Fan Noise
While the internal 120 mm fan of the PSU is very quiet at lower load levels, the fan speed increases fast the hotter the unit gets. Actually the unit does not really get hot because the fan speed is adjusted so fast.
Value and Conclusion
- The Mushkin 580AP is listed at around $110 with a web store sale running right now at Mushkin.com for $89.49, which is a great price for a PSU of this kind.
- Modular
- Great Price
- Rail Fusion Feature
- Four 12V rails with massive 20 A each
- Very low ripple voltage
- All cables are sleeved
- Good Looks
- Voltage stability could be better
- Noisy at high load
The strongest points of Mushkin's HP-580 AP power supply are its extremely competitive price and the well thought out modularity feature. All cables are sleeved, the two PCI-Express power cables even have some additional circuitry inside them to improve power quality.
The RailFusion feature is designed to help you in the rare situations when you are overloading a single 12V rail (more than 240 W). This could happen when you connect a large number of devices using Y-cables to split the power. While power delivery and the system were stable at all times, even when testing on our CrossFire X1900 XTX setup, it is evident that a 580W PSU has its limits. So you should maybe not use it to power two overclocked Radeon HD 2900 XTs, but for almost everything else the Mushkin HP-580 AP should be a fine choice.