Box Full of Happiness

[madmat]

Today I got a box full of happiness. Techgage now has access to a SunMoon SM-268 ATE power supply load tester. Through a co-operative effort with JonnyGURU.com I'll be doing reviews for both sites. The upshot is I can now do seriously in-depth PSU reviews with programmed loads up to 800W.

Expect some good things in the near future!

[Greg King]

Hooray!

[Jakal]

That's pretty awesome man!

[Greg King]

This should benefit Techgage enormously.

[GeekGirl]

And here I thought you somehow managed to get a Wii.
;)

[Greg King]

Lord would that be glorious.

[Rob Williams]

Grats on the new capture man.

[madmat]

So far I've put three PSU's through their paces, quite the treat. :)

And here I thought you somehow managed to get a Wii.
;)

I get excited about different toys :D

[Greg King]

It's been a day now.....how is the testing coming along?

[madmat]

Fine, I've got to build a "hot box" to do simulated system testing so that the PSU isn't just running room temp air but so far it's great. That Silverstone's impressive as hell.

[madmat]

Just for grins I put my 480 True Blue on the SM-268 and set the 12V to 22A, the 3.3V to 25A and the 5V to to 25A along with 2A on the VSBand .5A on the -12V for a grand total of 478W. The 12V rail sat at 11.80V, the 5V rail at 4.89V and the 3.3V rail at 3.21V. Overall I'm very impressed with the ol' girl. This is a 3yr old PSU that's been run pretty much 24/7 for over half it's life.

[madstork91]

ol girl? when's the wedding date? 0.o

Edit:

Curious... what comprises this "hot box"?

[madmat]

An empty case with the exhaust from the SM-268 ducted into it to in the area of the mobo/CPU/GPU to simulate the actual environment the PSU will be working in in a case.

First the PSU gets tested laying on a desk then mounted in the hotbox and re done.

[Greg King]

When I lived in the dorms, I had a completely differant hotbox all togeather... but thats neither here nor there at this point.

[madmat]

When you live in a dorm your teabags don't come from Liptons either...

[Rob Williams]

I love you guys.

Tis all.

[Rory Buszka]

Hey -- Before you go doing anything...

I also frequent a site called Silent PC Review, and I spotted a flaw in their power supply testing system. Their intention was to use their power supply tester (with four big 80mm case fans) to test power supply units, but in ducting the fans into the "Hotbox", they created a positive pressure push-pull system in which the power supply fan hardly had to do anything to move air through itself, so it wouldn't spin up to full speed. I mentioned this flaw on the forum thread discussing the methodology, and the site changed its design to allow a way for the extra air pressure to escape, while letting the heat rise up into the hotbox. Take a look at their PSU testing methodology -- it's the product of an extremely scientific approach, seeking to create the most realistic operating environment possible for a computer. Given the fact that the entire output from the PSU is dissipated as heat by the PSU tester, it also deserves to be asked: "Whose computer dissipates 800W thermally?" It's much more realistic to place two 100W light bulbs (200W total) in the case to simulate the most brutal heat loads that a power supply's cooling system might have to operate in.

((If you're used to hanging around computer guys who are all about performance, SPCR will seem a bit foreign to you -- they're all about the way that noise detracts from the user experience. SPCR's proprietor, Mike Chin, had a hand in designing the Antec P180, which is why the black P180 was originally offered as a SPCR Special Edition before it became available to everybody. They'll seem very uptight at first, but you'll get used to it.))