Coolmax CXI-500B 500 watt Power Supply Review

Testing

To see how well the Coolmax CXI-500B 500 watt Power Supply would work under a severe load condition we used three of our favorite programs to stress test any computer with. The first program is Super Pi, a very common program used by the overclocking community to help determine whether or not the memory they are testing is stable. Memory that is the least bit marginal will always fail this test. The second program is BurnInTest V4.0 from Passmark Software, this is another piece of software that will bring a computer to its knees if the setting are turned up to the max. The last program we use is Winstress from Ultra-X, a pure stress testing program which allows you to configure each area of the computer being tested to specify how much utilization the system uses - for our tests all setting were set to 100% utilization.

We have found the best way to record the voltage highs and lows is to use these exact features found in Motherboard Monitor. The way we ran our test was to first start Super Pi and set it to determine Pi to 64 millions digits, next we started BurnInTest V4.0 followed by Winstress and both of the last two programs were configured to run for 60 minutes.

Voltage Points	Vcore	LDT	+3.3	+5.00	+12.00	Chipset	DRAM
High	1.47	1.18	3.34	5.13	12.34	1.49	2.62
Low	1.46	1.17	3.33	5.10	12.27	1.49	2.61
Delta	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.03	0.07	0.00	0.01

CONCLUSION

For being one of the early version of the 500B I have to say I am very impressed by the how tight the voltages were on the rails especially in light of the fact that the system is also using 2 GB of memory. The extra strain that this amount of memory can cause certain power supplies becomes quite evident when the system is stressed to any degree yet the 500B showed no adverse affects at all.

So what do we have in the end game? An ATX 2.0 compliant power supply that operates in nearly in a silent mode thanks to the 120mm fan, plus the ability to adjust the speed and cooling to suit your case or condition perfectly. One area that makes the 500B power supply a very viable option for your next power supply is the fact that is will support not one but two PCI-E video cards so there is no need to go out and try to find those hard to find power cables. Next up is the true 24-pin power cable - no 20-pin to 24-pin jumper cable here, as you can see on the sticker it even states "to be used on a 24-pin motherboard only"! if you have the addition 4-pin connector attached to the power connector. Either way you end up with a power supply that will work on your current motherboard (i.e. old style) or one you may buy in the future.

Dual PCI-E Connectors	24-Pin Power Cable

And finally a power supply that easily meets and exceeds the normal 5% tolerances expected on voltages. In short you have a 500 watt power supply that will get the job done and do it without breaking a sweat. When the Coolmax CXI-500B hits the market add it to your A-list of power supplies to check out for your next system you won't be sorry.

We'd like to thank Coolmax USA who graciously provided us with this sample

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