CaseBuy EZ PSU Tester 2

Product: CaseBuy EZ PowerSupply Tester 2 Provided By: CaseBuy Price: $20.00 USD est.

Introduction:

CaseBuy is a relatively new company in the PC Case and accessory market, but they seem to be quite innovative.  Last year they sent us the CaseBuy EZ Power Supply Tester and we took at look at this handy little unit.  Although it was a good enough tester in it's own right, it did have some shortcomings, and CaseBuy took some of these to heart and has recently released the second edition.  Today, we're going to be looking at the CaseBuy PowerSupply Tester 2 and see what this adds to the mix.

The original tester was able to diagnose dead voltage lines from a 20-pin mainboard connector as well as a 4-pin auxillary connector.  It was also able to test both 4-pin floppy connectors as well as standard 4-pin molex connectors.  Times have changed and motherboards are now using 24-pin connectors and more Hard Drives have evolved to SATA.  This requires a different connectors - which are available on the CaseBuy EZ PSU Tester 2.  That and much more.

Product & Features:

The CaseBuy EZ PSU Tester 2 is quite an attractive unit.  Following the popular trend of "Blue" this unit is housed inside an anodized blue aluminum case with screen-printed instructions.  Beside each of the LED indicators is the value for which it represents.  This makes diagnosing PSU's and dead voltage rails very simple.

More & More Connectors:

I find it quite remarkable how CaseBuy has managed to pack so many connectors onto this unit.  It has the ability to test 24-pin PSU, 20-pin PSU, 8-pin Auxiliary, 6-pin Auxiliary, 4-pin Auxiliary, Floppy, Standard Molex, and SATA connectors.  They are all packed into the ends and the sides of this unit.  It's quite surprising that there is any room left for aluminum casing with all of the holes in the unit for testing.

Testing:

As was the case with the original CaseBuy EZ PSU Tester that I reviewed back in December, the hardware and "brain" behind this could still use some updating.  The Tester indicates "good" power rails by lighting up the respective Green LED.  Unfortunately this is not really voltage sensitive.  If a PSU is outputting too much or too little voltage, the PSU Tester 2 shows that the rail is good - as long as it's within 20-30%.  What this unit does however, is quickly and easily identify dead rails.

 In Use - Bad -5v Rail

If you are experiencing major computer issues, and suddenly cannot boot your system, simply plugging in the PSU Tester 2 will give you a good indication if one of your PSU voltage rails is dead or not.  There still may be issues with your PowerSupply, but at this point you will know it's not totally dead, and it may be time to look at RAM, CPU or Motherboard.

Conclusion:

The CaseBuy EZ PSU Tester 2 is an interesting unit.  While it adds more functionality, it really doesn't add any more accuracy than their original tester.  That's not to say this unit is useless.  In fact, while I had this unit on the bench, I was working on a computer that was acting quite strange.  It ran fine for an hour or so, then shut down and refused to boot.  I looked at everything.  Reseated the CPU, HSF, RAM, and unplugged everything from the mainboard. . . still nothing.  When I had given up, I noticed the EZ PSU Tester 2 on my bench that I was just taking pictures of for this review.  I plugged it into the PSU and discovered instantly that I had a dead -5v rail.  If I had thought to use this first, it would have saved me an hour of frusteration and testing.  It has it's place all right.

Pros:

• Nice Blue Aluminum Case.
• More Connections than a cheap flight to Florida.
• Very Simple and easy to use.

Cons:

• Voltage Tolerances are a little wide.

The CaseBuy EZ PSU Tester 2 is an improvement over their previous tester due to it's additional connectors, but still fails to diagnose "flaky" PSU's as compared to dead units.  However, due to it's simplicity, it's a handy tool for general computer users and technicians alike, but is not the be-all, end-all method for testing a power supply.

I'd like to thank CaseBuy for sending this unit all the way over from Taiwan for use to test.  I will definately replace the previous model in my toolbox and come in handy in the future.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this review, please feel free to head on over and post them at the "Comments" link below.  See you in the forum!