Please stop the PSU reviews

[hunter315]

This latest one was pretty bad, especially when the author said that the Sparkle couldnt output the theoretical max of 120A, its not a theoretical max of 120A when you have 20A across 6 12V rails, it delusional, its like drawing water from a well, sure each hose can output 20 gallons per minute, but if your well can only provide 100 gallons per minute you cannot turn all 6 hoses on to full, thats what each one tops out at but they share a common source and if you are going to be writing a PSU review i feel that you really should know your technical facts first.

So i propose two options, either have your authors spend a week reading through everything on jonnyguru and hardware secrets before the next one or never write another one again, its not like your test methods are unbiased or well documented, i cannot even find out what the tolerances on your power meters are, what your load device is, or what temperature the room is at when running the tests so i really feel that the second option is the better one until you guys can get some better documentation up and running.

I like Tom's but when an article gets published that is full of bad statements its an embarrassment that needs fixing, and i would rather hurt a few peoples feelings that let everyone on the internet read it and feel that Tom's writers have no idea what they are talking about.

 

[jpishgar]

I'll forward your feedback along. Though, to be fair, the review does state very, very clearly that during testing the "theoretical" maximum was not achieved or achievable. Additionally, I'm not sure the inclusion of room temperature would have strongly affected the review outcome or user considerations for the tested PSU's... though I'll send the recommendation for inclusion along for the next review.

 

[hunter315]

Room temperature makes a fair bit of difference, if its 20C or 30C it can swing the efficiency a fair amount, in either direction, but my real problem with it is that since its not stated it can change from test to test to bias the results if you really wanted to, its not really a fair review unless the conditions its tested in are stated. Im a psychology minor, i enjoy ripping apart studies that dont state their confounds.

 

[Shadow703793]

Thank you for posting this hunter. You are pretty much on the money.

If you are going to do PSU reviews, do it right. Look at how jonnyguru and HS do their PSU reviews. That is the correct and scientific way to do it.

Additionally, I'm not sure the inclusion of room temperature would have strongly affected the review outcome or user considerations for the tested PSU's... though I'll send the recommendation for inclusion along for the next review.

if its 20C or 30C it can swing the efficiency a fair amount, in either direction, but my real problem with it is that since its not stated it can change from test to test to bias the results if you really wanted to, its not really a fair review unless the conditions its tested in are stated.

That should answer that for you jp.

Also, you don't have any Corsair, XFX, PC Power, Antec, etc PSUs? Why????

I don't care about efficiency much as long as it delivers clean and reliable power, meaning none of the rails ever go out of spec. Non of those PSUs used in this review would ever go in to a rig I build.

 

[EXT64]

I agree it was unacceptable because of the methods used. I also like it when the reviews actually dissect and explain the components.

As for the models included, while more is always better it is nice when low end models are tested, even if it only shows why you should buy a mid/high end model.