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jonnyGURU

jonnyGURU

Technical Marketing Manager at Corsair Memory
Joined
Apr 9, 2005
Messages
4,844
See! I knew you guys would take issue with that post!!!!

;)
 
I know you have the 6050A and are looking at getting a couple load modules, but would you like for me to see what a tester like mine would cost you FOB Taiwan? (in other words: shipped.)
 
my plate is already full with the equipment I have, I need to get it all playing well first
the whole point is automation which I'll be able to do via GPIB

what broke my heart was these
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7574941320&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7574941169&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7574940871&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7574940582&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

I had less than a half hour to setup sniping them with a service since they ended when I was working, and I screwed it up
bid $700 per but it never went through
on the bright side I don't have to sell my kidney this week to pay for em :p

I already have 2 x 50601B (150W) moduals
 
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I'd like to see that HP in action. You'd think it'd be a hell of a lot better than a SunMoon/TechRed considering all of the "modules."

Any idea how to use it? I mean, mine's pretty easy. You set an initial load for a rail (you can preprogram five different loads on six different rails.) You have an up and down arrow to adjust that load to more Amps or less (looks like the HP uses knobs.) Then there's an LED that tells you what the load is. Then there's a button that says "Volts" and "Watts" and when you hit it, the display changes from Amps to Watts to Volts. The total load in watts is always displayed in the lower left of the display.

How does the HP display Amps and Volts, or do you have to use a seperate DMM?
 
Power Application Note (pdf)

pretty much covers it you program the mainframe via GPIB to run through various loads with all sorts of control on skew rates ect, I'll be doing that and controlling an environmental test chamber and GIPB variable VAC, datalogging the whole thing and ideally just from the Labview interface
 
Cool. Control it all through software, eh?

My ATE has a serial port for PC control, but I don't have the software. That's Ok, though. I'm perfectly happy with using the buttons.

I just can't wait to replace the O-scope I have with something that can graph on my laptop.

Although having an actual O-scope BEFORE diving into a PC based data aquisition device is not regretable. It gave me a very good feel on how to use and read an o-scope. If you threw one of those PC O-Scopes in front of me six months ago, I wouldn't know what to tell you. ;)

I can't wait to see you do some reviews. Maybe I can retire. ;) I'm just too disorganized to do reviews on any kind of professional level. To give you an idea: I just read an email from AC Ryan apologizing for the defective unit I reviewed last year. The email was dated 4/2005. :( It somehow got filtered into the SPAM folder. :(
 
No. Incorrect.

The Skyhawks you see in cases are Deer-ish, but the modular series are completely different.
 
Sweet. I have been using the Liberty 620w for a while now and it's been rock solid. I do think the unit looks nice and not "dookie" looking. :) I do notice that weird sound when I turn it on though.. but I noticed the same thing w/ my Enermax Noisetaker 600... which was the reason I got this one! My ps label was also all bubbled up.. not a big deal though.. I just peeled it off. Also.. the fast release clips on the molex connectors are ok... unless you have an ATI card with the connector flipped upside down.. then the plug won't go in since the clip hits the top of the card. also not a big deal anymore since I got my 7800GT.
 
jonnyGURU said:
No. Incorrect.

The Skyhawks you see in cases are Deer-ish, but the modular series are completely different.
Click to expand...

Was that a UL file number I see in the pics of the CompUSA? Where does that trace to?

I'm not terribly impressed with the build quality in these Skyhawks (I'd be interested to see how well the caps in there are still suppressing ripple after a few months of use), but they are better than Deer.
 
The UL number pulls up Skyhawk. So there's no real telling who actually makes the PSU since I highly doubt that Skyhawk has an actual manufacturing facility.

The noise/ripple on the CompUSA is actually very good. It was a very smooth line all of the way across the O-scope. Not as smooth as the Liberty, but smoother than the Topower or CWT's. The voltages held very tight and the efficiency was really good.

It's been a while since I've seen a Skyhawk PSU. I noticed the modular units on their website and could immediately tell the construction was completely different then previous models.

The caps were small, though (pair of 1000's or less, if I remember correctly.) And generic. And as you can see from the review; the biggest complaint is the power distribution. Same problem the early TT 480W's suffer.
 
Yeah, these don't even look like high end Deer (Allied) to me. Ah well, the hunt for the OEM continues I guess.

What worried me even more than possibly crap caps and the load distribution was the fan not coming on sooner - kind of a risky gamble IMO considering normal ATX orientation has the PCB on top and the heatsinks pointing downward. Until the fan comes on, heat would just sit there cooking the components. Doesn't exactly promise a long lifespan methinks.
 
Oklahoma Wolf said:
Yeah, these don't even look like high end Deer (Allied) to me. Ah well, the hunt for the OEM continues I guess.

What worried me even more than possibly crap caps and the load distribution was the fan not coming on sooner - kind of a risky gamble IMO considering normal ATX orientation has the PCB on top and the heatsinks pointing downward. Until the fan comes on, heat would just sit there cooking the components. Doesn't exactly promise a long lifespan methinks.
Click to expand...

No doubt scared the hell out of me. I'm sure you could imagine. I mean, I'm throwing a 300W load at these things all in one shot and they start putting out heat IMMEDIATELY. If I have one that's humming along with a 300W load on it and the fans aren't spinning, I get nervous. ;)
 
The distributor that furnishes CompUSA with its house brand products told me that their suppliers changed about every week, and during that particular week they were shipping Win-tact PSUs (really good -- provides assemblies to PCP&C's), while the CompUSA brand PSUs at the local store at the time were Powmax (not nearly as bad as today's; made by Leadmans & with hefty heatsinks) and some other make.
 
larrymoencurly said:
The distributor that furnishes CompUSA with its house brand products told me that their suppliers changed about every week, and during that particular week they were shipping Win-tact PSUs (really good -- provides assemblies to PCP&C's), while the CompUSA brand PSUs at the local store at the time were Powmax (not nearly as bad as today's; made by Leadmans & with hefty heatsinks) and some other make.
Click to expand...

That's true of the low end power supplies FMI furnishes CompUSA with, but not the modular 520W.

The lower end models do not have any features that would differentiate going from one source to the next. But the modular 520W would have to remain consistant for it to keep the same SKU. If they changed sources, something would change: Finish, the LED in the fan, the amperage on one of the rails, etc. They'd have to create a new SKU. Otherwise it would complicate purchasing, RMA and inventory. And they won't create a new SKU because adding yet another SKU to their catalog would complicate purchasing, RMA and inventory.

It's much easier and initially cheaper for FMI to go, "here's a power supply being sold under the Skyhawk brand that we can sell under the MasterPower brand" then it would be to take the power supply to another factory and tell them "we need this power supply to be built just like this one, but we understand you guys could do it for $5 less per unit." because the start up cost would be somewhere around 1/4 million and that's just too much money to invest into a $99 PSU, with a 400% markup going from FMI to CompUSA to the end user, that's going to be completely obsolete in under two years. They'd opt for the "new factory/new SKU" option instead... if they had to.

But in reality, they'd actually opt for sticking with the one factory because they never know when CompUSA may just decide to stop ordering up that model. They do it all of the time. That's why ASI had to lay off a couple dozen people last year. :( CompUSA decided they didn't want to SKU up the rebadged nSpire builds they were doing for them anymore.
 
lw3d said:
Where would the Ultra X - Finity 500 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1273337&Sku=ULT31845 fit in your ranking

It is $5 less than a Enermax Liberty 400 :)
Click to expand...

One's modular, one isn't.

lw3d said:
Since you have contacts at TD, have you ever worked with this case http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1178031&Tab=11&NoMapp=0 - Is it worth the money :)
Click to expand...

Although the guy that I know at Tiger does their power supplies and also happens to do their cases, I've never had the inclination to sit down with him and talk cases. ;) Not sub-$100, at least.
 
It did really well when I reviewed it for SLCentral and I actually kept the 500W unit for myself (I'm having a sense of deja vu here.)

I can't give you a direct comparison though, because I haven't put it through the same testing methodology as the Enermax. I also didn't have the O-scope back then. And I don't feel like yanking the unit out of my PC to test it. But if you want my opinion, I think it's a very good power supply, almost as good as the Enermax.
 
Blogger.com is down or I'd update my site...

I built an Aspire X-Qpack for a guy today. The Aspire 420W looked like a quality unit and the specs looked good. They even listed 420W total output and 450W max as if it could really do 420W.... so I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

Let's just say the results were so entertaining that I'm bumping the TT TR2 reviews in favor of a quick write up. I should have it up this weekend.

Let's just say... it did better than the Powmax. ;)
 
jonnyGURU said:
Blogger.com is down or I'd update my site...

I built an Aspire X-Qpack for a guy today. The Aspire 420W looked like a quality unit and the specs looked good. They even listed 420W total output and 450W max as if it could really do 420W.... so I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

Let's just say the results were so entertaining that I'm bumping the TT TR2 reviews in favor of a quick write up. I should have it up this weekend.

Let's just say... it did better than the Powmax. ;)
Click to expand...

Interesting I have had several Q's about that PSU that I couldn't give a good answer for because i couldn't get a UL number to even establish who made it.
 
Let's just say... it did better than the Powmax.
Click to expand...
jonny, it is bad enough top have you posting good things about TT's & Ultras,
but even you can't sat say anything good about Aspires. :p
 
davidhammock200 said:
jonny, it is bad enough top have you posting good things about TT's & Ultras,
but even you can't sat say anything good about Aspires. :p
Click to expand...

Well a gerbel in a box would be better than a Powmax
 
Dead quadriplegic gerbel with a skin condition!

No.. the PSU suffers the same symtom as all of the other Aspire power supplies. You know how the 55W is only 550W at +/- 10% and that it really should've only been a 450? This little guy should've only been labeled a 300W. Not a 420W. I can't figure out how they even got the 420W rating, never mind the 450W maximum wattage rating.

I could only get the PSU up to 300W. Anything more would trip the PSU. At least the PSU tripped instead of just dying all together like the Powmax did! But any time I tried to put more than 8A and 8A on the two 12V rails, two rails supposedly rated at 14A and 16A, it would kick itself off.

I don't have my notepad in front of me, but the voltages at 8A and 8A were horrible too. WAY out of spec.

The only rails I could max out were the 3.3V and 5V combined. And even then I could only do that with 4A on 12V1 and 0 on 12V2. So I still wasn't exceeding 300W.

Pretty sad really. I'll have everything up by Monday morning.
 
_Korruption_ said:
You're being too nice with the XQPack 420W ;)
Click to expand...

You're being sarcastic, right? ;)

Acidzerocool said:
JonnyGuru What would u think of this PSU??? http://www.ultraproducts.com/product_details.php?cPath=37&pPath=157&productID=160

And i know its 20pin so will a 20 to 24pin adapter be ok? I'm also only paying 50 bucks for the PSU in its brand new sealed condition

Here is my system specs:
AMD 64 3000+ Venice
Gigabyte k8nf-9
x600xt PCI-E
NEC 3550A DVD burner
kingston BH-5 RAM KHX3200K2/1G 2 X 512
Seagate Baraccuda 200GB SATA HD
Click to expand...

Adapters suck. Don't get an adapter.

If you get that PSU, get the actual 24-pin cable from Performance-PC's.

And because that PSU has had mixed results depending on the batch it came from, make sure you register your PSU for the lifetime warranty.
 
Thermaltake TR2-500W review uploaded!

http://www.jonnyguru.com/PSU/TR2500W/Thermaltake.html

It's a nice power supply for the money. One thing I need to suggest when shopping for these: Make SURE you get what you pay for. This power supply comes in two flavors: Active PFC and non-PFC. Both models use the same box and the box says "PFC" no matter what. On the side, they're supposed to check W0093 for PFC and W0094 for non-PFC. Mine was checked as a W0093 PFC model, but the model I received had no PFC!
 
Actually it does have PFC of the passive variety - that's what that huge extra coil is next to the main filter caps. Cool review - looks like a decent PSU.
 
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