Transient Testing
For those of you who are curious as to some of the reasoning and equipment behind our PSU testing program here at TheFPSReview, we have put together an introduction for you that shares a lot of the behind-the-scenes of the program. This program is based on what the author developed at [H]ardOCP and utilizes the equipment bequeathed to the author by Kyle Bennett. The testing we are conducting today is exactly as described in that document and will continue with our Transient Testing.
Transient Test 1
Loaded/Unloaded
12v/5v
Test #1 is equal to approximately 25% of the rated capacity of the STEAMPUNK 850W at 45c. This makes Test #1 equal to 221W by loading the 12v rail to 16a, the 5v rail to 2a, the 3.3v rail to 1a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.3a before the addition of the transient load. The results of Test #1 show a ~1500mV drop on the 12v rail and ~55mV drop on the 5v rail when each is directly loaded. At the same time that the load was being triggered on the 12v rail, the 5v rail measured a ~40mV drop.
Transient Test 2
Loaded/Unloaded
12v/5v
Test #2 is equal to approximately 50% of the rated capacity of the STEAMPUNK 850W at 45c. This makes Test #2 equal to 431W by loading the 12v rail to 32a, the 5v rail to 4a, the 3.3v rail to 3a, the +5vsb to 2a, and the -12v to 0.3a before the addition of the transient load. The results of Test #2 show a ~1500mV drop on the 12v rail and ~45mV drop on the 5v rail when each is directly loaded. At the same time that the load was being triggered on the 12v rail, the 5v rail measured a ~40mV drop.
Transient Load Testing Summary
This is an easy summary. The Transient Load Test results for the STEAMPUNK 850W are the worst I have ever recorded. Full stop. Why? Well, in today’s testing, the STEAMPUNK 850W saw the loaded 12v rail post a peak change of ~1500mV! That isn’t a typo. Look at the V/Div on the screen capture. That is set to 0.5v! I really could say a lot more about this, but since this unit failed this so spectacularly I am just going to call it enough said at this point because my list of roasts is long and I am sure the editors don’t want to keep cutting things from this review. Let’s move on now to see how this unit does in the DC Output Quality aspect of our testing (like that matters at this point)!
Discussion (10 replies)
Join Discussion →That conclusion will likely go into the record books as one of the most severe beatdowns ever.
Thanks for the review Paul!
When I first saw the Overall Score box at zero, I figured maybe he didn't enter any scores in. Then I read the WHOLE article, and "Holy Hell" only puts it mildly. There were moments where I flat out laughed (Probably louder than needed but my lord).
I'm surprised there wasn't a graphic at the end with Mortal Kombat's "Fatality".
Ouch.
So, you are saying you probably wouldn't recommend this unit?
Also, for full affect sub Sh*t for crap in the review....some editing was needed for SEO reasons.
Depends on how much I hate the person I am recommending a product to.
I saw the zero and was hoping there was a photo of the unit on FIRE!!!!!!
I laughed a bunch of times reading this review. Made my day. "the Fail ship" is classic stuff.
Awesome review.
Wow! I wonder if it could be used to make popcorn.
I know I am 2 years late to this party, but is it possible the unit was defective? TPU awarded it "great value" and cultist gave it a B.
So, TPU, Cybernetics and Cultist all use the same test data set* and the incubator is set to 30c if I remember right whereas we set ours at 45c. ATX spec says the units should deliver their rated power up to 50c.
The Lian Li 850w SFX unit we reviewed before this, using the same Helly platform, with the main difference being a 92mm fan instead of 80mm ran, did very well on our tests, this unit popped. I think the fan spec made the difference in the result.
*In practice there are very very very few sites that have load testers and test methodology can vary between being different and being plain wrong. If you look hard enough, you'll realize most of the data out there is from Cybernetics and repacked/published for a number of publications (Anand, Tom's, Cultist, TPU, etc.).