Raidmax Monster RX-700AT Power Supply Review

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Ripple Measurements

To learn how we measure ripple, please click here.

The following table includes the ripple levels we measured on the RX-700AT's rails. The limits, according to the ATX specification, are 120mV (+12V) and 50mV (5V, 3.3V and 5VSB).

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Test	12V	5V	3.3V	5VSB	Pass/Fail
10% Load	18.8 mV	14.5 mV	14.5 mV	11.4 mV	Pass
20% Load	13.0 mV	15.8 mV	15.8 mV	13.9 mV	Pass
30% Load	15.5 mV	16.7 mV	17.1 mV	14.3 mV	Pass
40% Load	19.0 mV	17.3 mV	17.2 mV	15.2 mV	Pass
50% Load	23.3 mV	19.3 mV	20.1 mV	17.2 mV	Pass
60% Load	20.9 mV	20.2 mV	19.9 mV	20.3 mV	Pass
70% Load	24.1 mV	20.6 mV	23.9 mV	19.4 mV	Pass
80% Load	27.7 mV	22.3 mV	25.9 mV	21.7 mV	Pass
90% Load	31.7 mV	24.0 mV	25.2 mV	20.5 mV	Pass
100% Load	36.0 mV	25.4 mV	29.1 mV	23.3 mV	Pass
110% Load	41.3 mV	27.0 mV	30.7 mV	23.8 mV	Pass
Crossload 1	18.1 mV	19.6 mV	20.6 mV	14.9 mV	Pass
Crossload 2	36.2 mV	22.8 mV	26.3 mV	21.1 mV	Pass

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Ripple suppression at +12V might not be as good as Super Flower's high-end platforms, but it's still very good. Ripple is fairly low on the minor rails as well. However we should mention that the Andyson N700 unit, based on the same platform as Raidmax's RX-700AT, registers significantly lower ripple on all rails under the same operating conditions.

Ripple Oscilloscope Screenshots

The following oscilloscope screenshots illustrate the AC ripple and noise registered on the main rails (+12V, 5V, 3.3V and 5VSB). The bigger the fluctuations on the screen, the bigger the ripple/noise. We set 0.01V/Div (each vertical division/box equals 0.01V) as the standard for all measurements.

Ripple At Full Load

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Ripple At 110-Percent Load

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Ripple At Cross-Load 1

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Ripple At Cross-Load 2

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Aris Mpitziopoulos is a contributing editor at Tom's Hardware, covering PSUs.

43 Comments Comment from the forums

vladm007

You can see the level of faith Raidmax has on the quality by having a 2 years warranty.
Reply
g-unit1111

17870964 said:
You can see the level of faith Raidmax has on the quality by having a 2 years warranty.

Yeah that's kind of a deal breaker. :lol:
Reply
turkey3_scratch

Another unit cheating on the PWR_OK tests. I'm sick of this crap. Also, those caps on the modular board don't look like Chemi-Con polymers, they look like electrolytics (not that it matters, I'm just questioning if you made a wording error). I also don't like the lack of a thermistor at all. That's some really high inrush current. They could have dished out some cash for one and a relay. I also think the warranty needs increased, but realistically it should last a lot longer than 2 years.
Reply
powernod

17871369 said:
Another unit cheating on the PWR_OK tests. I'm sick of this crap. Also, those caps on the modular board don't look like Chemi-Con polymers, they look like electrolytics (not that it matters, I'm just questioning if you made a wording error). I also don't like the lack of a thermistor at all. That's some really high inrush current. They could have dished out some cash for one and a relay. I also think the warranty needs increased, but realistically it should last a lot longer than 2 years.

Exactly my thoughts! ;)
Failure at Power_OK signal & huge amount of inrush current = Deal-breaker for me :pfff:
Reply
Aris_Mp

if they provide a 5-year warranty and work on the price it has potential. The inrush current is an easy fix with a relay-bypass relay, however the lower than the required hold-up time isn't so easy addressable. A larger bulk cap will need more Amps to charge and more Amps lead to increase power losses, so efficiency will take a hit.
Reply
basroil

Very close to be very good, and then it fails at the holdup time... looks like there's still only two real PSU manufacturers (seasonic and superflower)
Reply
Sakkura

Why would anyone wonder why Raidmax only has a 2-year warranty? With the junk they've released in the past, it's a miracle they provide any warranty at all.
Reply
g-unit1111

17872208 said:
if they provide a 5-year warranty and work on the price it has potential. The inrush current is an easy fix with a relay-bypass relay, however the lower than the required hold-up time isn't so easy addressable. A larger bulk cap will need more Amps to charge and more Amps lead to increase power losses, so efficiency will take a hit.

I think any warranty above 5 years is kind of redundant. In 7 or 10 years you won't have that PSU anyways since you'll be replacing it with something new to keep up with new tech. 5 years I would say is about the length of time a warranty should be.
Reply
turkey3_scratch

17872463 said:
Very close to be very good, and then it fails at the holdup time... looks like there's still only two real PSU manufacturers (seasonic and superflower)

Superflower cheats on holdup time on various units. Look at the Leadex Gold 550. The 650 G2 also is a problem most likely, and the 750 G2.
Reply
firefoxx04

I've used their cheaper units 3 times. One failed, however, it's environment was a worst case scenario. Very hot Michigan summer with no ac, dusty room, and almost always running the system with 100% cpu and gpu load.
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