Zalman ZM460-APS 460W Quiet PSU

Product: Zalman ZM460-APS
Provided By: Zalman USA
Price: ~$127CDN @ Pricegrabber.ca

Introduction:

Today we are looking at the latest PSU from Zalman. While this isn't the most powerful PSU around, it supports SLI & Crossfire and has enough power for most users. The ZM460-APS is rated at 460W and supports Active PFC so it is much more efficient than older PSU's. True to form the Zalman PSU is very quiet and shouldn't add any noticeable noise to your system. We will be testing this unit out on a fairly loaded system to see if it can remain stable and within spec even at full load.

PSU Box

First Look & Bundle:

The presentation of the ZM460-APS is very nice. The box is flash but not overdone. As far as what's included in the box – there are quite a few goodies. Zalman threw in standard power cord, a molex to 2x SATA connectors, a low power fan adapter as well as a SLI PCIe connector and some documentation.

The power supply is nice and short and features a very quiet 120mm fan. As you'll see in a little bit, the fan is speed controlled based on the temperature of the PSU. At idle, the fan spins very slowly and is dead silent. The short length of the PSU is nice as it allows it to be mounted in smaller cases that cannot fit other power supplies such as the OCZ Modstream (more on that in an upcoming case review).

The PSU relies on a single fan to pull air from the case into the power supply. This design is becoming very popular, but it requires good, unrestricted ventilation on the back. Zalman has done a great job with this unit as far as rear ventilation goes. The ZM460-APS has a very open honeycomb back that permits unrestricted airflow though the entire unit. You may also notice on the back of the unit that there is a single power connector and switch. This unit auto-senses voltage and will work on both 110v and 220v without having to manually switch between the two.

Specs & Features:

PSU Spec Sheet

This PSU has a pair of 12v rails that provide adequate power for most applications. The big trend today is a 650W or higher PSU for SLI applications, where in reality you don't need a ton of rated watts – you need some good amps on a stable platform. In the past, I has run a fairly heavy load on an Enermax 431W power supply and had some stability issues. I upgraded my main system to a 550W Enermax PSU and that solved the issues. The test we are going to put this unit through is to run the same system on the 460W Zalman unit to see if it can handle the load.