Thermaltake's power supply tester lets you know if your power supply is working properly — Dr. Power III updated with support for ATX 3.0 power supplies

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Easier than using a multimeter

Dr. Power III
Dr. Power III (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Thermaltake has revealed the Dr. Power III universal ATX power supply tester at CES 2024. Even the best power supplies can fail, so the Dr. Power III is a nifty tester that can help you troubleshoot. Thermaltake has upgraded Dr. Power III to support the latest ATX 3.0 power supplies.

Testing your power supply is a relatively easy task requiring basic electricity knowledge and an old-school multimeter. However, not everyone possesses the necessary electrical know-how to use a multimeter, or understandably, you may uncomfortable around electricity. That's where something like Thermaltake's Dr. Power III (AC-069-OO1NAN-A1) can come in handy.

The Dr. Power III is in its third iteration and has come a long way. The first Dr. Power was a simple device with green LEDs to tell you whether a power connector is okay. It wasn't capable of providing a power readout. The Dr. Power II, on the other hand, featured an LCD screen so you can view the value of each power rail. With the Dr. Power III, Thermaltake has slightly revamped how the device displays the readings and brings the tester up to speed to support ATX 3.0 power supplies.

Like its other iterations, the Dr. Power III features different connectors to connect the power cables you want to test. The list of connectors on the Dr. Power III device includes the 24-pin power connector, the latest 16-pin power connector, an 8-pin/6-pin PCIe power connector, a SATA connector, a Molex connector, and an 8-pin/4-pin EPS power connector.

The Dr. Power III has a single button that you press to begin testing. The tester displays the voltage of each power cable on the screen in real time. It utilizes one decimal place for the +12V rail and up to two decimal places for the other rails, such as the +5V, +3.3V, and +5Vsb. Thermaltake's power supply tester supports automatic and manual testing. The first will test all the power cables, whereas the latter lets you choose the ones you want to verify their correct operation. If a reading falls outside the accepted range, the screen's backlight will change to red and flash while emitting a beep sound to alert the user.

The Dr. Power III comes with a limited three-year warranty. Thermaltake didn't reveal the pricing or the tester's availability.

Zhiye Liu
Zhiye Liu
RAM Reviewer and News Editor

Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

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10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ThomasKinsley
    One of the best diagnostic tools I ever purchased was a power supply tester. I used it only about 4x in 14 years, but it comes in so handy and saved me so much wasted time. You never think you need one until you do.
    Reply
  • JTWrenn
    I automatically assume if they don't release pricing it's ridiculous. I just use a jumper and a voltage meter but could see why people would like this.
    Reply
  • plateLunch
    Curious how thoroughly it tests. Is there a way to specify the load that should be applied to each voltage line? Can it measure ripple or switching noise?

    Don't have enough experience with power supply failures to know what common failure modes are. The only power supply that failed on me had a delayed sag on the 5V line. It was just a little bit and most of the PC ran fine except for one disk drive. The drive had a 5% voltage tolerance which isn't much so it was easy to overlook.
    Reply
  • vanadiel007
    JTWrenn said:
    I automatically assume if they don't release pricing it's ridiculous. I just use a jumper and a voltage meter but could see why people would like this.
    Dr Power II can be had for $100 Canadian at Amazon. I am assuming Dr Power III will be in the same ballpark. But even a Dr power II would be more than sufficient to test a PSU, considering it's not a tool you will use often.
    Reply
  • TJ Hooker
    plateLunch said:
    Curious how thoroughly it tests. Is there a way to specify the load that should be applied to each voltage line? Can it measure ripple or switching noise?
    Based on the information provided for thr previous version, I'm going to assume "no" for both questions. It looks like it just tests the DC voltage value at no/low load. As this article says, it's nothing you couldn't do with a simple multimeter. This new version just adds support for the new 12VHPWR/12V-2x6 connector.

    To do the kind of testing you see in PSU reviews you'd need something like a DC load tester and an oscilloscope, which are going to be a lot more expensive (and larger) than the sort of basic tester shown here.
    Reply
  • Rakanyshu
    What about this kind of tester:
    https://www.amazon.com/Computer-PC-Tester-Connectors-Enclosure/dp/B076CLNPPK/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3BAHY0EWUJEOI&keywords=thermaltake+Doctor+Power&qid=1705009785&sprefix=thermaltake+doctor+power%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-5 its like 15 usd and has a lcd screen, might be similar or the thermaltake is way better?
    Reply
  • HexiumVII
    Rakanyshu said:
    What about this kind of tester:
    https://www.amazon.com/Computer-PC-Tester-Connectors-Enclosure/dp/B076CLNPPK/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3BAHY0EWUJEOI&keywords=thermaltake+Doctor+Power&qid=1705009785&sprefix=thermaltake+doctor+power,aps,120&sr=8-5 its like 15 usd and has a lcd screen, might be similar or the thermaltake is way better?
    I've been using Rosewill ones like that for decades. Most power supplies are really just work or totally fail. Cheap PSes fail a lot. Pretty rare for a single line to drop or anything, which these will test. These will not be able to test full load though. You need some very expensive equipment for that. EVGAs use to include a simple jumper power supply tester in all their units, its prob all you need to test if a power supply is good or not.
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    According to CamelCamelCamel, the TT Dr. Power II, which this model replaces, sold from $27-$50, which most time spent around the $35 mark, so I can't see this one selling for much more.
    Reply
  • mdd1963
    Testing a PSU under no-load conditions, i.e, calling it 'good' merely if assorted voltages are present under zero load, is of dubious diagnostic value at best.
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    The best way to test the power supply.

    Time of use, What grade is and open to see your bad caps.

    low tier psus if work two years just replace it.
    Reply