Re: PSU Load Testers - Designs?
regarding quoted sentence no.1:
we need to say if we'll be testing conditions of a relatively small sample of hardcore gamers and simillar(IF THAT, do we have any numbers about increase in psu load between idle and full load of cpu and gpu at all? also i would say with psus of todays wattage this is less of an issue...) or we'll be measuring load of most users, which is mostly idle cpu and gpu time(surfing internet, doing docs and spreadsheets etc.).
sentence no.2: indeed, only real test is putting psu in a pc and waiting(for years) to establish reliability and durability. everything else is not a real-life test and you might as well discard it.
for example i was reading johhnyguru test of 'basement bargain' psus last night: nothing in that test suggests all of those psus won't work quite satisfactory for years for most people. full load they can't do for any time at all, but they won't be pushed that hard at all.
reasoning is simple: if that test was real-life test those mfrs would be non-existant by today(who would buy psu that can't last few minutes?).
but they do last because load is usually waaay lower than full so these mfrs of crap just survive.
in the end this puts testing into grim perspective:
first of all full-load tests show nothing about real world experience(just like any other way of accelerated testing).
2nd, as pcbonez said 2-3years tests equally make lil sense(i mentioned people who "repair pcs": soon even such people won't exist as pcs will be so cheap you'll be just swapping them as soon as they break...).
so as a conclusion you just have no good way to thoroughly test a psu.
all you can do is inspect design and quality of components and hope for the best, or just buy laptop (only to find a smps in laptop's power adaptor???..hehe).
Especially when the load Goes quickly form a relatively small load to nearly max of the PSU's capacity. Its hard to properly test a PSU.
we need to say if we'll be testing conditions of a relatively small sample of hardcore gamers and simillar(IF THAT, do we have any numbers about increase in psu load between idle and full load of cpu and gpu at all? also i would say with psus of todays wattage this is less of an issue...) or we'll be measuring load of most users, which is mostly idle cpu and gpu time(surfing internet, doing docs and spreadsheets etc.).
sentence no.2: indeed, only real test is putting psu in a pc and waiting(for years) to establish reliability and durability. everything else is not a real-life test and you might as well discard it.
for example i was reading johhnyguru test of 'basement bargain' psus last night: nothing in that test suggests all of those psus won't work quite satisfactory for years for most people. full load they can't do for any time at all, but they won't be pushed that hard at all.
reasoning is simple: if that test was real-life test those mfrs would be non-existant by today(who would buy psu that can't last few minutes?).
but they do last because load is usually waaay lower than full so these mfrs of crap just survive.
in the end this puts testing into grim perspective:
first of all full-load tests show nothing about real world experience(just like any other way of accelerated testing).
2nd, as pcbonez said 2-3years tests equally make lil sense(i mentioned people who "repair pcs": soon even such people won't exist as pcs will be so cheap you'll be just swapping them as soon as they break...).
so as a conclusion you just have no good way to thoroughly test a psu.
all you can do is inspect design and quality of components and hope for the best, or just buy laptop (only to find a smps in laptop's power adaptor???..hehe).
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