On to the test drive. The machine I used to run these tests is as described:
- AMD Athlon™ X2 Dual-Core Processor
- 4GB Elixer System Memory
- 500GB Seagate SATA HD
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 Graphics Card
- LiteOn DVD Multi-Recorder
- One 120mm fan in the front and rear of the case
In a room that was pretty stable at 65º F, I let my computer boot up and idle for around 20 minutes to achieve the idle temperature. ATX specification states than any of the +12, +5 and +3.3V rails should not be any more than 5% out of specification. A voltage reading on the +12V rail should be between 11.4 and 12.6V. Anything higher or lower is out of specification and could potentially cause system instability, or worse, damage hardware.
A quality PSU should provide output at or just slightly above the expected value. Generally speaking, a PSU is more likely to have its rails ‘sag’ when load is placed on them—i.e. during gaming or when the CPU cores are heavily utilized. It is important that voltage measurements be taken at system idle (for a reference point) and then compared to measurements taken during heavy system load. This is important to paint an accurate picture of the PSUs ability to keep voltages in check and to ensure that it is able to reliably power an appropriately sized system. Base measurements were taken at idle before doing simulated load tests with a digital multimeter. Wattage from the wall was measured using a P3 Kill-a-Watt meter.
Here is the results of testing under Low, Medium and High load conditions:
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Corsair TX-750W Power Supply Performance
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