Power Supply Unit Testing Methodology

At VR-Zone.com, we continuously strive to provide you with the highest quality and most accurate product reviews. Thoroughly and accurately testing a power supply is a complicated matter, not only because the testing has to be done in a controlled environment and with full control over the power load but also because laboratory grade instruments have to be used for taking readings. In order to achieve that, we designed a specialized testing station for computer power supplies, emulating real world conditions as closely as possible while giving us complete control over environmental and / or power load aspects, all while taking readings and recordings through laboratory interfaces and high accuracy instruments.

In order to create a real-world environment for our testing, we decided to modify and use a common SECC steel tower case for housing the power supplies during our testing. We installed three Watlow Firerods inside the case, rated at 500W power each, the output of which is being controlled by a common AC rheostat. The stock rheostat and its axle have been replaced with a multi-turn precision rheostat for accuracy, driven by a DC motor with a modified speed control circuit which is controlled by our CompuLAB interface and custom software. In layman’s terms, we only have to enter our desired ambient temperature in our software and it automatically adjusts the power of the Firerods to match it throughout our testing.

Main PT100 sensor and a 500W Firerod installed

Rheostat control