Today I look at yet another Zalman product, the Zalman 300A-APF power supply. Zalman is of course dedicated to quiet cooling so a lot of their products try to provide the best cooling at the lowest noise level which I really like. By implementing heat-sensor circuitry that controls the cooling fan’s speed (rpm) in relation to the temperature within the power supply, emanating noise has been greatly reduced. This power supply has a lot of features which are listed below and which I will take a look at more in depth as I go along
- Simplifying Source Input – Free Voltage
Unlike products with Passive PFC, where you have to set the operating voltage (115VAC / 230VAC) with a manual switch, this product can be used with any normal AC input source ranging from 100VAC to 240VAC. - Certified with Safety Approval EMC Standards – UL, C-UL, CE, TUV, CB-NEMKO, FCC
- Improving Power Factor & Eliminating Harmonics through Active PFC
By implementing Active PFC, the power factor (PF) is improved from 75% (Passive PFC) to 94% (at full load), while harmful harmonic frequencies are reduced below regulatory requirements. - Supplies Stable Power to Intel Pentium 4
By including a ATX12V 2×2 (4-pin) 12V power connector and an auxiliary 5-pin power connector, this product can provide stable power to Intel Pentium 4 CPUs, which need 6A of current from each power rail. - High Efficiency Power Supply
Designed with a high switching frequency and low power-loss circuitry, the efficiency of this product exceeds 75% (at full load). - Strict DC Voltage Regulation & Low Output Ripple / Noise
The box of the Zalman ZM300A-APF is pretty basic just like the rest of their products. Not really much to comment on, one side has some technical info and their logo is on the top. Zalman has never been big on fancy packaging, which is not a big issue. It would however be nice to see some more design work put into their stuff to make it look cooler.
I opened up the box and took everything out. Along with the power supply you get a power cord, manual, and a ZM-MC1 which is Zalman’s multi connector. The power supply has seven 4-pin Molex, 4 FDD, one motherboard, one auxiliary, and one 12v power connectors. This power supply is both AMD approved and Intel Pentium 4 ready, it will also work with a Via C3 CPU. Of course this power supply will also work with old systems, it’s just able to handle the new technology.
The ZM-MC1 is pretty cool, basically you can use one 4-pin Molex connection from the power supply to power four 3-pin fans. Two of the 3 pin connectors coming out of the ZM-MC1 are 12v and the other two are 5v. This is a really cool thing to have because it will save your 4-pin Molex and allow you to slow down the speed of a fan if you wish to do so.
The power supply uses 4 screws to attach the cover to the unit and there is no warrantee sticker which is usually in place to seal it up. This is a good thing because you can open your power supply and not have the warrantee voided. So I went ahead and opened up the power supply to take around. I always do this because I want to see is the power supply uses potimeters, which this power supply doesn’t. It also only has one big capacitor rather than two which is a little odd.
The Zalman ZM300A-APF works in three different modes: no noise mode, silent mode, and normal mode. Each different mode will be determined by the temperature within the power supply. If the power supply is running cool it will switch down to no noise mode or silent mode and if it gets a little hot it will kick it up to normal mode to cool it down. After testing this power supply with the system specs below I found that it usually ran in either silent mode or normal mode if the computer was in use. No noise mode and silent mode are very quiet but the normal mode is a little louder than I thought it was going to be.
| When the temperature inside the power supply is 55Deg C or less, the cooling fan will operate in ‘Quiet’ or ‘Silent’ mode.CNPS (Computer Noise Prevention System) refers to a system that reduces a conventional computer’s noise (30dB or more) to an inaudible level (20dB or less). In order to create a true noise-free computer. |
Test Bed:
- EPoX 8K3A+
- 1800+ Athlon XP
- 80GB Maxtor ATA133 HDD
- Corsair 512MB XMS3200
- 3DPower Geforce 3
- Cooler Master ATC-101-SX2
- Zalman 300w PSU
- Sound Blaster Live! Value
- ATi TV Wonder VE
- 10/100 NIC
- Plextor 40x12x40 CDRW
- pioneer 16x DVD
I went ahead and installed this PSU to my system which had all of the above hardware in it. I booted up the system and found this power supply is very quiet in no-noise mode and silent mode. After Windows 2000 Professional finished loading I went ahead and started up Motherboard Monitor which I will be using to get the voltage readings from this power supply.
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I let the computer idle for about 20 minutes and watched the readings. The 5v line was a little low and did not fluctuate much, for the most part it stayed at 4.97v. A voltage of 4.97v is not bad in itself however if you are going to overclock it’s going to drop some more. After getting the idle voltages I loaded up Prime95 which I used to put the CPU at 100% load, while running this test the 5v dropped a little lower to 4.95v which is getting a little low for comfort.
I wanted to see how this power supply would fare while overclocking so I rebooted and overclocked my 1.6GHz Athlon XP 1800+ to 1737MHz which is a pretty good overclock. I let Windows 2000 Professional load up and idle for another 20 minutes and again watched the voltage readings. The 5v line was again the focus of concern, just idling the reading was 4.95v which is what the stock CPU speed load voltage. I again ran Prime95 and watched the 5v drop a little more to 4.89v. I am a little disappointed with the 5v levels with this power supply which can make it harder to achieve a good overclock.
Conclusion
This power supply is a good product however I think that it needs to have the 5v issue addressed. If you are a hardcore overclocker you know that this is something that you want to stay away from. There are many power supplies on the market now which are able to provide strong 5v line even when overclocking a lot. Like I always say with Zalman reviews the company is built on the foundation of quiet cooling not overclocking. They have done a great job with what they are looking to do because this power supply is quiet.
The normal mode operation was a little louder than I thought it was going to be when the power supply decided it needed to use that mode, but generally it stayed in no noise mode or silent mode. I know a lot of you out there are looking for quiet rather than overclocking ability and if you are then I would recommend this power supply to you. If you were to use the other Zalman products along with this power supply you will have a winning combination. Overall I am going to give this power supply a 7/10 and would like to thank Sharka Corp for sending this power supply over for review.
Pros
- Quiet in no noise & silent mode
- ZM-MC1 included
- AMD approved and Pentium 4 ready
- Good price ($69.95)Cons:
- Little loud in normal mode
- Low 5v rail