Coolermaster GX450 vs Nexus Value 430, low-end PSUs battle

Cases & PSU/Power Supplies by geoffrey @ 2011-07-05

Looking for a new power supply which does not cost you an arm nor leg? Today we'll be testing two value power supplies by the hand of Coolermaster and Nexus, let's see how these two settle themselves in the lower-end PSU market after they survived all of our testing methods.

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Testing methodology & industrial load test results

To put these pc power supplies to a test we used the Coolermaster PSU test-lab in Venlo (NL), for more info about the test setup I'll link you to a previous article where we made some in-depth PSU tests using the same equipment. Although we did add one of CoolerMaster's own PC power supplies in this article you must know at all times that we did our tests on our own according to our specs and requirements with little or no help from CoolerMaster supervisor René. Our result are not biased, our goal is to give facts, not to make advertisements.

 

 

testsetup

 

In order to measure temperature and noise levels we had to make a self-build pc where we can eliminate pc noise and reduce ambient noise levels. Our test setup:

 

- CPU: Intel Q975 @ 3.2GHz 1,4V

- Mainboard: Gigabyte GA - EP45 - UD3P

- Memory: 2x1Gb TEAMGROUP Xtreem 800MHz 4-4-4-10-35-4-10-10-10-2T @ 800MHz

- Graphics: ATI Radeon 4870X2

- WD Green 1,5Tb HHD
- Silverstone KL03 Kublai
- 20" Dell UltraSharp 2007FP TFT monitor

Coolermaster GX450 test results

 

Using the Chroma electronic load we set the current draw so that we got 20, 50 and 100% load condition. Our results:

 

coolermaster test result

Coolermaster's unit completely made it through the safety tests:

- Inrush current: 57,7 Ampére

- Power Factor: 0,71~0,92

- Standby power consumption: 1,04 Watt

- 12V shortcut protection: OK

- 5V shortcut protection: OK

- 3.3V shortcut protection: OK

 

Efficiency is good at +84% through all test conditions, at 20% load we did notice a low power factor though. We asked Coolermaster for an explanation but after several reminders we still haven't got any answer. This test was made with a retail sample so I'd hope to collect some extra info in the future concerning this malfunctioning. Further tests showed us the protection circuit is doing its job and standby power and peak inrush current is where you'd suspect it to be.

 

coolermaster ripple voltage

 

 

 

Nexus Value 430 test results


We repeated these tests for the Nexus Value 430 unit:

 

nexus test result

 

Safety tests:

- Inrush current: 59,1 Ampére

- Power Factor: 0,87~0,99

- Standby power consumption: 0,9 Watt

- 12V shortcut protection: OK

- 5V shortcut protection: OK

- 3.3V shortcut protection: OK

 

Nexus scored evenly in the efficiency test and produces nearly the same results as the GX450. It's little better in standby power consumption and we did not notice any malfunctions concerning the PF here. The Value 430 beats the Coolermaster unit in voltage ripple @ 12V line, at other volt rails the difference is negligible.

 

nexus ripple voltage

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