Protection Features Evaluation

Every PSU should be equipped with a set of protections, which will not only protect the PSU, but the whole system. You can learn more about PSU protections if you read 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 and Inrush Protection (SIP)

We should note here that OCP isn't usually offered in single +12V rail PSUs, especially high capacity ones. In such units, OPP partly takes over. OTP is very important, and we won't mess with OVP/UVP until we find a way to safely evaluate it.

The OCP limit on the minor rails is configured properly, but should be lower at 5VSB since its ripple goes wild with 5.8 A. The OPP threshold is quite high, while OTP is reasonably set. This PSU's OTP sensor is on the mainboard's solderside, under the main transformer. All rails are also protected against circuits shorting out, the power ok signal is accurate, and there is surge and inrush-current protection.