Soon At Tom's Hardware: Full-Scale Power Supply Testing

[Guest]

Often overlooked, the power supply plays a crucial role in supplying the PC with stable and sufficient power. Unfortunately, not all PSUs on the market meet expectations. This is why Tom's Hardware will now regularly be testing power supplies.

Soon At Tom's Hardware: Full-Scale Power Supply Testing : Read more

 

[Gamer-girl]

Is it possible to include sound levels in decibels?

 

[JonnyDough]

I second what gamer-girl said, and although this is exciting I'm still awaiting the Graphics Comparison Charts! I realize this is more of an IT website, but these days everyone's a gamer of some type! Long live PC gaming!

 

[baracubra]

Wow, great idea and article! This will be a huge help and I'm glad u guys took the time and effort to put this together! Long live TH!

 

[Guest]

take the good ideas from some other nice psu reviewers

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=153

 

[joytech22]

I hope they do a large comparison, i want to see how my Antec TPQ 1Kw stacks up to some of the other manufactures.

 

[baracubra]

Btw, how much did all this eqipment cost TH??

 

[Guest]

This is great news. On a related note do you guys not do LCD monitor testing anymore?

 

[gege]

take the good ideas from some other nice psu reviewers [2]

www.hardwaresecrets.com/page/power

 

[liquidsnake718]

Bravo, good choice for a new section as more consumers and buyers should be aware of the power supplies and the quality/preformance that they offer us. I myself am about to change my older PSU and will be waiting to read the first comparisons. The problem is, which ones will you choose and every month will you have a power category? For example all the 500-600watts, then following the 700-800, 1000w onwards, ect.

You might even succeed in killing off generic psu's or at least make more ppl buy 80 plus or 80plus bronze psu's....

 

[Henry Chinaski]

It's a very good news. Another qualified reviewer is always welcome.

 

[KingArcher]

This is an awesome setup. Wish I worked at TH.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]Article[/nom]500W: Gaming PC with a high-end CPU and multiple graphics cards[/citation]
I've measured my system using 750W, and that's definetly more than 500W draw on the inside. And considering my system's only got two harddrives and air cooling, I'd say 500W doesn't qualify as high end cpu with multiple graphics! 600W at least!

 

[Reynod]

Great news.

We should of course give the reviewer the nickname "Scotty" ... surely?

The PSU is technically "engineering" and ratings should include references to "warp factor" and dilithium crystals" ...lol.

Nice test gear there ... good looming job too.

Looking forward to some definitive reviews now you have the gear.

I am wondering how some of the vanilla PSU's will go against the more expensive units?

 

[gustavost]

I can't barely wait for the test!

It's really nice that we as customers have real test we can rely on!

 

[feeddagoat]

Bit-tech/CPC already do something like this. Its by far the best way to test PSU's and its fantastic that Tom's is doing something similar. Can I suggest a comment on fan noise as well. bit-tech comment on the loudness of the fan at full load but don't actually do any sound measurments due to background noise in the offices. Better than nothing tho. Also is there anyway to "endurance test" a PSU. A few PSU's end up in secondary PC's, it would be nice if there was someway of testing long term strain on PSU's too.

 

[7amood]

YESSSSS PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE \^_^/

 

[allantang]

I wish there were more info on this stuff, so this would be great!

I think room temp should also be taken into account. It will make a huge difference if the room is 15C or 25C.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Great news! Looking forward to reading power supply reviews. Glad to know you will be testing overload and short circuit protection.

 

[saifallofjmr]

Also please do the green series by rosewill so we can finally confirm whether or not this brand is in fact good or really bad.

 

[elel]

Good job. Another thing that I think would be VERY useful would be to test the current drawn from each rail by the SBM PCs. I know that you test system wattage already but I would like to see how much current of each voltage they draw, possibly taken from a custom modded high wattage PSU like the one x-bit made for similar measurements.

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

[citation][nom]allantang[/nom]I wish there were more info on this stuff, so this would be great!I think room temp should also be taken into account. It will make a huge difference if the room is 15C or 25C.[/citation]
My friend, those are low temps by My standards. Im sitting in 28-29 C daily. My temps are much higher than other people because of this, and I end up spending quite a fair amount extra in order to keep stuff cool.

 

[DavC]

what about how well they handle voltage fluctuations, spikes and power surges?

 

[ta152h]

The power supply is the most important part of a computer system.

It's good to see it finally getting the attention it deserves. A very, very good idea.

 

[haplo602]

I hope you won't exclude the sub 500W PSUs as most of the review sites do. I want to build a small and quiet PC with a powerfull GPU. A 450W PSU is plenty power for that, just nobody realy reviews PSUs with such low power.