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Raidmax Monster RX-700AT Power Supply Review

Raidmax is the first company to utilize Andyson's new Titanium platform with its Monster RX-700AT PSU. This is a semi-modular unit with a double ball-bearing fan and Japanese capacitors, promising high performance and exceptional efficiency.

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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).

Test12V5V3.3V5VSBPass/Fail
10% Load18.8 mV14.5 mV14.5 mV11.4 mVPass
20% Load13.0 mV15.8 mV15.8 mV13.9 mVPass
30% Load15.5 mV16.7 mV17.1 mV14.3 mVPass
40% Load19.0 mV17.3 mV17.2 mV15.2 mVPass
50% Load23.3 mV19.3 mV20.1 mV17.2 mVPass
60% Load20.9 mV20.2 mV19.9 mV20.3 mVPass
70% Load24.1 mV20.6 mV23.9 mV19.4 mVPass
80% Load27.7 mV22.3 mV25.9 mV21.7 mVPass
90% Load31.7 mV24.0 mV25.2 mV20.5 mVPass
100% Load36.0 mV25.4 mV29.1 mV23.3 mVPass
110% Load41.3 mV27.0 mV30.7 mV23.8 mVPass
Crossload 118.1 mV19.6 mV20.6 mV14.9 mVPass
Crossload 236.2 mV22.8 mV26.3 mV21.1 mVPass
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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
Aris Mpitziopoulos
Aris Mpitziopoulos is a Contributing Editor at Tom's Hardware US, 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.
    Reply