Output Specifications

The VX550 employs a three rail configuration, with one rail per output voltage. The 3.3v and 5v are rated for 30A and 28A of current respectively, with a combined maximum total output of 140w. The single 12v rail is rated for a maximum output of 41A, giving 492w of output. The total maximum combined output for all rails is 550w.

With most high current components drawing from the 12v rail, it's nice to see that that the maximum output of that rail can potentially comprise most of the capacity of the power supply.

Performance Test Platform

For testing power supply performance, circuitREMIX has created test bed configuration. The hardware chosen was picked to reflect that of a relatively modern computer system that an enthusiast may own. The heat production of the system is an above-average repesentation of one of these computer systems. The configuration of the system is as follows:

• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 overclocked to 3.2GHz
• Thermalright Ultra-120 heatsink + 120mm Yate Loon fan
• Asus P5K3 Deluxe motherboard
• Kingston 2GB (2x1GB) DDR-3 (1375MHz) memory kit
• eVGA 8800GT 512MB PCIe graphics card
• Seagate 7200.7 120GB SATA hard drive
• Samsung SH-S203 SATA DVD-writer

circuitREMIX currently tests power supplies two ways. First, we test the relative efficiency of power supplies by measuring the AC drawn by the power supply, and comparing that metric with other power supplies, with lower usage being better. For this measurement, we take the Next, we test voltage regulation by directly measuring the outputted voltage of the 3.3v, 5v and 12v lines using a multimeter. For consistency of results, and to ensure that all tests are comparable, we use the same hardware configuration and settings when testing all power supplies of this wattage range.

Tests are conducted at off, idle and load situtations. Off status is when the computer is shut down, and the power supply's manual switch is in the on position.

Idle status is is when the computer is running Windows Vista Business edition with no applications running.

Load status is when the computer is running Windows Vista Business edition with OCCT running on all processor cores, ATITool 'scanning for artifacts'.

We allow the test system to run at idle and load status for approximately 1 hour, then record the highest stable reading for the efficiency and voltage regulation tests. This allows the power supplies to heat up to normal operating temperature. This is important since the DC output of power supplies decreases with higher temperatures.