Page 4 - Minor Tests and Conclusion
Power supplies are interesting products, because often, reviews of products in this category are conducted and tested in methods that make it difficult to distinguish one power supply from another. Many aspects must be taken into consideration. Certain criteria consist of efficiency, noise, power ripples, and of course the ability to pull out the rated specifications. Because many cannot afford such equipment to obtain results regarding those aspects, articles covering power supplies often come out with less than adequate and acceptable information. As this is a product report -- not a review -- what we are doing is a close examination of the power supply and the internal hardware and build. But what we can do for you is do some minor testing with the results we can present to you with and let other review sites with professional equipment show you the actual test results. We are not going to try to create useless test results by installing the power supply into the latest gaming rig and try to take readings from that, as this is not even remotely the correct way to test power supply units. We understand that many websites do that as a means of load testing, but the results, even if you use an oscilloscope and multimeter at each output location, it is not sufficient, nor does it accurately reflect the performance of the power supply.
Using our power supply tester which exerts minimal load on the power supply, the initial consumption was 7.4W as measured by our wall meter unit, indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is very good. Unfortunately, as mentioned on Page 2, there have been no independent sources with professional load testing equipment to accurately verify the efficiency or capabilities of the GAMDIAS HELIOS P2-750G 750W. This power supply was not tested nor certified by Cybenetics, and we were not able to verify the validity of its 80 Plus Gold certification either.
Voltages with minimal load are within 2% of the expected voltage, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. This power supply is ATX 3.0 compliant and officially supports Alternative Sleep Mode with 100 to 150ms PG specifications, and this is indicative of the 120ms power good signal. The ATX design specifications state a PSU's PG is required to be between 100ms and 500ms, with 250ms maximum for Non-Alternative Sleep Mode and 150ms for Alternative Sleep Mode.
Active power correction is important to correct AC load line loss. In AC power, there are three components to it, as there is a phase difference between current and voltage. This makes up the power triangle, which consists of the following: Average usable power (P, measured in watts), reactive power (Q, denoted as VA-R), and total power (S, written as VA). While they all have the same physical units, it is not the same thing as aforementioned. What we want is the average usable power with as little wasted reactive power as possible. The total power provided over the AC line is the magnitude of the two combined (sqrt(P^2+Q^2)). Power factor can then be easily calculated by P divided by S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. The GAMDIAS HELIOS P2-750G 750W has active PFC, and the power factor will approach 0.99 with a nominal load.
The GAMDIAS HELIOS P2-750G 750W is an average power supply when it comes to noise. This unit does not have a Cybenetics LAMBDA rating for noise. Under nominal loads, the Poweryear PY-1225M12S fan does not spin too loudly. However, this picks up under moderate loads. On a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the GAMDIAS HELIOS P2-750G 750W at 4.0/10 under moderate loads.
GAMDIAS provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
While certifications are not the be-all and end-all for power supplies, they are the starting place for validation and setting expectations. In the case of the GAMDIAS HELIOS P2-750G 750W, it was not tested nor certified by Cybenetics, and we were unable to verify the validity of its 80 Plus Gold certification. Looking at the unit, the internal components are very economical. Unfortunately, there were contradictory claims between the product page and our inspections, including the topology, capacitors, and the fan. Furthermore, the cables are quite short for a regular ATX-sized unit. The final nail in the coffin is an unadvertised warranty length. Most manufacturers would want to share this freely to ease any concerns, but GAMDIAS has not. All of these points leave me with more questions than answers. At the time of this article, the GAMDIAS HELIOS P2-750G 750W is priced at $100. I think budget power supplies could have a place in the market, but at this price, there are numerous better options. Even if it was cheaper, I think the GAMDIAS HELIOS P2-750G 750W has more egregious issues than its price.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
