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Group test of 19 ATX PSUs@Trusted Reviews

Mem

Mem

Lifer
PSUs in the group test,

Akasa PaxPower 460W AK-P460FG-BKV2.
Coolergiant/Enermax EG375AX-VE(G).
Coolergiant/Enermax EG485AX-VHB(G).
Etasis EFN-300.
Fortron Source Blue Storm FSP400-60THN-P.
Hiper HPU-3S350.
Hiper HPU-3S425.
Hiper HPU-3S525.
Jeantech JN450W-120F-AP.
Seasonic SS-400FB (Super Tornado 400).
Silentmaxx Fanless-Pro 503W.
SilverStone SST-ST30NF (EFN-300).
SilverStone SST-ST40F-G02 (ENH-0140G XA).
SilverStone SST-ST46F-UK (ENH-0746GB.
Tagan TG330-U01.
Tagan TG420-U02 (i-Xeye).
Tagan TG480-U01.
Ultra X-Connect 500W (Blue).
Vantec Stealth VAN-470A.


The Winners

With a number of decent contenders taking part, the hardest part of this group test was picking the final winners. We didn?t divide the PSUs into different categories and although you can?t really compare the passive PSUs to the fan cooled ones, we decided to keep the results together for easier comparison.

The winner of the Editor?s Choice award was won by a hair?s breadth, but taking everything into account the Tagan TG480-U01 took the honours. This was due to a combination of good test results, its wide range of connectivity options and a reasonable price considering what you get for your money.
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Link.
 
They seem to have ignored some well known brands.
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Yep like Antec 😉,guess it would make the review too big,but we all know Antec is a good brand & choice,some of the lesser known brands is where people are not so sure about.
 
Another trashing of that x-connect:
--------------------------
Looking at the test results the X-Connect was about average in terms of efficiency. It was however not a smooth run and the X-Connect dropped down to 3.14V on the 3.3V at 75 per cent load, which is the cut-off line for the 3.3V rail. Technically it was within spec, but this is not a good result. Much more worrying is the 12V results at 100 per cent load, as it dropped well outside spec here.
Even more disappointingly, after about one minute at full load the X-Connect blew up. Although it didn?t do so as spectacular as the Silentmaxx, there was clearly a major malfunction. We didn?t make it a habit to open the PSUs on test, as to be honest, this is not meant to be done, but we decided to open the two units that exploded to try and determine why.

Although we couldn?t pinpoint the problem with the X-Connect this gave us an insight to its internal workings, which are far from ideal. Ultra has used too many internal connectors, which would result in a gradual loss of power as the load increased.

 
Lol...this is the kicker,
The engineer from Maxpoint that helped us during the test opened up the PSU to see what went wrong. Although we didn?t find the exact cause there were several design flaws that meant that the Fanless-Pro 503W would not have passed CE approval even though the PSU clearly carries the CE approval mark.

But the real kick in the teeth for the Fanless-Pro 503W is that QuietPC is selling it for a whopping £186.83, which is twice that of the other fanless PSUs on test. Overall, it?s impossible to recommend the Silentmaxx Fanless-Pro 503W based on the test results and the problems we encountered. .
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That`s a lot of cash for an exploding PSU,hehe.....
 
Damn...x-connect - now i'm sure that this is the cause of my system restarts and shutdowns under load. I thought it might be the cpu.
 
I was surprised by the Enermax results.

Damn...x-connect - now i'm sure that this is the cause of my system restarts and shutdowns under load. I thought it might be the cpu.
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I would say it`s the PSU,simple way of testing that is to try a different but quality PSU.
 
Nice Review. Just goes to show how MUCH powersupply quality has improved these last few years. I wish the reviewer would have also included noise specs. BTW, looks like he tested early revisions of the Seasonic powersupply; they've since improved power efficiency by a few percentage points. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: jterrell
Another trashing of that x-connect:
--------------------------
Looking at the test results the X-Connect was about average in terms of efficiency. It was however not a smooth run and the X-Connect dropped down to 3.14V on the 3.3V at 75 per cent load, which is the cut-off line for the 3.3V rail. Technically it was within spec, but this is not a good result. Much more worrying is the 12V results at 100 per cent load, as it dropped well outside spec here. Even more disappointingly, after about one minute at full load the X-Connect blew up.
Click to expand...
LOL. Maybe that will help to settle the dispute. Even if it isn't made by PowMax, it sure seems to blow up like they do. 😛
 
Originally posted by: Mem
The winner of the Editor?s Choice award was won by a hair?s breadth, but taking everything into account the Tagan TG480-U01 took the honours.
Click to expand...
Thanks to Nanopoint UK, we were given access to the test equipment used at its headquarters in Germany, where it is known as Maxpoint. This is where Tagan power supplies are designed.
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Hmm. Tagan winning the test results, wouldn't have anything to do with the testing equipment being provided by the very same place that designs them, is it? I wouldn't rule out some bias here, even if it wasn't intentional.
One final aspect to be taken into account is the length and type of cables that the PSU has. Some of the PSUs on test had wires that were simply too thin for the job they are expected to do, and these got excessively hot even at 75 per cent load, which is not a good sign.
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That's been a bit of a pet-peeve of mine for a while now too. Many of the cheaper PSUs use tiny-thin wires, makes me wonder how they deliver stable and adequate power to the board at all..
 
Isn't Tagan the brand that THG refuses to use anymore because of all the failures they've experienced through their testing? Didn't one also fail in their AMD vs Intel stress test?

Edit:

Yea, it was Tagan:

"After comprehensive analysis of all components we identified the source of the problem. The Tagan-built power supply TG480-U22 delivered a standby voltage of 5V, however could not be turned on again. The test engineers suspected the Tagan device to be the problem already the day before, since the system demonstrated similar behavior then. The power supply test station finally cleared any doubts and confirmed this device to be the problem's origin. The failed component from Tagan will stay in THG's test lab in Munich until the end of the test and can be reviewed by the manufacturer.

Tagan's weaknesses are not new to us. A total of five power supplies suddenly failed in the labs during the past year. A newly designed and rubberized casing is unlikely to improve the reliability of the devices."

"Until today the power supply manufacturer Tagan has not been able to tell us, why the power supply TG480-U22, used for the Intel system, failed."

That would scare me away from a brand more than a good review of one random PSU would impress me.

Final Update Live from the THG Lab: We "Stress Out" AMD and Intel
 
Well, unless TH was using Tagan as a whipping-boy for why the (already overheating) Intel system encountered crashes during their "shootout". Considering Tom's well-known pro-Intel bias, that wouldn't surprise me in the least. (The faked "AMD burnup vs. P4 thermal-throttling" video being perhaps one of the most-famous examples.)
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Well, unless TH was using Tagan as a whipping-boy for why the (already overheating) Intel system encountered crashes during their "shootout". Considering Tom's well-known pro-Intel bias, that wouldn't surprise me in the least. (The faked "AMD burnup vs. P4 thermal-throttling" video being perhaps one of the most-famous examples.)
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Pretty sad that you think a site would stoop to that level of tarnishing the reputation of an unrelated third party if they weren't really at fault. Especially when it is pretty common knowledge now that THG is about as anti-Intel as any of the major sites. Try finding anything positive in any of their recent Intel CPU reviews. The PSU was in fact faulty, I missed the final final update where Tagan had an official response. Eliminating that PSU, that certainly would not explain the other 5 failures, or 4 if the stress test was the 5th. That many can hardly be considered a coincidence.
 
Eliminating that PSU, that certainly would not explain the other 5 failures, or 4 if the stress test was the 5th. That many can hardly be considered a coincidence.
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Did you read the statement by Tagan?

UPDATE: Pressrelease From MaxPoint (Tagan)

Failure Of Pre-Production Item Of TG480-U22 Within THG Stress-out Test For The Intel System

The results of our revisal of the defective Tagan TG480-U22, which failed within THG Stress-out tests by the Intel system are the following:

The Tagan TG480-U22 power supplies, which we have given to Tom's Hardware Guide for the live-stress-out test between Intel and AMD systems, have been pre-production items. We are glad to detect that something needed to be enhanced before we have started the mass production of the new generation of Tagan Power Supplies.

Within a close examination of the components we figured out that only one transistor - Q1 was defective and the Schottky diode - D30 on the secondary Heat Sink was defective too, moreover the fix screw of this D30 on the Heat Sink was slightly loose. The other components like transistor - Q2, fuse and +5VsB output were all in good condition.

From the defective components we analized that the loosing situation of the lock screw on the D30 Schottky diode caused the heating conduction is not completed and the temperature rising accordingly; this overheat Oscillation of D30 Schottky diode caused the PG signal unstabile and causing the system to be reboot. When the overheat Oscillation of D30 Schottky diode last too long it will cause the Q1 defective.

The reason to cause the D30 Schottky diode to be loosing, we assume, happened by transportation. Within the mass-production of the Tagan TG480-U22 we will take care, that the fixing point of the D30 Schottky diode will be enhanced to avoid such kind of failure in the future.

MaxPoint Handelsges mbH
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Btw I`ve never trusted Tom`s hardware site for reviews,funny how they are saying 5 have gone faulty over the year?No other site has had this problem,yet Tagan gets excellent reviews by other sites and still has a nice 3 year warranty.

I do know in the UK,Tagan are regarded as an excellent quality PSU company.

Btw nice of Tagan to investigate and release a statement on their pre-production model.

 
"Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence"... guess I forgot that saying.

Perhaps TH was not being malicious, only incompetent.
 
Originally posted by: Pixle
Damn...x-connect - now i'm sure that this is the cause of my system restarts and shutdowns under load. I thought it might be the cpu.
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It actually could be RAM too. I see that more often than either CPU or PSU for reboots and shutdowns. My wife's machine; I can't even put more than one stick of RAM in it without seeing reboots or shutdowns. Apparently, there's something wrong with her motherboard as I've tried three PSU's, two CPU's and have tried RAM in different combinations and the only consistancy is that her machine works flawlessly with any ONE stick of RAM, but never with any TWO. Very strange. 😕
 
Originally posted by: saxophonoia
Originally posted by: PascalT
They seem to have ignored some well known brands.
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yeah big time
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Yeah. It's like they just packed up whatever they had on hand and took a trip to Germany. 😀 There's no TTGI manufacturered units! No Antecs! No Thermaltake!
 
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