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.
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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.
[wpdm_package id=’28851′]
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
