Results analyzed and compared

Here is a quick recap from the results nicely put in graphs. We start of comparing the efficiency of the three competitors, all rated 80 plus they should give us quite some decent scores, and off course that is what we got. OCZ was slightly trailing the pack, with Zalman and CoolerMaster switching first spots. Though in each load test the efficiency percentage difference is so small you can hardly speak of a winner here, at best the OCZ is being topped out by only 2%, don't forget there's also something called sample quality and 'stepping'.



Inrush current, or, the current which is drawn when the unit boots up with full load, hasn't really been tested in the past, it was when manufacturers noticed that the power-on/off button at the back of the PSU got damaged because of high current flow that people now are starting to focus on what inrush current in fact is. From our result below we see CoolerMaster doing a pretty good job scoring nearly 10Amps less then the OCZ, but it's the large Zalman PSU which scored really high here, probable due to the extra components. High inrush current might damage low current rated components like the on/off switch, in some high-end power supply we no longer see these power button. Furthermore with high inrush current you have a chance of decreased component life as they're being stressed more.



In standby power consumption they all surprised me again scoring very low and very close. With none of our samples using more then 1Watt in standby we have again 3 winners here:



In connectivity the Zalman unit comes out the best, with 6 molex and 12 SATA power connectors there are a whole bunch of ODD's, HDD's, fans, ledlamps, fan controllers and etc etc which you can connect, all cables are also made long enough so that even in the biggest cases you won't have too much problems getting the power to your hardware. Downside is the ATX plug, the hard plastic around the 24 pins plug will make it incompatible with some boards plus it's harder to connect in places where only little space is available. If you don't need so much cables then the CoolerMaster and OCZ units will do fine too, there is enough connectivity to cover most high-end systems. I do find the CoolerMaster unit scoring slightly better because of the longer ATX, 12V P4 and HDD/ODD cables plus it has more connections and 2 times 6p+2p PCIe plugs.



I also ran some heat and noise tests at my home testing space, unfortunately during one of these tests my video card broke down and with no replacement left at my place I'll have to skip these results for now. Don't be afraid, I have more test results upcoming with more 600W units, but that's for when I'm back from my annual vacation :)