Testing:
To test the idle and load voltages of the <
Cooler Master Real Power 550W, I installed it into two configurations of the same system.
The idle condition was established by powering the base system at default speeds and voltages with no applications running for a period of at least 30 minutes. The load condition was established by loading the system up with components and fans, while Folding@Home and SiSoft Sandra 2005's Burn-in Wizard ran for a period of at least 60 minutes. In addition to these stressful applications running, the loaded system was overclocked and overvolted to add more demand to the power supply. The table below details the idle and load conditions:
Idle
» AMD Opteron 148 processor @2200MHz (stock voltage)
» DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI-DR Expert (default settings)
» 1GB (2x512MB)
Corsair TwinX1024-4000PRO » DDR
» 2x 80GB Hitachi Deskstar SATA-II hard drive in RAID 0
» 1x 120GB Seagate 7200.9 SATA 3Gbps hard drive
» Memorex DVD/CDRW
» 10-n-1 Media Card reader
» eVGA 7800GT PCIe card
» Fans: 2x120mm LED
Load
» AMD Opteron 148 processor @2750MHz (250x11)
» DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI-DR Expert
» 1GB (2x512MB)
Corsair TwinX1024-4000PRO DDR
» 2x 80GB Hitachi Deskstar SATA-II hard drive
» 2x 120GB Seagate 7200.9 SATA 3Gbps hard drive
» Memorex DVD/CDRW
» 10-n-1 Media Card reader
» eVGA 7800GT PCIe card
» Fans: 4x120mm LED, 6x80mm
» Cooler Master Cool Drive IV
» 1x 40GB Seagate 7200.8 SATA hard drive
» 1x ATI PCI TV tuner
» 1x AVerMedia AVerTV Purity 3D MCE 500 TV tuner
» 2x USB thumb drives
» USB 2.0 Hub
» 1x USB 2.5 hard drive
» Sony DRU-500A DVD-RW
» NEC DVD-RW
Here you can see both the idle and the load voltages. There was a slight drop in voltages from the idle to load readings, but nothing that would cause concern. The voltages did not fluctuate from these readings in the five (5) readings I took.
The next chart compares the load voltage readings of four power supplies. All of the values are well within an acceptable range of +/- 5% of specification, and absolutely zero power issues were experienced during testing.
