INTRODUCTION

   Compared to even just 10 years ago the market today is literally overflowing with PC hardware components and peripherals suitable both for regular consumers (gamers, overclockers, enthusiasts and casual users) and professionals (enterprise users included). Unfortunately due to their target audience high-end components are not always affordable by everyone and that goes double for power supplies since they are considered to be the heart of every PC. We have seen several "affordable" high-end models in the past by many manufacturers but in the end there's always room for more such products aimed at people on a tight budget. Raidmax is mostly known for their towers but they've also ventured into the PSU market and today we're going to test their latest Vampire RX-1000GH 1000W PSU to see whether or not this was the right move by them.

   Raidmax was founded in 1988 with the mission of providing the best solutions: specifically, meeting your requirements for innovative designs, excellent performance and quality products. In early 2003, Raidmax was the first to debut the design "Scorpio": an alien eye shape on its general front panel. At the time, it was the best ever hit in the gaming case business and almost every factory had owned at least one similar design back in China. Two years later, Raidmax released another cutting-edge design, Samurai, and people who had seen the case itself instantly fell in love. After numerous global feedback, Raidmax is known all over the world. It is said our company is not only a case designer but also the perfect budget keeper. You can simply spend a little but you receive higher quality than you expect. It has been more than 10 years since Raidmax began its work on its unique product lines and market position. The name of Raidmax is synonymous to gaming design and budget cases. In the United States, Raidmax is considered to be the best second tier brand; in Asia, it is said that only Raidmax can offer the budget cases with great designs; in Europe, with almost no brand management, Raidmax' followers are still showing their loyal support in many ways.

 With the Vampire RX-1000GH Raidmax introduced a 80 Plus Gold certified, semi-modular power supply unit that features two strong +12V 60A rails capable of supplying up to 97% (972W to be exact) of the units total output, a total of eight PCI-E power cables (6+2 pin) for use with 4 high-end graphics cards, temperature controlled 135mm intake fan, over voltage protection for your USB ports and a good set of electrical protections such as SCP (Short circuit protection), OVP (Over voltage protection), UVP (Under voltage protection) and OPP (Over power protection). On paper the Vampire RX-1000GH sure looks like it has everything going for it so let's dig deeper and see what it really has to offer.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Raidmax ships the Vampire RX-1000GH inside a black box with their logo at the front right next to the total power output, efficiency logo and a small product picture.

The available power connectors are listed at the left side of the box while the model serial number is placed on the right.

Moving at the rear we see the features and electrical specifications of the RX-1000GH.

Packaging is one of the worst we've ever seen something which we informed Raidmax about and we hope that this is indeed an isolated incident.

I don't know if this is due to the bad packaging but the only things placed inside the box was the Vampire RX-1000GH PSU with its modular cables and 4 mounting screws inside a small plastic bag.

THE VAMPIRE RX-1000GH EXTERIOR

The white/black color combination of the Vampire RX-1000GH is not something we see a lot in the market and that makes it quite unique.

A blue LED 135/140mm fan would draw attention easily but the regular one used is not bad either.

A bad and the model name are the two things printed on both sides.

The electrical table is printed on a small sticker placed at the base of the PSU.

Although not tagged the modular power connectors are color coded.

Sleeving goes all the way inside the chassis.

Unfortunately there are two PCI-E (6+2 pin) cables which are not sleeved and just seem out of place.

The rear end is perforated and has the on/off power button and the power port.

THE VAMPIRE RX-1000GH INTERIOR

The 135mm fan used is manufactured by Young Lin Technologies and can spin up to 1700RPM to produce airflow levels of up to 91.16CFM with 36.28dBA of noise.

Relatively clean design with 3 heatsinks and from what i see this seems to be a HEC manufactured PSU.

The two primary capacitors are manufactured by Nippon Chemi-Con and are certified for use up to 105 degrees Celsius.

Secondary capacitors are manufactured by Teapo and are also 105 degrees certified.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

     Using a dedicated measurement instrument such as a Chroma or a SunMoon to test power supply units is without doubt the most ideal and accurate way (not to mention the fastest) to do that currently. However it's certainly not the only way there is and so pretty much anyone can test a power supply unit just by using a computer. Certainly limitations do apply and so you can't really test a 1000W power supply if your system only uses 500W at peak loads and that's why during the past 5 years i have saved certain hardware components for the purpose of building a dedicated PSU test rig. True it may not be as accurate as the above mentioned solutions but it comes really close and is in fact closer to real world usage. So as always we ran several games with maximum graphic options enabled at a resolution of 2560x1600 in order to stress every hardware component and increase the overall power demands of the system. The Passmark BurnIn Test was also used to overstress the components in an effort to provide the most accurate results possible. As a final test we also used the latest OCCT 4.4 software and its dedicated PSU testing suite since it can really bring a power supply to its knees after inside a few minutes.

       Rail stability was checked/measured with the CPUID Hardware monitor and a Metex multimeter which also recorded the system load in idle and in load. As always try to remember that the power consumption numbers listed in the graph are the highest (Peak) ones recorded during the entire duration of the tests and not the average ones. Noise levels coming from the fan were recorded using the high precision HD600 ExTech Sound dBA Meter from the rear of the unit and at a range of no more than 5-10cm. Readings under load are recorded the exact moment we manually switch the fans of all graphics cards from full speed to almost zero, that way the fan of the power supply does not have enough time to slow its RPM and so by doing this we get very accurate noise level readings. Needless to say in order to get 100% accurate readings you need to have a noise isolated room for that exact purpose, something which is quite impossible unless you are working inside a real lab (some people use very small noise insulated boxes but due to their size both heat and noise exceed normal levels and so the results can't really be considered to be 100% accurate). Also do take into account that since all noise measurements take place from just 5-10cm away the final noise levels to reach your ears will be considerably less.

TEST RESULTS

RAIL STABILITY

I was expecting a little more when it comes to voltage stability but still this are very good results.

POWER CONSUMPTION

As you can all see we maxed out the output of the unit and then some.

NOISE LEVELS (SPL)

43.7dBA at load is not the lowest number we’ve ever recorded but still it’s not bad at all.

CONCLUSION

   Raidmax has released quite a few PSUs in the past which didn’t get the best “scores” by media around the world so when we were told that the Vampire RX-1000GH was on its way here I have to admit that I was somewhat skeptical and the insufficient packaging along with the two “naked” hardwired PCI-E cables only made things worse. Fortunately during testing we encountered no issues whatsoever and as you can all tell just by looking at our charts even with a power consumption exceeding the 1KW mark the unit produced very good rail stability (although far from excellent) without being noisy in the process. Design is also one of the strong points the Vampire RX-1000GH has although it would had been so much better had Raidmax made it completely modular.

   Recommending the Vampire RX-1000GH to all of you is something that largely depends on its current price tag and if you had to spend as much as you would for a 1KW PSU by one of the leading brands it would be very difficult for us to do. However that’s not the case since as we speak the Raidmax Vampire RX-1000GH retails for just 114.99Euros inside the EU from PC-Cooling.de (USA pricing is also similar) a price tag which is far less than what you’d have to pay for a 750W 80 Plus Gold certified model by one of the leading brands in the market. With that in mind not only do we highly recommend taking a look but we also give it our Golden Award.

PROS

- Overall Build Quality
- Design
- Very Good Rail Stability
- Noise Levels
- 80 Plus Gold Certified
- Electrical Protections (SCP, OVP, UVP, OPP)
- 5VSB OVP Protection
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- “Naked” PCI-E Cables