Introduction

You need to figure out whether the power supply or something else is the root of all the problems your system faces? If you need to perform an extended test, a plain multimeter won't cut it. A scope is also required to take timing and ripple readings, and such tools are not affordable. On top of that, you need to have the necessary basic knowledge to operate them, and taking timing and ripple measurements is not that simple since you need to follow specific procedures. Thankfully, for those of you who can afford it, PassMark offers a PSU tester with many interesting features in that regard.

The PassMark PSU tester supports five operating modes:

• Inline mode
• Inline mode & monitoring
• Standalone mode
• Standalone mode & monitoring
• Multiple testers combined

Briefly, with this small gizmo, you can check the voltage levels on the rails, record the minimum and maximum voltage and current on each rail, check the power in each rail, your PSU's total power output, ripple on the main voltage rails, timings, as well as the slew rate on the main rails during power-up, the turn-on slope of the main voltage rails, and the DC power sequencing. The good thing is that you can connect this PSU tester to a PC and use the provided software to make things easier.


For me, the most important thing is to find out whether this tool provides accurate readings or not, so I will compare it with a fully automated and calibrated Chroma station. I don't expect to get the same readings since the Chroma station costs a ton more, but I don't want to see high deviations, either.