Mushkin's XP-800AP 800W
Another memory maker dips in

With fellow memory makers Corsair and OCZ already knee-deep in the power supply market, it's only fitting that Mushkin has decided to get its feet wet, as well. The company's power supply lineup consists of five models, capped by the flagship XP-800AP. At just under $170 online, the XP-800AP is the priciest PSU in this comparo, and with 800 watts at its disposal, it's also one of the most powerful. Mushkin hasn't skimped in the warranty department, either; the XP-800AP is covered for five years.

Of course, we'd expect a beefy output rating and lengthy warranty from a high-end PSU like the XP-800AP—that's par for the course. But Mushkin didn't set out to build just another me-too PSU. The company has taken a slightly different approach with the XP-800AP, allowing users choose whether to feed 12V output through a massive single rail or spread it evenly across four voltage lines.

The debate over whether 12V power is best provided through a single rail or multiple lines has raged on for a while now, with PC Power & Cooling championing the former while much of the rest of the market rallies around the latter. Mushkin lets you choose sides via a simple toggle switch at the back of the PSU, and you can switch teams whenever you'd like. It's a neat trick, but based on our own testing, there doesn't seem to be much of a performance difference between the two modes. All the results you'll see for the XP-800AP were collected with the PSU configured in single-rail mode.

While the XP-800AP's 12V toggle is certainly a novel feature, Mushkin's approach to the rest of the PSU is a little more conventional. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. A big 140mm fan keeps things cool, and there's little to restrict airflow at the rear. Mushkin's taken the modular path, too, which means your case won't be cluttered up with a bundle of unused cabling.

Full sheathing keeps the cables you do use nice and tidy. I suppose the sheathing also has some aesthetic appeal, preventing a mess of red, and yellow wires from disrupting the XP-800AP's otherwise reserved black and grey attire.

The XP-800AP's DC voltages look good, with even the most extreme deviations within 2% of the target voltage.

Ripple looks to be a little more problematic for Mushkin, with AC content increasing as our test load scales up to 100%. We're still looking at less than 22 millivolts at worst, though, and that's quite reasonable.

The XP-800AP's efficiency is more of a concern. Everything looks good under 25 and 50% loads, where the unit largely lives up to Mushkin's efficiency claims. However, efficiency continues to drop as we push harder, bottoming out at just over 76%.