Originally posted by: Soldier
Originally posted by: Lithan
Wow, this is quite possibly the most stupid post NOT related to Intel I've ever seen on anandtech. Next time maybe go for the "Bargain basement supply" with twice the holdup of yours and spend the money you save getting a better than "bargain basement" spelling class.
Akugami, it's established that Tom's reviews are for sale. It's been known for over five years.
And to people agreeing that hot voltage adjustment isn't necessary... let's just say that you are out of your league. It's actually the number one selling point of OCZ's PSU's. They pretty much built the market for their powerstream line on that feature alone.
Wow this is quite possibly the lamest excuse for a reply I've ever seen. In fact it boarders on trolling. You give nothing but your opinion while I stated experience; like it or not your opinion isnt going to keep someone elses rig from failure due to a poorly chosen power supply. And because you bought the hype around an OCZ power supply and spent your cash on it does not make it a match for a PC P&C unit.
People like you playing with pots on power supplies are out of their league, stop insulting those of us who know better. People that buy power supplies with adjustable pots dont know enough about building solid rigs to understand that a properly built power supply doesnt need adjustment, it will hold it's rails to spec all on it's own. If your stressing a supply hard enough to draw down the rails enough to need adjustment you either dont have any idea how to properly size a power supply or your probably dumb enough to think MBM5 is accurate...
Enough said.
First of all, I did not say OCZ was a match for a PCP&C unit. In fact I've posted the opposite in other discussions. PCP&C have tighter line reg and a better warranty. If I were buying between the two at the same price range, I'd take PCP&C. Secondly, if you actually READ my post, it makes blatantly clear that you aren't boosting the PSU to accomidate for line dipping due to load, you are boosting it to accomidate for the drop that occurs due to your motherboards natural resistance, and without some autoadjusting PSU that takes readouts off the mobo itself (which doesnt exist), it is impossible to have a PSU that doesn't benefit from this.
Oh wow, you've heard that MBM5 isn't accurate! Now tell people that A64 is better for gaming and pretend it's based on personal knowledge of the platforms performance and technology and not on the fact that it's posted in every single thread mentioning it, and someone who doesn't know what a hard drive is could probably tell you it in a desperate attempt to sound educated on the subject.
Originally posted by: Soldier
Originally posted by: Lithan
Most people only use the 3.3v line adjust. It allows vdimm mods on 3.3v line boards to over 3.1v (with a typical PSU output that's about as high as you can get stably with vdimm... 3.2ish if you do a direct line mod). Adjustment for other lines is just for fine tuning to get a voltage that keeps your board happy. Different boards and even different installs will have different resistances from the PSU and back, and tweaking the PSU to accomodate these changes can improve your overclock.
You really should take the time to learn about what your doing to a board by following this type of methodology for improving overclocks. Your overvolting the entire boards 3.3v components to try and get more juice to ram. Voltage adjustment does not work that way, you have to change the resistance of the regulator on the individual component you wish to make adjustment to. To adjust memory voltage you have two choices, buy a board that supports the voltage you want out of the box or make changes to the electronics on the board you bought such as placing a pot on the board. In either case adjusting pots on your power supply should not be necessary to achieve the proper voltage for your ram.
Indeed. But here's a fun fact. DC driven components have what's known as voltage tolerances. Wow. A fun, big word. Wow, placing a Pot on the board? You mystical magical genius man with your great new ideas! Do I just take a hammer and mash it into place? You see I don't know because contrary to what is apparent due to my referencing vdimm mods
in the post you quoted I really have no idea what they are. I had foolishly assumed that 3.3v mods and vdimm mods would
As I plainly said go hand in hand to provide a stable vdimm well above the 3.1-3.2vdimm possible maximum on most boards without a 3.3v mod.
JediYoda, You know that pattern recognition is one of the most important tests in determining IQ. Read up on Tom's history (it's there) instead of demanding evidence which you know that no one is in a position to provide, seeing as those records would be private. Hey, prove to me that Hitler didn't like gefilte fish.
Acanthus, Yes they did. But it was barely promoted. OCZ has reps all over overclocking boards and a rep as an overclocker's supplier. Antec built it's rep on being the best (and in many people's opinion, only quality) Power supply that you can buy at a big chain retailer. Frankly, if you ask someone with an OCZ supply the reason they bought it, 99% of the time you'll get one of three answers. One, it's being used by guys setting records or came recommended by someone they respect. Two, the utterly unmatched support. Three, the voltage adjustment. Frankly in my eyes, powerstream is just a quality supply with every feature they could think of crammed in it, and not worth the premium over Fortron for me, but the one feature that really sells it is the line adjusts.
Originally posted by: wyrmrider
Former technical chair of a power supply trade show speaking here
Tom's may screw up stress tests but their methodology in their power supply tests is way above the usuall "testimonial" type reviews
I'm not intereste in fan boys "I have one and it works just fine" comments. These systems are not really stressed.
Tests should also be run at full rated temperature
Tom's tersts do not show all important "power conditioning"
Tom's tests do not show which power suplies have downstream component protection Ie when the ps goes out the hard drives and video and other components are not taken out with the spike/ surge/ flash/ bang.
Tom did not do component analysis- ie size of ridethrough capacitors and other components
Tom did mention filters and network protection
and I think that PCP & C was the only one with them
Notice how some of the suppliews would have passed if they had put a lower rating on them
If supplies were tested at full rated temperature fewer of them would have passed.
How many are rated at commercial/ industrial specs rather than household?
UL listings?
Very few of these "brands" actually design much less manufacture their own power supplies- most are rebranded catalogue items.
Which "brands" actually have a designer? or just a "marketing engineering specifier"
THis discussion is off to a good start but geting the power supply market to full disclosure has a way to go
wyrmrider
PSU's are rated at a specific output at a specific temp, so if the PSU is well documented... the temperature should not impact it's ability to meet recorded specs... now since advertised specs never mention temps, that's another story.
Fortron builds it's own. Antec I believe still buys and relabel/modifies Channel Well Tech. I've never owned an enermax so I can't say, but Im sure you can find a UL referance number in a picture if you look online.
Are you 15 years old ? Pwned ? How so, because you spout off with nothing but your uneducated opinion ? Did you read the dual core tests where the OCZ fell on its face, sorta like your lame reply. Reread the Tom's test and you'll see they tested at max rated load for 24 hours, these "consumer grade" power supplies as you call them, are not meant for that kind of work, they are meant for the average non overclocked system and are fine supplies for that as I stated earlier in the thread. Are you claiming otherwise? What would be your experience with these supplies under heavy overclocking? I killed an 480 Antec and an 465 Enermax overclocking an XP Mobile 2600 to 2.6Ghz, where did you successfully use these supplies at those clocks without failure? The PCPC Silencer 410 I now have ran the same system for almost a year and was then moved into my current rig in my sig for the last 6 months. Pwned would be you when your rig locks up 2 hours into the best game of your life because you brought the wrong equipment to the fight.....
I ran a 2600+xp-m @ 2.875ghz off a fortron 350. But, yeah... good point.... ... ...
Oh and might want to look at the specs of your silencer. Every single advantage of PCP&C turbocool line is missing. That psu has worse line reg than antec, enermax, etc. Worse ripple, hold-up, in fact worse in just about every way. But thanks for playing. PCP&C turbocools are damn fine supplies. But their value lines are nothing special at all.