Testing:
To test the Mushkin HP-580AP 580W Enhanced Power Supply, it was installed in a system with the following components:
» AMD Opteron 148 processor
» DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI-DR motherboard
» 1024MB G.SKILL Extreme DDR (2 x 512MB) memory
» 3x Hitachi Deskstar 80GB 7200RPM SATA-II hard drives
» 3x Western Digital 36GB 10K RPM SATA-I hard drives
» Two eVGA GeForce 7800 GT CO SLI 256MB GDDR3 PCI-E graphics cards
» Pioneer DL DVDRW
» SB Audigy 2z Platinum sound card
» 2x Enermax Enlobal 120mm fans
Testing the HP-580AP 580W Enhanced Power Supply will be focused on determining how much the main voltage rails (+5V, +12V, and +3.3V) fluctuate from idle conditions to full load conditions using a Fluke model 83 digital multimeter to monitor all voltage readings.
The idle condition was established by powering the system at stock speeds and voltages with no applications running for a period of at least 30 minutes. The load condition was established by running
Orthos and
3DMark06 for a period of at least 60 minutes. In addition to these stressful applications running, the system was overclocked and overvolted to add more demand to the power supply. The stock condition has the CPU at 2.2GHz and 1.35V, while the overclocked condition has it at 2.9GHz and 1.50V.
The first thing we will look at is how the unit's voltage rails fluctuated between idle and load conditions. Values were fairly stable, with the 12V and 3.3V rails dropping just slightly and the 5V rail jumping up just a little from idle to load conditions. The results were well specification and the system was completely stable. The chart below summarizes the readings...
As a point of reference, the load voltage readings from the Mushkin HP-580AP 580W Enhanced Power Supply were compared with those from an OCZ PowerStream SLI 520W unit and a
Zippy GSM-6600P(G1) 600W unit, while powering the same test system.
For a final check on the power supply's performance,
OCCT was run for 30 minutes. As it stresses the system, it can monitor various voltages with the help of
SpeedFan and it creates the charts for the 3.3V, 5V, and 12V rails shown below. As you can see, the three rails may look like they were active, but the total ripple is minimal and the rails are considered stable.
