Apex SL-800EPS 600W PSU - Open her up
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It was a little awkward opening this PSU. As you can see in the pic below, it does use a standard "C" type closure, but it was a little hard to manipulate due to the larger 120mm fan, and the area that the wiring harness extended through. Anyway, feast away on the internal organs of this PSU while I go and clean off my fingerprints (for the hundredth time).
I installed this PSU into my MGE Dragon case, replacing the 900w DURO PSU I currently had in it. The blue glow of the PSU added a little brightness to the case, which was already lit blue by some internal LEDs and fans. Here's a shot of it in the dark:
Once I had it all buttoned up, it was time for testing. Here's my test rig:
- AMD Athlon 64 3700+
- Patriot Dual Channel 2GB DDR500
- Biostar NF4ST-A9 Mainboard
- Sapphire X800 PCIe Video
- 3x Maxtor 7400rpm 120GB IDE HD
- Pioneer Dual Layer DVD+RW/-RW
And here is how I simulated idle and load conditions for my tests:
For idle conditions:
- Booted and running Windows XP Pro.
- Sitting idle at desktop.
For load conditions:
- Booted and running Windows XP Pro.
- Zipping files from DVD onto HD.
- Zipping files between HDs.
- Listening to MP3s with Winamp.
- Playing FEAR.
I used my digital multimeter to take measurements for each rail at idle and load conditions. Here's What I found:
| | +5V | +12V1 | +12V2 | +3.3V |
Spec | 5V | 12V | 12V | 3.3V |
Idle | 5.02V | 12.31V | 12.34V | 3.33V |
Load | 5.02V | 12.31V | 12.33V | 3.32V |
I would have to say this PSU provided strong and reliable power, no matter what I threw at it. As you can see by the above numbers, the power barely fluctuated at all between idle and decent load.
Next: Conclusion >>
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