Our testing methods
Testing was conducted in two parts. First, PSUs were run in the system detailed below for a series of power draw, temperature, and noise level tests. They were then hooked up to The Beast to test power delivery and overall efficiency.
All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged.
| Processor | Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz |
| System bus | HyperTransport 16-bit/1GHz |
| Motherboard | Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition |
| Bios revision | 0906 |
| North bridge | nForce 590 SLI SPP |
| South bridge | nForce 590 SLI MCP |
| Chipset drivers | ForceWare 9.35 |
| Memory size | 1GB (2 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | Corsair CM2X512A-5400UL DDR2 SDRAM at 742MHz |
| CAS latency (CL) | 5 |
| RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) | 5 |
| RAS precharge (tRP) | 5 |
| Cycle time (tRAS) | 12 |
| Audio codec | Integrated nForce 590 SLI/AD1988B with 5.10.1.4530 drivers |
| Graphics | 2 x GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB with ForceWare 162.18 drivers |
| Hard drives | 2 x Western Digital Caviar RE2 400GB SATA |
| OS | Windows XP Professional |
| OS updates | Service Pack 2 |
We used the following versions of our test applications:
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 1.1
- Intel IOMeter v2004.07.30
- Prime95 v24
The test systems' Windows desktop was set at 1280x1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.
All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.
