dBA test



As you can see, the Hiper PSU is quite the silent pupil in the class. Please note that all fans in the PSU are controlled by temperature sensors so if your case is a few degrees warmer/colder then this setup, you'll have a different level of noise. 33dB ambient means you can clearly hear any fart in the room. Unless you're silenced.


Voltage Test

This is the fun part of a review. Hooking everything up and making them scream like little girls. There are two factors that make a PSU a worthy one, those are the power consumption at any given moment and the voltage drop at high loads. With these numbers we can easily determine if a PSU is good or not.

Fortunately, all these values can be measured with simple tools like a multi-meter and a wattmeter, which are lying around here most of the time. Measuring the voltage at a given moment is simple, just plug the multi-meter in a spare Molex plug and you know what you want. Finding a molex in an installed setup with moddable PSU is hard most of the time, but you can always attach an extra molex cable if you need one. Measuring the power consumption is equally easy, but you do need a wattmeter which is not as common as a multi-meter.

It's a little device you plug in the wall socket, and you can plug in any device in the wattmeter. When the device uses electrical energy, the meter shows you exactly how much you use (real power used, not the 'apparent' power that is transported)

If you want to know more about electric circuits, I recommend this link, it has all the info you need to understand electrics.


In the load tests, I added 2x74w TEC's , which each draw 3A at 12v (TEC's have a nominal voltage of 15,4v so they consume and perform less at 12v)

The load tests were run using a combination of Folding @ Mome to stress the CPU, ATI tool to stress the graphics card and the two pelts to add some extra load. Please not that when using F@H, the RAM isn't fully stressed. Stressing the ram could easily add an extra 10-15w, but then ATI-tool would start hogging, and the wattage would drop again because the graphics card had nothing to do then to wait. It's a system of giving a bit, taking a bit.

Now you know what we are going to test, and how we are going to do it. Come in Zordon! It's “graphicalation” time!





red:stress,green:idle,blue:off,white:motherboard disconnected


Conclusion

After doing the tests, I can't really point out a clear winner performance-wise. And since tastes differ, I can't say which PSU is the best either. The only thing I can do is give my opinion. (Politics here I come!).

For me, working with the Hiper PSU was the easiest. The cables were flexible and you can make any kind of configuration with the connectors you want.

When I look at the circuit print boards, the Ultra X-Connect looks way better but that doesn't mean it will last longer. If you need an AUX-connector, the Ultra is the one for you.

When you look at the price, there is no clear winner either. Both are yours for about €80. For that price the Hiper gives you 80 extra watts, but what is 80 watts extra after the 500w barrier?


To summarise

Ultra X-Connect

+EMI shielding (It IS a feature. :) )
+Sturdy cables
+UV reactive

-Cables hard to bend

Hiper Type-R

+Easy to work with
+High power
+120mm fan
+Nice packaging

-Molex connectors not completely according to standards (if any)

AcRyan RyanPower2

+Easy to work with
+Cheap
+Fan connectors on the PSU

-Gasket around wires can break off after a while
-Active PFC doesnt seem to be working as good as in the Globalwin.


I would like to thank Lawrence from Hiper for providing the Type-R for test, if you have questions and comments please check this thread in our forums. I'd also like to thank Peter (Psykoman) for borrowing his X-Connect. Cheers to JMke for the nice pictures!

Addendum: It seems I messed up the X-Connect and the Type-R values in the last graphs, which is now corrected. Also some extra information has appeared for the wattage chart. Sorry folks.