PC Power and Cooling 510W ATX with External Potentiometers

Company: PC Power and Cooling
Product: Turbo-Cool 510 ATX
Street Price: ~$200 USD
Date Reviewed: March 25, 2003
Reviewed By: Joey C. aka Chong345
Rating: (9.3/10)

Testing:

To test the system we take reading directly off of the back of the power supply. This way is much more accurate than software readings because software can be influenced by the motherboard. There are resistance within the motherboard that can change what the rails significantly. Testing directly off the 20-pin is overall the best way to determine the “true” rails coming from the power source. Here is a helpful article explaining why we test this way, some pictures of how to take voltage readings, and how to choose a power supply.

We take 2 sets of readings, one at idle and one at load. Idle is determined by measuring the rails while the PC is not doing anything. No applications or any other program is run during this period. We take the lowest and the highest reading also monitoring for fluctuations and how erratic they are. Then we repeat this same process at load which is simulate by running Prime 95.

The reason for running one test at idle and load is because some power supplies struggle at load due to the higher power demands by the rest of the system. Overall the load readings are more important than the idle but comparing the two shows how well the power supply performs.

Our test system was set to stock speeds and BIOS optimized defaults.

This power supply did excellent from our testing. The rails did not fluctuate at all during idle or load. The Fluke Digital Multimeter can read out accurately to a hundredth of a volt. In our testing the numbers just stayed the same the whole time. There was zero fluctuation on all of the rails. This is pretty amazing because most power supplies show a little fluctuation from idle to load.

The external pots are easy to adjust. They are not very sensitive which is a good thing because it allows for more precise tuning. They are big and easy to handle. Our motherboards voltages were a little low so we used the pots to up the rails a little. It was very easy to do especially since we did not have to power down and we used real-time readings in the BIOS for tweaking the rails. This is a great feature for the overclockers.

The one complaint about this power supply is the loud fan that is uses. It is not very quiet at all but we are also running our testing machine outside of a case. It might be quieter inside of a case but for some it might be too noisy.