|
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Serial
ATA connectors? Of course! Two of them to be exact. So, we're starting
to see a trend. Only a handful of Molex connectors, a single floppy
connector, and only two SATA power plugs. So, the idea behind this power
supply is not to build a monster machine.
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Last but not
least we get to the two PCI-Express and the one
and lonely 4-pin CPU auxiliary power leads. Most motherboard
manufacturers will put two auxiliary power connectors on their
motherboards. The fact is that for most general computing applications,
a single four pin power lead will do just fine.
Testing this
power supply is a pretty straight forward process. From most consumers
stand-point, it's either going to work or it's not. While there are a
slew of variables that can be over analyzed in a power supply, a unit in
tihs price range just isn't going to have all the extras. For
example. an efficiency rating of 78% and no active Power Factor
Correction are two ways that Glacial Power has managed to keep this
units cost so low. Does that mean it won't be able to hold up under
stress? That's what I'm going to find out.
Test System
Asus P5B Deluxe Wi-Fi edition
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
Corsair Twin2X 2048-9136C5G
EVGA nVidia 7950GX2
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi
Hitachi DeskStar 80GB Hard drive
Lite-On DVD R/W
Toshiba DVD/CD-R/W Combo Drive
Here's
exactly what I plan to do. I'll take a voltage reading at idle then take another after starting a
DVD burn, a disc defrag and a Futuremark 3D Mark 06 run. All of this
with a 1.45 volt based 3200Mhz CPU overclock and the powered with 2.1
volts.
|
Voltage |
Idle |
Load |
| +5 Volt |
5.01 |
5.01 |
| +12 Volt |
11.89 |
11.87 |
The 5 volt rails posted a solid
5.01 volts at idle and under load. The 12 volt rails posted only
11.89 volts at idle, and dropped a little more when under load. This
is by far, not the worst that I've ever seen from a power supply. In
fact, it still meets the tolerances allowed by the industry for an
ATX power supply. The minimum acceptable voltage on a +12 volt rail
is 11.4 volts while the maximum allowable voltage is 12.6 volts.
11.89 (idle) and 11.87 (load) fall well within tolerance for an ATX
2.2 power supply.
Conclusion......
For the first time system
builder, trying to find the right parts to fit your budget can be
tough. There are a LOT of PC parts manufacturers out there, and the
full spectrum of quality is readily available. As with all walks of
life, the most expensive isn't always the best. Not only could that
$300 power supply be a total dud, it could also be complete overkill
for anything you could ever build your system into.
Glacial Power is offering this power supply for $69.99
through online channels. As far as results go, you can see for
yourself that the power supply remained in tolerance during the
duration of the tests. To insure that the system was not being
starved for power with only one +12 volt auxiliary power connector,
I left the system in its overclocked state and left Prime95 (Orthos)
running for 12 hours. The system was still running at the 12
hour mark and the voltage levels were still within tolerance, pretty
much at the levels posted above. That pretty much settles that
debate.
|
 |
|
Innovation: |
N/A |
|
Performance: |
9.0 out of 10 |
|
Quality: |
8.5
out of 10 |
|
Stability: |
9.5
out of 10 |
|
Overclocking: |
N/A |
|
Software/Drivers Pack: |
N/A |
|
Value: |
9.0 out of 10 |
|
Overall Rating
9 |
 |
|
 |
|
Project Skill Level
(10 being most difficult) |
4
out of 10 |
|
