Hold Up Time

Hold up time represents the duration a PSU can maintain stable output as defined by the ATX specification without input power. This is very important when the quality of your electricity varies and there are short drops in the supply (dips or brownouts).

In the oscilloscope screenshots below, the blue line is the AC input mains signal, the green line the "Power Good" signal, and the yellow line the +12V rail. The measured timing variable is listed as ΔX.

Hold Up Time

AC Loss To PWR_OK Hold Up Time

PWR_OK Inactive to DC Loss Delay

Bulk caps cost a lot, especially the high-quality ones, so Corsair used one of slightly less capacity, which means a hold up time of 17 ms is out of the question. However, in our charts, only Cooler Master offers longer hold up times.

Timings for Alternative Sleep Mode (ASM)

Traditionally, sleep mode (S3) shuts the system off for minutes or even hours to reduce power consumption. However, this approach adds a few seconds of delay when resuming from standby.

Microsoft recently introduced Modern Sleep, which brings the instant-on capability to PCs, just like your phone instantly turns on without any noticeable delay. Modern Sleep builds on the Alternative Sleep Mode capability Intel has defined. To support Alternative Sleep Mode and ensure system stability, a power supply must wake up from sleep quickly—think of it as the PSU's boot time.

For the reviewed PSU, we measured T1 and T3 at 20% and 100% load.





The PWR_OK is within 100–150 ms, which means this PSU is compatible with alternative sleep mode (ASM). Moreover, power-on time is amazingly low.