CaseBuy EZ PSU Tester

Product: EZ Power Supply Tester
Provided By: CaseBuy

Introduction:

About a month back, CaseBuy contacted me and asked if I would review a couple of their products.  I had never heard of them before, but I'm always willing to review new gear, so I agreed.  A couple of weeks later, a package arrived from CaseBuy with a some gear that could help complete the toolbox of the gadget hound.

If you've ever encountered weird computer problems that you really can't expain as software related, there is a chance that you've got some funky stuff happening with your hardware and possibly PSU.  You can do one of two things, swap it out blindly and hope for the best, or test it and determine if it in fact is faulty.  That's where the EZ Power Supply Tester comes in.

Product & Features:

The presentation of the PSU tester is actually quite impressive.  It is actually encased in brushed aluminum and feels quite solid.  Not only does it simply test the motherboard-end of the Power Supply, it also has connectors to test Floppy cables, Standard Molex, and the square 4-pin P4 connector as well.  This can be helpful for diagnosing a bad rail.

You can just make out the floppy connector on the left, as well as the P4 and Molex connectors.

Documentation for the EZ PSU Tester is a little lean, but really how hard can it be?  Green lights = good.  No lights = bad.  The manual is printed on the back of the package.  Other than smelling, er spelling errors the documentation will be enough to help out even the novice computer troubleshooter.

Testing:

The big question is, does it work?  It doesn't matter how nice a product looks, or how simple and easy it is to use if it doesn't work.  On any PSU I tested, all the lights came on and it tested okay.  I tested a PSU that I knew was putting out high voltages and the EZ PSU tester said all green . . . good to go.  The truth is the 12v rail was around 15v - 25% high.  Way too high to use in a system.

At this, I doubted the validity of the PSU tester so I set out to trip it and make it give me a fail code.  I was able to apply higher voltages to the lines to see just where they tripped.  I discovered that voltages in excess of 30% of their rating would cause the unit to beep and show a failed rail then shut off the PSU.  Also if the voltage was 20% low, it would not power up the respective diagnostic LED.

It does work, but the tolerances are a little wide for most purposes.  Of course a dead rail will show up by not lighting the LED.

Conclusion:

The CaseBuy EZ Power Supply Tester is not the be-all end-all answer for testing Power Supplies, but it is a tool that servers a purpose when coupled with common sense and a multimeter.  If you have dead rails in your PSU, this will show them right away, and the ability to test molex, floppy, and P4 connectors is a nice touch, and one that I've not seen in a PSU tester before.

Pros:

• Aluminum case is durable and solid.
• Easy to use.
• Test multiple connectors.

Cons:

• Voltage tolerances are a little wide.

If you need a stocking stuffer or want to give a geek/computer enthusiast/troubleshooter a gift that he (or she) will use, the EZ Power Supply Tester should be on your shopping list.  I can't recommend it for everyone, but it does have a fit in some applications.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this review, please head on over and post them over here.

I'd like to thank CaseBuy for firing me this gear over for a review.