Power Maxx 520W PSU - Performance
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Manufacturers: | PCToys |
| Product: | Power Maxx 520 |
Price: | $139.99 |
Availability: | At your local Computer Store |
Reviewed By: | Holy Roman Empire |
Review Date: | November, 2002 |
| Edited By: | SPeeD |
Performance
Having never relied on MBM5 for anything other than semi-accurate readings of my processor's temperature, I wasn’t sure what to expect from its voltage reading abilities. Upon checking them, I was really surprised. They were WAY off. If the 3.3volt line was really running at 1.55volts, I think there would be a little bit of a problem, but to the contrary everything in my system functioned properly. Not only this, but my DigiDoc5 was reporting a lot of fluctuation on the 12v and 5v rails. Now I was getting worried. I did the only thing a logical geek could do. I whipped out my trusty old Multi-Meter.
Digital readout? We don’t need no stinking digital readout! As relatively antiquated as the piece of equipment is, it still reads accurately. I can assure you all of this. Following the procedures in the manual combined with a little bit of advice from our good friend Cygnus_x_1, I managed to take readings of the 12v, 5v and 3.3v rails. Amazingly, all of them were right on the money. Moral of the story? For voltage, MBM5 won’t give you accurate readings, and neither will a DigiDoc.
Overclocking
And now for something completely different, overclocking. Well, all the numbers add up, and it all seems to work fine at stock speeds. There is only one problem here. My system is getting a little long in the tooth. My AXP1600+ seems sluggish, and my gf4 ti4400 is getting toasted by all those damn Radeon9700’s out there. The solution? Overclocking. I had found the limits of my system shortly after all the pieces were assembled to be 1750 Mhz at 166fsb and 300/720 on my vidcard’s core/memory. I didn’t run that fast everyday. I only did that on benchmarking day. You see, that 1750 came with a price: 2.2volts running through my CPU and 60C+ Needless to say, I wasn’t comfortable running that hot, so for everyday running I backed the fsb down to 145mhz resulting in a clock speed of 1528at 1.85v. I couldn’t run anywhere in between that as something on my PCI bus would freak out and crash the system. The multipliers kicked back down at 166, making it a moot point at that speed.
With the addition of the PC Toys PSU, I was given a rather pleasant surprise. I could boot 1750 Mhz and 166fsb at 1.75 volts, it wasn’t stable however, until I upped to voltage to 1.9v. This still allows me to keep my temps in the sub 50C range. Now I can safely run my system at 1750 Mhz on a daily basis. Additionally, I found a new high speed for my chip, I managed to successfully boot at 1792 Mhz with an fsb of 170. I posted at faster speeds, but as far as I’m concerned, if it doesn’t boot, it’s not real.
The three fan cooling solution was rather impressive. It provided great airflow in any of the 3 functions: Auto, Low, and Medium. At the low setting, the fans were barely audible. At the medium setting, it is still not very loud. When set to Auto, I never heard them spool up to medium speeds. Additionally, the Power Maxx features an AC output. on the back. This is a rather nice feature that most PSU manufacturers seem to have forgotten about. Its nice to not think about turning off my monitor when I shut down my PC.
Pros
Cons
Proir to doing this review, I had never heard of PCToys. I'm sure more than a few had never heard of them either. Not for long though. With top notch products such as this awesome PSU, PCToys is sure to become a favorite of the PC enthusiast crowd, whether they be overclockers, case-modders, or both. The PCToys Power Maxx 520 is a superb product in almost every respect. With 520 watts of power, 3 multi-speed fans, and beautiful looks, it provides lots of power, plenty of cooling, and a whole lot of style.
We'd like to thank PCToys for providing this PSU for review. We'd also like to thank you for stopping by and checking out the review. Feel free to head into the Forums for discussion, or stop by the Front Page and check out plenty of other GooSH!™ here at OCA.
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