Introduction

I would like to thank Leo from Sirtec for supplying me with the unit for review.

Sirtec is mainly an OEM manufacturer for PSUs and has been in the PSU business for over 12 years. Many Thermaltake PSUs are actually manufactured by Sirtec.
This tested PSU is also sold by Chieftec as "Chieftec ATX-410-212" and Thermaltake. The inner workings are the same while Thermaltake for example decided to sleeve all cables.

Not only do they manufacture PSUs, Siretec has also a lot of experience with plastic molding. Lexmark printer cartridge cases for example are produced by Sirtec.

Packaging

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Box contents:

Power supply unit
Power Cord
Screw Package
Instruction Manual

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<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<th rowspan="2">Connectors</th>
<th align="center">Main Power</th>
<th align="center">5.25"</th>
<th align="center">Floppy</th>
<th align="center">4 Pin CPU</th>
<th align="center">SerialATA</th>
<th align="center">PCI-E Aux Power</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">ATX 20+4 Pin</td>
<td align="center">9</td>
<td align="center">2</td>
<td align="center">1</td>
<td align="center">2</td>
<td align="center">1</td>
</tr>
</table>

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The PSU

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The PSU is coated with a very shiny and reflective chrome coating. However, this does not take fingerprints easily. Even after handling the unit for some time I saw only minor fingerprints on it, and they could be easily wiped away with the bare hand.

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The backside of the PSU is made from hole-stamped metal for best air circulation. A switch for selection of 110V or 220V input is also provided here.

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Sirtec chose to sleeve only the ATX power cable.

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The ATX power connector uses a clever solution to stay compatible with both 20 and 24 Pin motherboards. You can split the connector into two parts. If you have a 20 Pin motherboard connector, just use the 20 Pin plug and leave the four extra pins unconnected.

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When running, the PSU has a blue warm fuzzy glow which lights up the inside of your case.

PSU Inside

If you open your PSU, your warranty is gone. We still had to peek inside it.

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There are two trimmers located inside the case. Using these trimmers you can tweak your output voltages. VR1 directly controls the 12V line. I could reach values between 11.64V and 12.20V. What VR2 controls is unknown. I saw no changes to the 3.3V, 5V or 12V line when turning it.

Test Equipment

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The PSU is connected to an APC SmartUPS which supplies clean 220V input.
AC current is measured using a Peaktech 4010 desktop RS232 multimeter with 0.02A accuracy.
To measure DC output voltages of the PSU we use a 20-bit data acquisition system calibrated to 10uV accuracy.
Power Factor is measured using a generic Power Efficiency Meter.
Measurements for Ripple Voltage were obtained using a 30 MHz HAMEG Analog/Digital Oscilloscope.

Performance

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<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<th colspan="8">Sirtec High Power ATX-410-212</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>AC Input</th>
<td colspan="7">115V / 230V 8A, 50-60 Hz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>DC Voltage</th>
<td align="center">+3.3V</td>
<td align="center">+5V</td>
<td align="center">+12V1</td>
<td align="center">+12V2</td>
<td align="center">-12V</td>
<td align="center">+5VSB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th rowspan="2">Max. Output</th>
<td align="center">30A</td>
<td align="center">30A</td>
<td align="center">15A</td>
<td align="center">18A</td>
<td align="center">1A</td>
<td align="center">2A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" align="center">180 W</td>
<td colspan="2" align="center">240 W</td>
<td align="center">12 W</td>
<td align="center">10 W</td>
</tr>
</table>

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Tested on: P4 3.0F @ 4.0 Ghz, 1.45V. ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE, 1GB OCZ PC2-5400 EB, Radeon X850 XT, Maxtor DiamondMax 10 SATA.

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Above image shows the Ripple Voltage measurement (5 mV per vertical division, 0.1uS per horizontal division). 12mV from peak to bottom is a good result. Ripple Voltage was measured at idle.

<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<th>Standard deviation 12V</th>
<td align="right">104.420 mV</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Standard deviation 5V</th>
<td align="right">21.371 mV</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Standard deviation 3.3V</th>
<td align="right">6.116 mV</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Power Factor</th>
<td align="right">0.80</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Ripple Voltage 12V</th>
<td align="right">11 mV</td>
</tr>
</table>

Standard deviation is a statistical term, which tells how far away from the average the measurements are. In other words it's the average of the average.
A large standard deviation indicates that the data points are far from the average and a small standard deviation indicates that they are close within the average.

Power Factor

Power Factor is one of the most misunderstood concepts in PSUs. For a more in-depth, technical article read here.

To understand Power Factor, some basic terms have to be defined.

Working Power: This is the power that does some real work, ie. work of heating, lighting and motion.
Reactive Power: In order to get a motor moving, the motor must build (and sustain) a magnetic field in the motor coils, which requires power. This power does not "do" anything, but it is required for operation.
Apparent Power is the sum of Working Power and Reactive Power.

The formula for Power Factor is Power Factor = Working Power [W] / Apparent Power [VA]. For example if a circuit has a Working Power of 275W and an Apparent Power of 300VA, its Power Factor is 275W / 300VA = 0.92

The problem with Reactive Power is, that it does not do anything, and is thus not billed by your power company (unless you are an industrial customer, who has to pay additional charges if his power factor is low). The power company DOES have to provide your household with the Reactive Power, so their generator output must be higher and the grid must be able to take the increased load, overall this costs the power company money. It is also possible that low Power Factor, high-load devices have an effect on the power quality in your house.

In order to increase Power Factor, passive PFC uses a capacitor in parallel with the AC mains, because the effects of capacitance are exactly opposite those of inductance.
Active PFC uses a special circuit which acts like a resistive load (which has no Reactive Power) and feeds this power to the PSU circuit, isolating it from the mains. One effect this has, is that the overall conversion efficiency is a bit lower, since this circuit inside the PSU consumes power, which is not converted into DC voltage (this is in the range of 3%-8%).

Overall, you, as end-customer will not directly benefit from PFC. In the long-term it will save you money and problems. Less load on the grid means less likeliness of black-outs. Less load on the power company's generators means that their prices will not go up as fast as they would when they needed to buy bigger generators.

In the European Union all power supplies >70W must have either Passive or Active PFC.

Value and Conclusion

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<td>

The ATX-410-212 (or the models from Thermaltake/Chieftec) are sold for around $65 which is a good price for a solid PSU.

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<td>

Quiet
20+4-Pin combo ATX Connector
PCI-E Power connector
Good ripple voltage
Beautiful chrome mirror finish
Blue light

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<td>

Voltages could be more stable
Cables not sleeved

</td></tr>
<tr><th>7.5</th>
<td>The Sirtec High Power ATX-410-212 is a well rounded power supply designed for the cost-aware user. There are plenty of connectors, even a PCI-Express video card connector is included. A second PCI-E VGA connector for SLI/Crossfire is not present, but given the total watt rating of this PSU, it may not make sense anyway.<br />
While voltages were not perfectly stable, they should be fine for most users - hardcore overclockers may want to get a more powerful unit.<br />
The beautiful chrome finish is almost too nice to be hidden in a plain beige case. A blue LED which lights up during operation improves the visual aspect even some more.</td></tr>
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