The Test Methods and The Results
To test this tester, I plugged my Rasurbo 550w PSU into it, fired it up, and compared the voltage readings from the tester with my digital multimeter. The multimeter is accurate to within 1%, we’ll see how the ADCs inside the Dr Power II stand up.
When you first plug the unit in and plug the PSU into the wall (and turn it’s power switch on, if it has one), the Dr Power II’s screen lights up blue and gives you a list of what connectors are plugged in.
It’s worth noting that the icons show up a lot better in person than they do on camera, I guess my camera hates the screen or something. Looking at it in person they’re quite distinct.
When you hit the button on the side of the Dr Power II, it turns the PSU on and displays the voltages.
Voila! Lots of voltages, as well as the time it took the PSU to get itself squared away and cough up a P.G. signal. The top part of the screen in this photo looks like the whole screen does in person.
Pressing the button again cycles through the voltage(s) of each connector you have plugged into the Dr. Power II. After going through the full list, it turns the PSU off.
If you leave it sitting on one page for more than ten seconds or so it turns the PSU off a well.
Now, test results!
| Voltage Line | Dr Power II | Multimeter |
| 12v | 12.0v | 12.190v |
| 5v | 4.9v | 4.99v |
| 5vSB | 4.9v | 4.98v |
| 3.3v | 3.3v | 3.35v |
| -12v | -11.7v | -11.79v |
The 12v accuracy is a bit disappointing at 1.5% off of the multimeter reading. That said, the ATX spec is +/- 5%, so 1.5 isn’t that much. The 5v accuracy is likely an internal rounding issue, and the 5vSB and 3.3v look good. The negative 12v line’s dropping the second decimal place just like the 5v line makes me thing it might be an internal programming decision rather than a reading accuracy issue.
Regardless, while reading 190mv low on the 12v line is a larger miss than I’d like to see, it isn’t a major issue in my book, you can still see quite easily whether your PSU is in the right general area, out in left field, or lacking a rail entirely.
Observe:
Not subtle! I played with the PSU’s on/off switch to induce an error, in this case the P.G. signal was late and the Dr.Power II caught it and threw a flag on the play.
What you don’t get from the picture is the beeping that the Dr. Power II does to alert you to the error. It’s a bit excessive for me as the bright red screen tips me off, but if you’re colorblind the beeping could become a lot more useful.
Onward to scoring!
