guess the 80mm fan didn't hurt its longevity. I know no one is going to read this in 2020 but wanted to post it anyway.