Power Maxx 520W PSU
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It is no secret that overclocking gains in popularity every day. It seems like seldom a day goes by that we don't get some newbie in out forums asking how to overclock his ECS board. As fast as the overclocking community is expanding, the case modding community makes us all look like a bunch of snails. Maybe its because OCers are jumping into casemodding too, maybe its because people like taking the hole saw to their Dells, or maybe its because we, as a species, are obsessed with destruction, as well as looking cool, and case modding lets us do both. At any rate, its now not uncommon to see a case that's not only packed with screaming 6000RPM deltas, but waterpumps pushing some form of glowing coolant through neon tubes backlit by blacklights, neons, and cold cathodes. When you take into account that most of these systems are running Athlon XP's and Pentium4's as well as ti4600's and Radeon 9700's all backed by 4 disk raid arrays with 7200RPM Western Digital hardrives, you need a lot of power. It's just a guess, but somehow I don't think that the 145watt PSU in the back of your E-Machine is gonna cut it. My personal system is rather modest, but when given the opportunity to review a this high powered PSU, I jumped at it. There is nothing like a little extra juice. After all, it might come in handy if I ever decide to jump start a car using my PC.
Manufacturers: | PCToys |
| Product: | Power Maxx 520W Aluminum PSU |
Price: | $139.99 |
Availability: | At your local Computer Store |
Reviewed By: | Holy Roman Empire |
Review Date: | November, 2002 |
| Edited By: | SPeeD |
Overview
The package arrived in relatively nice condition considering it was sent via UPS ;) The actual packaging of the product arrived in pristine condition thanks to the sturdy box and ample packing peanuts. After peeling off the shrink wrap and figuring out how to open the box without tearing it, I had a nice view of the PSU and all the extra stuff that comes with it.
All of the following were included with the package:
The PSU
Power Cord
Manual
Installation Guide
4 Screw
4 Zip ties
The PSU itself was one of the prettiest damn chunks of aluminum I’ve ever seen in my life. All black, blemish free, shiny as hell, and with nice big 80mm holes all inhabited by clear fans, any of you who own windowed cases don’t have to worry about aesthetics. Of course, after a little bit of handling I’m afraid I messed up the shiny finish with my fingerprints. That’s nothing that can’t be handled with a soft, dry terry cloth.
Features
3 Speed Thermal Fan Control Switch
3 Temperature Controlled Dual Ball Bearing Fans
Universal Connector Fits Most of Branded Mainboards
Additional AC Output For Peripheral
Lightweight Black Aluminum Casing
Electric-Shock-Free Protection
Over Voltage Protection
Over Current Protection
Short Circuit Protection
ATX 12 V
Low Noise Level
Before any actually testing takes place, I must fulfill my sworn duty and honor as a total geek. I take this thing apart. I don't recommend you do this in your own home, as there are many dangerous parts inside of a PSU that can cause electrocution and possible death. Having said that, here are a few pics of what insides of this thing look like. AS you can see, its basically just a lot of stuff soldered on to a PCB with a few nice, chunky aluminum heatsinks on it. No POTS to adjust the voltage, but hey, sometimes you gotta live with that.
Installation
Eager to see how this monster would fit in my case, I ripped out the old PSU and fit this guy in.
Here I run into the only problems I’ve had with this product. The PC Toys Power Maxx series of PSU’s comes equipped with 3 80mm fans. One rear exhaust fan, one that blows into the PSU from the opposite side of the aluminum casing, and one that blows into the PSU from the bottom of the casing. The power supply I replaced it with only had 2 fans, one rear exhaust and the one on the opposite side of the PSU. Upon Installation, I noticed that the mounting system used in my Chieftec case sits the PSU on a ledge. I’m not sure how many other cases use the exact same style and dimension of ledge for mounting, so this may not even impact you, but the ledge partially covers the bottom fan.
This wouldn’t be so annoying except for the fact that the fan grill sticks out from the bottom of the PSU and causes it to sit unevenly. This was remedied easily enough by removing the fan grill, but now I have a fan unguarded, and the hole is still partially blocked. Also, the wires are extremely long. For those of us with full tower cases, this is good thing. Unfortunately, I don't have a huge case, so I have a lot of extra wire that needed to be bundled up.
Lets head over to page 2 for the PSU's performance.
Next: Performance >>
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