Performance and Testing
Test setup and Testing Methodology
I do not have the specialized equipment for PSU testing (which costs thousands of dollars). So the best way I could do test the PSU is by using what we’ve got. My testing method involves comparing the voltage and power consumption reading during idle and at full load. I know it’s not the most accurate method technically, but I think this simple method should provide some ideas of the performance of the power supply in terms of stability and power consumption.
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (Matisse) |
| Cooling | Gigabyte Aorus Liquid Cooler 240 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte X570 AORUS Master |
| Ram | Thermaltake Toughram XG RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-4000 CL19 |
| HDD | XPG 256GB PCIE M.2 SSD |
| PSU | Antec Signature 1000W |
| VGA card | EVGA 3070Ti FTW Ultra |
| OS | Windows 10 |
The main thing to watch out for, is the fluctuation on the +12V line. If the +12V line drops to below 12V during full load or large fluctuations in the V readings … then you’ve got trouble. The system may unstable and you might also get random reboots.
Efficiency Requirements for 80Plus Certification
We used AIDA64 and simultaneously ran both CPU and GPU stress test which produces 100% load. We then checked the voltage readings on AIDA64.
Load
Voltage readings taken from ADIA64 at idle
- +12V : 13.185V
- +5V : 5.130V
- +3V : 1.802V
Idle
Voltage readings taken from ADIA64 under load
- +12V : 13.108V (-0.077V)
- +5V : 5.100V (-0.030V)
- +3V : 1.782V (-0.020V)
At full load for both CPU and GPU, the system is drawing a decent amount of power, and you can see that the voltages have dropped slightly. This is expected. What you’re looking for is to make sure that the +12V reading don’t drop to below 12V. If it does, then the system may become unstable.
In this case, the Cooler Master MWE Gold V2 850W is holding up well at 13.108V
Now lets move on to the Conclusion and Verdict!
