Testing
Physical Size and Weight
A basic measure of any power supply is the unit’s overall physical size and weight. This may seem rather simplistic but it generally holds that more industrial grade components and larger heatsinks equal a better PSU.
So – this almost seems unfair. The Miller XMT 300 PC power supply measures: 12.5” x 17” x 24” (W x H x D) and weighs 80 lbs! The following graph illustrates how the weight of the Miller PSU compares to some other popular power supplies on the market.
DC Output Load Regulation
Of course one of the first things we want to see is how well a PSU can regulate the DC outputs and maintain rock-solid voltages. To simulate real world loading conditions, the big Miller PSU was connected to everything I had available except for the basement sink and supplied with 240 VAC.
In this test we are interested in seeing how well a PSU can maintain the various output voltages while operating under different loads. The new ATX12V V2.2 tolerance for voltages states how much each output (rail) is allowed to fluctuate and has tighter tolerances now for the +12V outputs.
The following table lists the DC voltage results at the different loads for the Miller XMT 300 PC PSU while operating on 240 VAC, 60 Hz.
Up until one of the resistive load banks overheated and caught fire during test #7, the PSU produced stellar load regulation on all of the outputs across a broad range of loads; even when delivering 2,500 watts of DC power.
Oh @#$%! That’s not good! Fire-Fire-Fire! Well, turn it off, turn it off! These are a few of the thoughts that flashed thru my mind as I reached for the fire extinguisher…
Unfortunately, that concluded our testing on the Miller XMT 300 PC power supply…
Awesome April fools joke
Awesome April fools joke
I find the article very well
I find the article very well written. Hope to see more tests like this in the near future 😉 I just hope we won’t have to wait a year before the next one 🙂
I’ve been using one of these
I’ve been using one of these to satisfy the insatiable power hungry needs of my home server. Here are the spec’s:
-MSI Z97 PC Mate motherboard
-Intel Pentium G3258 (undervolted)
-2×4 GB Corsair Ram
-3×2 TB WD green HD running in RAID 5
-No video
-No keyboard
-No mouse
-Miller XMT 300 PC Power Supply
For cooling I run everything in an industrial walk-in freezer. So far the Miller XMT 300 has been doing an ok job supplying power but I’m afraid if I add anymore hard drives (I’m thinking about an ssd), I’ll need to upgrade. Maybe tap into those high power lines running near my property.
Good joke, 8 years old
Good joke, 8 years old though.
Excellent memory! Glad you
Excellent memory! Glad you have been with us all these years.
Didn’t have time to read the
Didn’t have time to read the interview, but I’d imagine you’re trying to run a Titan X in that rig?
Ask Allyn if he can arc weld
Ask Allyn if he can arc weld with this.
Awesome, whack 2 of those
Awesome, whack 2 of those into a large computer case, and you will have enough power to run the next gen AMD FX CPU.
That actually would make a
That actually would make a cool case, I am a welder, to buy the case alone from Miller would be costly, but it does have the wheels spinning in my head to fab something like this.
1994 era 220V ARC welder. I
1994 era 220V ARC welder. I remember seeing this April Fools joke quite a few years ago.
Now I know what I’ll get to
Now I know what I’ll get to power my future 300W APU.
Moar power than what my house
Moar power than what my house can bring in lulz.
All kidding aside, a lot of
All kidding aside, a lot of datacentres are moving to semi-centralised LVDC distribution, with each machine only having a basic DC-DC converter to provide the small amount of 3.3V & 5V needed. Some custom boards (e.g. Open Compute) even have the buck converters on the motherboard itself.
So while it’s a welding supply, very similar designs 9without the variable voltage) are already in use pwoering multiple PCs through 12VDC distribution.
heck 80 lb? not much more
heck 80 lb? not much more than a bag of feed!
i just wonder if it;s enough power for a NUC ?
and will it run CRYSIS???!!
Had me going until the flux
Had me going until the flux capacitor bit.
Still I imagine something like this would be quite useful in a dense datacenter environment. There’s really no need for each node to do its own AC->DC conversion there, so long as the DC leads don’t extend very far. Would at least simplify cooling.