Strong Showing: High-Performance Power Supply Units

Cables And Connectors

The leads are rather basic, to say the least. No outer coating has been fitted on the big ATX cable bundle; the lines are bound together only by two cable binders. Aside from the P4 connector, there is also an AUX connector. Divided among three cords are seven 5.25" connectors and two floppy connectors, plus two SATA connectors.

Performance

Zalman's power supply ran successfully through all the tests and without any problems worth mentioning. The 400 watts come out of the power supply on the secondary side, no problem at all; the voltages are constantly within the permitted tolerance limits.

All the information is there: Zalman nameplate

There are problems however with the Zalman in the area of efficiency. At 68% under full load, 71% under half load and 65% under low load, the Zalman is not one of the best devices in this respect. Even in stand-by mode, the ZM400B-APS is not exactly a showcase product with an efficiency of just 30% at low load and 57% high load.

A retail price of $80 is appropriate to the performance.