| HEC Group Zephyr 650W ATX Power Supply
|
Performance:
Let's start by listing the specifications for the test system:
» DFI Ultra Infinity AM2 motherboard
» AMD 4600+ X2 Windsor processor
» Thermaltake Mini Typhoon CPU cooler
» Corsair 2GB DDR2 memory kit (2x 1024MB)
» HIS Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB video memory
» Seagate 250GB SATA hard drive
» NEC 16x DVD Burner
» Sony 16x DVD Player
» Winfast XP2000 TV tuner
» Floppy drive
» Internal media card reader
» Gigabyte 3D Aurora case with 3x 120mm LED fans
While this system may not be the top dog on the block, it is definitely a power hungry system that should be a good match for a power supply like the HEC Group Zephyr 650W.
With the Zephyr 650W installed, the idle and load voltage conditions were compared. The idle condition consisted of the system sitting at the Windows desktop with no other applications running. The load condition consisted of a 100% CPU load put on the processor via two instances of Folding@Home running, and Quake 4 fired up to get the video card working hard. All voltage readings were taken with a Fluke 77 digital multi-meter, and as you can see in the chart below, the Zephyr 650W kept all voltage rails perfectly still and well within 5% of specification.
The next chart shows a comparison between the HEC Group Zephyr 650 and an Ultra Products X-Connect 600W unit that had been powering this system before the Zephyr 650W was installed. These voltages were taken with the Fluke 77 multi-meter under the same load conditions as described previously.
Something the charts don't show is how stable all of the power rails for the Zephyr 650W are. Through out the hours of testing under load, the multi-meter display remained rock solid and showed no fluctuation at all. The same could not be said for the Ultra Products X-Connect 600W power supply.
Noise is always a concern of mine with anything that has fans on it, and with the Zephyr 650W having two fans I was a bit concerned. The Ultra Products X-Connect 600W has only one fan and the system was virtually silent. I am happy to say that even with the 120mm and 80mm fan in the Zephyr 650W, the system remains virtually silent. You have to pay close attention to even notice the thermally controlled changes in fan speed, as you simply can not hear them even when they are operating at full speed. Although system and CPU temperatures remained the same as they were with the Ultra Products X-Connect 600W power supply, I have to think the addition of the 80mm fan has a positive effect on cooling the power supply and case.
|
|
|
|
