Soyo Raptor SY-PS400 Adjustable Switching Power Supply

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian
Soyo
Aug. 1, 2004

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Testing

The test system we used to test the Raptor consisted of:

DFI LanParty NF2U
AMD Athlon 1700+
2x 512MB corsair pc3200
ATI Radeon 9800 XT
SI PCI SATA controller
PCI wireless G network card
2x 160GB Seagate SATA
200GB Maxtor DiamondMax plus 9
16x DVD/CD/CDRW combo drive
2x 80mm fans

Idle testing was done in windows with no applications running. Load testing was done after running Prime95 and PCMark04 for 30 minutes. The stand-alone test was done with power supply not connected to the computer. All voltages were taken with a multimeter.

PSU Test	3.3V Rail	5V Rail	12V Rail
Stand-Alone	3.4	5.3	11.6
Idle	3.4 - 3.5	5.2	11.9
Load	3.5	5.2	11.9

RE-Test	3.3V Rail	5V Rail	12V Rail
Stand-Alone	3.4	5.3	11.6
Idle	3.4	5.2	11.9
Load	3.4	5.2	11.9

During idle and load conditions, the 12V deviated less than 1% from the intended 12V (11.9V). The 5V rail deviated an acceptable amount, 4%, while idle and while under load (5.2V). However, the 3.3V rail deviated over 6% during idle and load (3.5V). Now, a 6% deviation is outside the accepted 5%, but you must take into consideration that we had room to bring down the 3.3V rail's voltage. Had the LCD readout on the bay device been accurate, I wouldn't have had to re-test it. I adjusted the 3.3v pot, and brought the voltage down to what the display claimed as 3.24 volts. Using our multimeter, the 3.3v rail was actually sitting around 3.4v during both idle and load tests. This 3% voltage deviation is better than the original 6%.

Computer power supplies aren't intended to run by themselves, but we decided to test it anyway. Here, the 5v rail hits 5.3 volts; a 6% deviation. The 3.3v and 12v rails do stay within a 5% margin. The results displayed in the stand alone test shouldn't affect your purchasing decision unless you intend to run the power supply without being connected to a computer.

Some things to note are that when adjusting the rails I could only get the 5.0V rail down to 5.05V. The 3.3V rail was actually able to go all the way down to 3.30 as it should. I also noticed a discrepancy between the actual voltage of the rails and what the LCD displayed. What I found, with the help of a multimeter, is that what the LCD displays is not always correct. During the idle test for example, the LCD claimed the 5.0V rail was at 5.05V and the 3.3V rail at 3.30V and during the load test it claimed the 5.0V rail was at 5.07V and the 3.3V rail was at 3.31V. Meanwhile, our stand-alone test showed the rails at 5.13V and 3.30V respectively. What this means is that the readout on the bay device is not entirely accurate, but the good news is that there is an over-voltage warning LED for both rails.

Also, the numbers around the knobs for controlling the rails may show one thing and the device may readout something else, but with our multimeter we found that at least the knobs are correct.

Lastly, I'd like to talk about the noise this power supply produces. The fact that it's got a 120mm fan got me thinking it would be extremely quiet. You would think that the benefit of using a 120mm fan would be the ability to use it at much lower speeds while maintaining a decent CFM. However, it produces a level of noise comparable to an average audible 80mm case fan. The noise it produces is not unbearable by any means, but it would have been great if it was a little more on the quiet side. If you're looking for an absolutely quiet power supply, you may want to look at power supplies geared towards silence such as Zalman's "Noiseless" power supply which Brian took a look at back in April.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: A Closer Look & Internals
Page 3: Internals
Page 4: Testing
Page 5: Conclusion

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1 User Comment

1 - Posted by Brian on August 2, 2004 - 11:57 pm

I have this power supply in my computer temporarily. Works great but a little loud for my tastes. The Voltage display is nice, and the bay doesn't really bother me since I have plenty of room for it right now. However, the computer I am using right now is just a temp while I work on my mod. Then I'm switching over to a 400W Zalman.

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