XFX Black Edition 850w ATX PSU Blows Up During Max Load Test

jmke · 12th October 2009, 20:17

Right about now I’d probably be contemplating an award such as Editors Choice or maybe Gamers Choice and an almost full-bars score. But unfortunately as I’ve already covered on the previous page, the XFX Black Edition 850w does have a a tendency to go ‘pop’ under certain load conditions. These conditions were of course outside specification during the "Max Load" tests where the unit was placed under a load approaching 1000W, but under no circumstances should a PSU of this quality fail in this manner simply because the load is too high. OCP (Over Current Protection) should kick in every time, saving both the PSU from failure and your hardware from being 'zapped'. For this reason alone the Black Edition 850w won't be walking away with any awards today, which is a great shame considering how well it performed in all other areas.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.p..._850w_atx_psu/

jmke · 13th October 2009, 14:01

Quote:

Thanks for all your comments on the review. As many of you have already stated, OCP should have kicked in and prevented this from happening. Whether or not this issue is also present on the Seasonic M12D (almost identical internals to the XFX) I'm not entirely sure as our MAX Load testing was only recently introduced when we upgraded our load equipment capacity (from 900w on +12v to 2900w). What I will say is that every other PSU reviewed since this test was introduced has shut down safely when the maximum load it is configured for was exceeded. The Corsair HX850w for example powered down at anything above 1084w and the OCZ Z100M at anything above 1268W.

On another note we did also experience something slightly untoward with SCP too. Although I'm not sure of there is any specific behaviour that a PSU must adhere to with regards to SCP protection, the first XFX unit seemed far too keen to power back on again after we intentionally shorted it out. Most PSU's tend to require a hard reset after a short circuit (off at mains for a minute and then switch back on), but the XFX unit bounced straight back on again after the short circuit was removed (without even a power button being pressed).

Both units are now on their way back to XFX for inspection, and I imagine that they will want to investigate the problem with Seasonic before making any official reply on OC3D.

Src: XS

12th October 2009, 20:17	#1
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	XFX Black Edition 850w ATX PSU Blows Up During Max Load Test Right about now I’d probably be contemplating an award such as Editors Choice or maybe Gamers Choice and an almost full-bars score. But unfortunately as I’ve already covered on the previous page, the XFX Black Edition 850w does have a a tendency to go ‘pop’ under certain load conditions. These conditions were of course outside specification during the "Max Load" tests where the unit was placed under a load approaching 1000W, but under no circumstances should a PSU of this quality fail in this manner simply because the load is too high. OCP (Over Current Protection) should kick in every time, saving both the PSU from failure and your hardware from being 'zapped'. For this reason alone the Black Edition 850w won't be walking away with any awards today, which is a great shame considering how well it performed in all other areas. http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.p..._850w_atx_psu/ __________________

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