Mushkin ATX12V 550W Power Supply

Arturo · Post by **Arturo** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:33 pm

85 USA bucks with a modular cable system and SLI support. Has anyone tried it?

Post by **MikeC** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:29 pm

We have a 650W model that's just being pulled off the test bench... without the tests being completed. It's simply way too noisy and way too inefficient.

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:58 am

Filling out some details ... 54% efficient at 40W. 36 dBA@1m at the same level. That tells you everything you need to know.

Oleg Artamonov · Post by **Oleg Artamonov** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 4:43 am

Arturo wrote:85 USA bucks with a modular cable system and SLI support. Has anyone tried it?

Made by Topower, so you can search for Topower tests (OCZ ModStream and PowerStream, Topower itself and so on).

BTW, I've tested Mushkin XP-650. Very good voltage stabilization (independent stabilization on +12V, +5V and +3,3V rails using mag-amps), good build quality, average quietness (two 80 mm fans, speed from 1800 to 2600 rpm depending on output load). Cables are way too rigid (2 isolating layers and shielding), it may be hard to place them in a small PC cases. Detailed review will be ready in a month or so (xbitlabs.com)...

Oleg Artamonov · Post by **Oleg Artamonov** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 4:54 am

Devonavar wrote:Filling out some details ... 54% efficient at 40W. 36 dBA@1m at the same level. That tells you everything you need to know.

Hmmm... Just processed my data. Mushkin XP-650 -- 57% efficiency at 51W load, 75% at 150W, 79% at higher loads (up to 630W). You're right, not very impressive

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:41 am

Wow, it used to be that PSU's with ~80% efficiency at 150W+ were considered pretty stellar, and now they are the dog's breakfast? How times change....

Post by **MikeC** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:03 am

jaganath wrote:Wow, it used to be that PSU's with ~80% efficiency at 150W+ were considered pretty stellar, and now they are the dog's breakfast? How times change....

Standards have risen. Our sample was ~74% at 150W, which is poor in comparison to most of the recommended PSUs SPCR has reviewed in the past 1.5-2 years. Also, the 36 dBA @ 1m default is simply unacceptable, especially when the price is ~$200.

Oleg Artamonov · Post by **Oleg Artamonov** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:37 am

jaganath wrote:Wow, it used to be that PSU's with ~80% efficiency at 150W+ were considered pretty stellar, and now they are the dog's breakfast? How times change....

Recommended efficiency for the ATX12V 2.2 power supply is 75% at light load (20% of full load or 130W for the 650W PSU), 80% at typical load (50%) and 77% at full load. As you can see, XP-650 doesn't comply with this.

continuum · Post by **continuum** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 10:11 am

Woah, very good to know. Looks like I'll quickly shoot down any thoughts of recommending these...

larrymoencurly · Post by **larrymoencurly** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 8:13 am

What the heck is Mushkin's "Rail Fusion", and how does it differ from simply having a single rail?

vitaminc · Post by **vitaminc** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:51 am

Its ludacris how the PSU makers are trying to market their products akin to the MHz era of CPUs, especially when typical system now only requires 300W or less.

nici · Post by **nici** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 5:35 pm

Yeah well, the purpose of a company is making money, and selling product that lots of people want is a good way to do that. Right now many people want a 600W+ PSU, so that's what they sell. Now if you sell bad products you might not be in business for too long, but that's another thing altogheter.

I have no idea what Mushkin was thinking about with this one though, ToPower is capable of making good PSUs, they make PSUs to order with pretty much any feature and fan configuration you want, and some manufacturers order better configs than others.. Now having no PFC or passive PFC and effienecy this low causing way too much heat and that way a need for fast fans is unacceptabel for a PSU this expensive.. Im really looking forward t the be quiet PSU reviews by SPCR to see how they work, according to reviews and my experience with three samples they are very quiet and work great. All have been based on ToPowers most recent designs at time of purchase, this Mushkin is clearly not, or then it's based on some experiment gone bad..

freecover · Post by **freecover** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 12:53 pm

http://www.jonnyguru.com/PSU/HP-550/

This psu looks to be junk. Here are some "highlights" from the review-

"Just when you thought it could get worse... the crossload tests cometh! With a 3A load on the 3.3V rail and a 4A load on the 5V rail and 14A on each 12V rail (all within specification) the 12V dropped to 11.24V! It took taking the 3.3V up to 5A and the 5V up to 8A to get the 12V rail back up to 11.40V."

"The crossload shows that a computer with a minimal load on the 3.3V and/or 5V rails is going to wreak havoc on the 12V rails and the excessive ripple on the 12V line makes me contemplate potential long term effects on peripherals."

LOL

Based on this review, the spec sheet they sent over to Topower was-

"Well, we need a 550 watter....so Must put out 550 watts."

"Must be modular."

"Must be extremely stable on 3.3v."

"Oh, and lets give it a pretty little green lighting scheme..."

Maybe they trusted thier Topower sales rep a little too much to take care of the rest...

As a buyer, seeing a product like this seems to indicate a limited knowledge real world PSU requirements; and a high level of ignorance about what's really going on with psu's and enthusiasts these days. Like nici said, everyone wants a 600w psu these days and maybe that's the only trumpet loud enough for the folks at Mushkin to hear when it comes to selling points...which is really sad considering they market thier ram to enthusiasts, who generally do thier research before buying.

Well, maybe they are marketing to the idiots out there who buy video cards based solely on how much ram they have...

Also, If I'm not mistaken, the 2 psu's discussed in this thread are thier first foray into the PSU world. Nice. They should know better.

Oklahoma Wolf · Post by **Oklahoma Wolf** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 1:57 pm

larrymoencurly wrote:What the heck is Mushkin's "Rail Fusion", and how does it differ from simply having a single rail?

Rail Fusion bothers me - from what I have been able to determine, Topower just omitted independant protection for each 12v and is pretty much selling that as a "feature." The rails are still virtually split, but with no independant protection there's no real point to having them be split at all.

Oleg Artamonov · Post by **Oleg Artamonov** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 1:58 pm

Oklahoma Wolf wrote:Topower just omitted independant protection for each 12v and is pretty much selling that as a "feature."

Exactly.

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:07 pm

Looks to me like if we're comparing memory makers who are new to oeming psu's...corsair wins over mushkin in this round. Heck I'd say corsair would beat ocz too as their psus tend to be rather inefficient also.

Oklahoma Wolf · Post by **Oklahoma Wolf** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 1:37 pm

merlin wrote:Heck I'd say corsair would beat ocz too as their psus tend to be rather inefficient also.

I'd tend to agree with you, just on the grounds that I slightly prefer Seasonic build quality to that of FSP these days. Not that the FSP Epsilons are that bad a design, I just like to see Chemicon caps on a PSU's secondary rather than the mixed bag of Capxon and OST caps I found in my FSP 600W.

Now the old FSP550-60PLG... that was/is a good design. I was actually hoping FSP would take that design and update it and make it more efficient to use in their high end units, but they seem to have tossed all their R&D money into the Epsilon design. Love what they did in the Zen though... they could put a fan on that one, get 500W out of it, and I'd be interested

Mushkin ATX12V 550W Power Supply

Mushkin ATX12V 550W Power Supply

Re: Mushkin ATX12V 550W Power Supply