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RaidMax RX-520XPW


Date
: 11/3/04 – 05:47:33 AM

Author
:

Category
: Power Supplies

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer:
Raidmax

Price:
NA

Power supplies are typically the most overlooked piece of hardware in a users system. For overclockers and enthusiasts alike, a power supply can be the difference between more megahertz and stability. With more powererful processors and GPUs continuously coming, the importance of a high wattage, quality power supply becomes even more present.

Thankfully, as with most technologies, power supplies are improving and the cost for what use to be considered a high output model is going down. We are now at a point where the upper echelon of power supplies are outputitng up to 600 watts of power. Today, we look at the
Raidmax RX-520XPW
; a 520 watt unit.

Page 2 : Package

The power supply came shipped straight from Raidmax without any courier damage. The retail packaging, shown below, displays model information (not entirely correct on the box as it is in fact a RX-520XPW inside) and features/specifications along the sides in English, German, and Japanesse languages.

Inside that box are the power supply, power cable, a 24-pin to 20-pin ATX adapter, manual, and a small collection of screws and two zip ties. The RX-520XPW features windows and LED fans which the RX-520XP does not have, but sacrifices one cooling fan in the process. The power supply comes with a slick Titanium finish that you can see yourself in.

The power supply has a large array of rails and connectors. It features Serial-ATA, 4-pin and 3-pin molex, 4-pin and 8-pin power, 24-pin ATX, shielded 4-pin molex, and fan cables. Such a large bundle of wires could certainly benefit from modularity.

The front and back of the power supply both feature an 80mm blue LED fan. The front of the power supply has some venting slots while the back of the power supply has a power connector, rocker switch, 110/220V switch, and auxiliary power connector that switches on/off with the power supply – great for those with external components such as pumps, external disk drives, speakers, etc.

The bottom and sides of the power supply bear only a blue tinted window.

The top is where we find the specification sticker that lists the output currents and power for the given voltage rails. From this angle you can also see that the sleeved cables extend into the power supplies enclosure; this is what's preferred.

Inside we see the caps, inductors, and other components making up this power supply. From a different angle we can see that the fans are made by Power Cooler and are sleeve bearing. These fans are rated for 2000 rpm and 20.3 dBA and are dynamically controlled by the power supplies internals depending on temperature.

Page 3 : Specifications

Gathered from the Raidmax website, manual, and package are these specifications:

Many features find their way into this power supply. To be honest, I was overwhelmed with the amount of filtering and sheer quality this power supply was built to include. The shielded cables reduce interference while Ferrite cores on both the VGA/HDD and power cable have been put in place to reduce current noise.

Aside from the various power and cooling technologies that adjust in use, once you shut down the system the designated fan rails and the power supply's internal fans remain on for three additional minutes.

Page 4 : Installation

Installing a power supply is a short and simple procedure. The manual covers the process in 11 steps and in five languages (English, German, French, Spanish, and Japanesse from what I could tell). Putting in the power supply, connecting all the cables that are necessary, and powering the computer on is quite all there is to it. The final specifications of the system it was installed into are shown below.

System Specs:
AMD Athlon MP 1800+ Processor
512 GB Corsair PC3200 CAS 2.5 DDR RAM
Seagate 120 GB 7200 RPM 8 MB Hard Drive
Maxtor 60 GB 7200 RPM 2 MB Hard Drive
Western Digital 60 GB 7200 RPM 2 MB Hard Drive
Western Digital 80 GB 7200 RPM 2 MB Hard Drive
Gigabyte GA-7DPXDW-P Motherboard
ATi Radeon 9700 Pro
Zalman ZM80D-HP GPU Cooler
LiteON SOHW-1633S
Philips PSC724 Ultimate Edge
SilverStone SST-TJ06 Temjin 6

Raidmax RX-520XPW 520W Power Supply

Along with these components, two 120mm and one 80mm case fans were connected to the fan rails. Overall the load supplied by all these components should be an ample representation of an average readers system. The excess hard drives were put on there to put even more demand on the 12V rail as Athlon systems tend to put more load on the 3.3V rail whereas Pentium 4 based systems rely heavily on the 12V rail. Further, many high end GPUs and even the Radeon 9700 Pro installed into this system draw a lot of their power from the 12V rail.

Page 5 : Testing

With the components making up the test system out of the way let me explain the test methods. A digital multimeter was used to collect the readings on the +3.3, +5, and +12V rails over a period of 25 seconds during a load period of 6 hours with a 10 mV precision. The system load procedure consisted of running Folding@Home and RC5 clients. To collect idle readings the same procedure was followed with an idle period of 6 hours. And the results…

The idle results deviated little from what the load's were, showing great strength. The results of both idle and load situations were quite good with near all readings within a few percentage points of their ideal values. All rails remained slightly above their ideal values.

Page 6 : Conclusion

To be honest, 520 watts of power is more than most people need. With the scare caused by nVidia's initial power requirements many people realized the value of a quality made power supply. What we have here is both a high quality power supply and a high output power supply that gives the owner a lot of features that deliver clean signals and lots of versatility. All voltage rails remained at a great levels throughout usage. The strong 12V line this power supply has especially makes it a great candidate for Intel overclockers and systems with lots of extra drives.

Overall, the performance of this power supply is solid and my confidence in the build quality and the internal components justify the current high price of this product. If moneys not a problem, I recommend it for those users out there who feel safe knowing their power supply won't be holding them back in the future and those that put a high demand on their system with a high-end GPU, extra storage, and overclocking.

Advantages

Excellent looks and finish
Quite operation
Filtered rails and EMI sheilding
Lots of output power
Great performance
Solid choice for the overclocker

Disadvantages

Not modular
Expensive

Thanks to RaidMax for making this review possible.