Protection Features Evaluation

Every PSU should be equipped with a protections set that will protect the PSU and, through it, the system as a whole. You can learn more about PSU protections by reading through the corresponding section of our "A Detailed Look Into PSUs" article.

In a snap, the most important protections for PSUs are the following:

• Over Current Protection (OCP)
• Over Power Protection (OPP)
• Over Temperature Protection (OTP)
• Over/Under Voltage Protection (OVP/UVP)
• Short Circuit Protection (SCP)
• No-load Operation (NLO)
• Surge & Inrush Protection (SIP)

Please note that OCP isn't usually offered in single +12V rail PSUs, especially high capacity ones. In these units, OPP takes over a part of OCP's role. In addition, we find OTP to be of high importance, and lastly, for the moment, we won't mess with OVP/UVP until we find a way to safely evaluate both.


All protections are reasonably tuned, and there is short circuit protection on all rails, as is the case with most PSUs nowadays. The only letdown here is the lack of a bypass relay for the two NTC thermistors. This relay would allow them to cooldown faster, and it would provide a small efficiency increase since no power would be lost on the thermistors once they have done their job.