Sparkle Gold Class 1000W Power Supply
Aug 10th, 2010 | By AnthonyThe aim of the cold test is to reflect ideal operational conditions where heat from the computer system is independent from the power supply. Still though, the term cold test would be misleading as things do get quite hot!
Given this is our first 80 Plus Gold review, perhaps it’s best we start off talking about efficiency. In our room temperature, open air case test we started off with a really impressive, almost 91% efficiency with a 50% load then we peaked ever so slightly below 90% in our second test. By the time we finished up our third test at 100% load, efficiency measured in at 87.5%. Given Gold is minimum 87% at full load, we’ve got just a bit of room to spare.
In terms of output, things are looking good as well. The 3.3V and 5V rails are absolutely solid and the 12V rail at most within 2.5% of regulation. Impressive.
In our simulated heat test, we emulate the insides of a running system and we shoot for an exhaust temperature of around 50 degrees Celsius. Peltier heated and controlled with variable fans we internal temperature of the hot box until we get as close to 50 degrees Celsius as we can.
With heat turned on, the unit’s efficiency dipped down a few tenths of a point to 87.2%. Now we’re cutting it close, but full load and in the hot box, 87.2% is nothing to scoff at. On the output side, the 12V rail dipped ever so slightly down to 12.24V. That’s some fine voltage regulation.