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, are not sufficient, nor does it accurately reflect the performance of the power supply.
Using our power supply tester that exerts minimal load on the power supply, initial consumption was 11.2W as measured by our wall meter, indicating the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is good. Independent sources with professional load testing equipment showed the SAMA G1000 1000W delivered good efficiency and ripple suppression for its class, but voltage regulation for minor rails has room for improvement. This power supply unit has 80 Plus Gold and Cybenetics ETA Platinum ratings.
Voltages with minimal load are accurate, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. The Power Good or PG delay is tested at 310ms. Even though my tester is quick enough for ATX 3.1 compliant PSUs, this could have been an error, as others were able to verify their claims. This power supply is ATX 3.1 compliant and officially supports Alternative Sleep Mode with 100 to 150ms PG specifications. 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 since 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 these are all power measurements, they cannot be considered as one thing. 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 now be easily calculated as P/S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where APFC comes in. The SAMA G1000 1000W has APFC, which means the power factor will approach 0.99 with a nominal load.
The cooling fan in the SAMA G1000 1000W power supply unit can run in active mode or semi-passive mode, depending on user preference. Using the APH Networks noise scale that defines 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate this power supply unit as 3.5/10 acoustically under normal loads when the fan is on, and 0.0/10 when it is off. The fan is designed to remain off until the PSU is loaded up to approximately 400W or 55c, whichever comes first. This PSU is rated at Cybenetics LAMBDA Standard++ for noise. If you are a silent PC enthusiast, the SAMA G1000 1000W is a respectable choice.
SAMA provided this product to APH Networks for the purposes of evaluation.
The SAMA G1000 1000W is a compact, decently engineered, semi-passive, and fully modular power supply unit. Its internal layout is well-optimized for an ATX unit, and the build quality is good. The inclusion of quality capacitors, including the Japanese brand Rubycon bulk capacitor and Infineon DC-to-DC converters, further enhances confidence in its reliability and longevity. Additionally, the 5-year warranty is acceptable, especially considering that this is a budget PSU. There are still lots of Chinese brand parts in there that we do not know much about their long term reliability, but time will tell. The PSU delivers good overall performance according to independent sources with professional test equipment. At the time of this review, the unit is priced at $105 USD, which seems reasonable for what you get.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
