HEC ACE Power 480W Power Supply

Performance Summary & Final Conclusions:

The ACE Power 480 gives surprisingly good performance for its value. Voltages stayed very close to nominal values and efficiency hovered around 78-80% under most conditions. Even under full load conditions the dual 80mm fans stayed relatively quiet. After all the performance figures are taken into consideration, there is yet more goodness in that all the cables have black mesh sleeving!

There was a slight oddity during testing however, I was unable to get the power supply to shutdown from an over-current condition. Instead the voltage would continually drop as more load was added, and the current going into the PSU would never exceed a certain amount. In theory, the PSU should send a signal along the PWR_OK wire to the motherboard which in turn should shutdown the system, or once the voltage drops too low the PC would lock up. Keep in mind that these are load levels beyond what the PSU is rated for, it is highly unlikely that any PC user would reach that kind of sustained load unintentionally. Bottom line, I don't consider it a "problem", just something "odd", at no time did the PSU suffer any sort of catastrophic failure.

I would have liked to have seen some ventilation slots along the bottom (or "top" depending on how you look at it) of the power supply, so that hot air from the CPU can have a more direct exhaust path.

With a MSRP of $69.95, the ACE Power 480UB is competitively priced. The cable sleeving is something that not all power supplies offer, especially in this price range, so it is kind of bonus.