Test Bed:
- EPoX 8K9A2+
- 1800+ Athlon XP
- 60GB Seagate Barracuda IV HDD
- Corsair 512MB PC3200
- Abit Geforce 4 Ti4200 OTES 8x AGP 128MB
- PcToys VGA MAXX Heatpipe Cooler
- PcToys NB MAXX
- Koolcase’s Panther
- Generic 300w PSU
- Sound Blaster Live! Value
- ATi TV Wonder VE
- Plextor 40x12x40 CDRW
- Plextor PX-504A DVD+RW (review to come)
- pioneer 16x DVD
I found this power supply to be very quiet, even quieter than the old 300w version. After Windows finished booting I went ahead and started up Motherboard Monitor 5 which I used to get the voltage readings. I let the computer idle for about 15 minutes and watched the readings.
The 5v line was a little low and did not fluctuate much, for the most part it stayed at 4.95v. 4.95v is a little lower than I was expecting and was a little disappointed to see it that low. As you can see the older 300w Zalman power supply was able to provide a higher 5v and 12v line. I suggested in the 300w review that the low 5v line should be addressed and it doesn’t seem that it has.
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 more to 4.92v which is lower than it should be. My computer was completely stable during all testing and didn’t have a problem with it at all however for the price of this power supply
I think that it should be able to perform better than this. I have had $20 power supplies hold a better 5v rail while even being overclocked so this one should have no problem. Again we see that the older 300w had higher 5v and 12v lines than this new 400w.
Conclusion
This power supply is better than the 300w in some respects, it boasts more power, is quieter, and looks better but the 5v and 12v lines were lower. I have always liked Zalman products because I really don’t like loud computers and Zalman provides quiet cooling solutions for almost all components.
This power supply is really quiet which is really nice and it does a good job powering the system in all realistic aspects. The 5v rail is lower than I think that it should be however even though it is low I had no instability problems with my system while using this power supply. I dont want to linger on the fact that the 5v line is low because I don’t want to downplay the good aspects of this product.
If you are going to be buying this power supply be prepared to spend about $125 which is a lot for a power supply in my opinion but you will have to decide for yourself on that. Overall I am going to give this power supply a 8/10 and would like to thank Sharka Corporation for sending it over for review.
Pros
- Very quiet
- Huge heatsinks inside
- Looks really nice
- Lots of Molex
- ZM-MC1 included
- AMD approved and Pentium 4 ready
Cons
- Low 5v and 12v rails
- High price ($124.95)
