Protection Features Evaluation

Every PSU should be equipped with a set of protections, which will protect the PSU and, through it, the whole system. 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)

We should 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 the OCP's role. In addition, we find OTP to be very important, and we won't mess with OVP/UVP until we find a way to safely evaluate it.

The OCP triggering points on the minor rails are high, and OPP is set to 131%, which is also quite high. There is OTP, the power ok signal is accurate, and all rails are protected against short outs.