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Since we don?t
have the equipment to take any measurments of the power load,
ripple, etc...we can?t give you any overly technical
numbers. What we can tell you though is that this unit does
indeed run as
quiet as advertised, even with the extra fan on the inside.
This extra fan literally sucks the hot air out of the system
forcing it out the other end of the PSU. To show how much of a
difference this unit made to my system, I measured the CPU
and board temperatures with the original 300 Watt Power
Supply, and then with the 400 Watt Raidmax using Motherboard
Monitor..
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The Hot Hardware Test System |
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Athlon Powered |
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MSI
K7T266Pro2-RU 6380 Motherboard
Athlon 1800XP CPU
256Mb Crucial PC2100 DDR
Visiontek GeForce 3 Ti 500
Hercules Fortissimo II
USRobotics 56k PCI Gaming Modem
3COM 3C905B-TX Network Interface Card
2 x 40Gb IBM ATA100 7200rpm DeskStar Hard Drives
16x Pioneer DVD-ROM
100Mb Iomega ATAPI Zip Drive
1.44Mb Mitsumi Floppy Drive
Thermaltake Volcano Orb 3 HSF
PC Power&Cooling 80mm Silencer Case Fan
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Temperature and Voltage Comparisons |
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MBM in the House |
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With Deer 300W PSU: |
CPU - 45.5 degrees
C / 113.9 degrees F
Board - 38 C /
100.4 F
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With Raidmax 400W PSU: |
CPU - 45 degrees C / 113.0 degrees F
Board - 37 C / 98.6 F
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We?re not looking at a super
change in temperature, but every bit counts, especially when
overclocking a system. The additional fan not only keeps the
power supply cooler, the increased exhaust airflow
decreased the temperatures within the case as well.
Next, we wanted to check the
voltages output of the power supply units at both idle,
and with a substantial load. To tax the system, and thereby
the PSU, we ran the following applications concurrently:
Internet Explorer 6, Word 2002, Outlook 2002, Editpad,
SiSoft Sandra, Motherboard Monitor, WinAmp 2.79, Windows
Media Player 7.1, MSN Messenger, WS FTP, and WinDVD XP, and
at the same time played a music CD, searched the hard drives
for files, and accessed a Zip disk. As described on their
website, http://mbm.livewiredev.com/, Motherboard Monitor is
a tool that will display information taken from the sensor
built into many new motherboards.
Deer 300W ? Idle
Deer 300W ? With Load
Even at idle, the voltages
coming out of the Deer 300W PSU are somewhat off of what
they should be, and the CPU voltage is lower than the
expected 1.75 Volts. When the system is stressed by running applications and accessing the various
drives, the lines are even more away from center. The -5V
voltage line is off by 10%. Clearly, more voltage regulation is
needed.
RaidMax 400W ? Idle
RaidMax 400W ? With Load
At idle, the CPU voltage was
better, but actually dipped slightly below the Dear PSU
under load. Almost all of
the rails were close to the expected value, at both
idle and with a load, except for the -12V which was off by
about the same in both tests.
The Raidmax 400Watt Power Supply
Unit is advertised as a superior power supply due to its
aluminum construction, voltage regulation, and increased
airflow from the dual fan system. After comparing these
three categories against another unit, I would have to
agree. The unit is definitely sharper-looking than your
standard grey PSUs, and would go perfect with a custom-built
or modified PC chassis. The twin fans are not only up to the
task of getting hot air out of the system, but they are also
very quiet. Voltages are kept well within expected limits,
and this stability should provide reliability when reading
and writing data to your drives. What I also liked were the
extra long Molex connectors, of which there are 6, which
should usually be enough to reach all of your drives, even
in larger cases. There really weren?t any negatives about
the Raidmax 400Watt Power Supply Unit, and that is why I am
giving it a 9.5 on the HotHardware Heat Meter.
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