Review: OCZ Fatal1ty 1000W Modular PSU

Posted by Ed Smith

Wednesday, 11 April 2012 22:07

Article Index
Review: OCZ Fatal1ty 1000W Modular PSU
Features and Specifications
The Box and PSU, Photos
The PSU itself
Load Testing
Ripple Testing
Dissection and Inspection (Part 1)
Dissection and Inspection (Part 2)
Verdict and Conclusion

Page 5 of 9

Load Testing

A decent load test of a PSU requires a decent load. Contrary to what some may believe, that means you need a known load that can fully stress the PSU. Computer hardware does not cut it. Worse if the PSU fails during testing it might take out the computer hardware anyway. Commercial load testers cost a lot of money. I do not have a lot of money, so I built my own with juicy power resistors and a Toyota cylinder head. It works great.

I’ll be using it to load this thing down fairly severely and will check voltages and ripple (more on that later) at various points. The down side to my tester is that the loads it can put on PSUs are fairly coarse, they go in increments of 48 W for 12 V, 50 W for 5 V and 22 W for 3.3V. Those wattages assume the PSU is putting out exactly the official rail voltage, a PSU putting out 12.24 V rather than 12 V will be at 49.9 W per step rather than 48 W. I file that under the “tough beans” category as I figure if a percent or two of load makes that much of a difference the PSU manufacturer should have hit the voltage regulation more squarely.

The ATX spec says that voltage regulation must be within 5% of the rail’s official designation, regardless of load. It doesn’t actually mention that the PSU shouldn’t explode, though I expect they figured it was implied. Exploding is a failure in my book regardless.

Wattages	12 V Rail	5 V Rail	3.3 V Rail
0/0/0w (0w)	12.19	5.09	3.36
96/0/0w (96w)	12.20	5.08	3.36
240/50/22w (312w)	12.20	5.08	3.35
432/100/44w (576w)	12.19	5.05	3.35
672/100/44w (816w)	12.16	5.05	3.35
864/100/44w (1008w)	12.16	5.05	3.35
1008/0/0w (1008w)	12.15	5.09	3.37

Not bad at all! In fact quite nice, really. Just to kick things up a notch I applied some heat to the unit in the form of 40c intake air and gave it a full load as well:

Box of Heat (40c in, 55c out)	12 V Rail	5 V Rail	3.3 V Rail
864/100/44w (1008w)	12.14	5.05	3.35

The PSU did not care. 12 V regulation through all tests was 00.49%, 5 V was 00.79% and 3.3 V was 00.59%. That's right folks, all rails have better than 1% regulation cold and hot, that is fantastic!

Last for regulation testing, a shot of the PSU wired for temps awaiting the Box of Heat.

ocz1kwfatal1ty-dissection-FanRunning