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 4W as measured by our wall meter unit -- indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is excellent. It ties with the SilverStone Strider Titanium ST80F-TI 800W for the lowest we have ever seen. Independent reviews from websites with professional load testing equipment showed the XPG Core Reactor 750W delivered very good efficiency, voltage regulation, and ripple across all rails. This is an 80 Plus Gold certified power supply.
Voltages with minimal load are generally accurate, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. In this situation all are all within 2%. The PG (Power Good) delay is very good compared to old power supplies and within the specification of new models of 170ms.
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 XPG Core Reactor 750W has active PFC, and the power factor will approach 0.99 with a nominal load.
The XPG Core Reactor 750W is a very quiet power supply. Under regular loads up to 60%, the 750W Core Reactor is very low noise. Personally, I found the HA1225H12F-Z to be pretty good, except you can definitely hear some coarseness in the motor noise at higher speeds. While this is very subjective, I am quite a picky person on noise. On a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the XPG Core Reactor 750W to be at 1.5/10 acoustically under nominal loads, because the fan spins really slowly. The fan is out of the way to approximately 70% of its maximum speed, but it will become exponentially more audible when it kicks in. If you are a silent PC enthusiast, the XPG Core Reactor 750W is a respectable choice thanks to XPG's good fan curve profile, but the fan motor's smoothness may bother the pickiest.
XPG provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
The Core Reactor 750W may be XPG's first foray into the power supply market, but this product shows us it does not take more than one try to get things right if you partner with the right people and do your research ahead of time. Crack it open, and you will find out it is built by Channel Well Technology with a good selection of internal components. It is compliant with the latest ATX specifications with a short PG time and, according to others with professional load testing equipment, has mostly delivered in performance. Power the Core Reactor on and you got a fluid dynamic bearing fan with a well-programmed fan profile for quiet operation. Its 15cm deep enclosure will ensure a good fit in almost cases. Combine all this with a 10-year warranty, the XPG Core Reactor 750W is no doubt a good buy for about $120 at press time.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
