How to fail 101 - Asus and their THOR PSU's - OLED reports only AC Wattage and others

[KeksimusMaximus]

1. The "power draw monitoring" that's being blown out of proportion on every marketing page of ASUS Is total failure as it reports only and only AC power draw from wall. Sure, its useful, but the reported pooling rate of PSU makes it useless as the load varies heavily during usage, so the OLED value will jump all over the scale. Even 5$ plug in watt-o-meters do better job and offer more functionality.

- To make it at least a bit useable, the thing that should be reported is BOTH AC power draw and DC power output (the power that goes directly to PC components) and if no, the DC power output should take precedence before AC power draw! Because THAT IS WHAT PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW, DC power measurement is most difficult for user as it would require taking PSU apart and voiding warranty and having accurate reading from PSU would greatly help in benchmarks of GPU's and CPU's.

- NZXT was able to do it, impement DC power output measurements in their PSU (but they dropped ball on adding AC power draw measurement).

2. The OLED screen is only on one side, the fan is on top side. This is the most ridiculous thing. Great majority of cases have an air intake at bottom specifically for PSU's and come with PSU shroud. The PSU shroud may or may not have a cutout.

- the result? You either have to compromise your cooling to make OLED visible through cutout in PSU shroud or at all with fan pointing away from the bottom case intake or.... you wont see the OLED at all having it covered by PSU shroud?

- a few second of thinking would lead to conclusion, the OLED display should be attached to PSU on separate cable, the OLED should be in some kind of small casing and this way it could be routed away from PSU to be placed anywhere in the case

Seriously, looking at the recent "releases" (if these can even be called releases, where from "release" it takes several months for product availability) , it seems ASUS is outsourcing product design and market research to low GPA undergraduate interns.

First the joke of warranty on their new AIO's - 3 years vs 5/6 years of standard in competitors products and now the fail of PSU where most advertised feature is feasible in small percent of use cases...

[Arne Saknussemm]

It says the display shows "output wattage"



Where do you get that it shows input?



I'm heavily sceptical of anything ASUS does outside of motherboards...but this has a 10 year warranty so I'm less dubious about this than their software for instance

[KeksimusMaximus]

It says the display shows "output wattage"



Where do you get that it shows input?



I'm heavily sceptical of anything ASUS does outside of motherboards...but this has a 10 year warranty so I'm less dubious about this than their software for instance

https://www.kitguru.net/components/p...ed-seasonic/2/

https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/u...box_rear-1.jpg

"Power draw" but its inconclusive if its PSU power draw of components power draw. Even if latter, a total power draw is fairly useless when both 12V, 5V, 3.3V CPU and GPU are bundled together.

https://www.kitguru.net/components/p...ed-seasonic/3/

Also, the whole PSU uses a single ACS725T 1-channel current sensor, so for a single chip it would be impossible to measure load on all three power rails - so only AC draw remains.


Last but not least, final confirmation:

https://www.kitguru.net/components/p...d-seasonic/12/

And other sources:

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/as...ecs,37806.html

"Both units feature some modifications, since they are equipped with a small OLED screen on their sides, which shows the AC power that the PSU draws from the wall socket. This is our first objection, since this screen is in a barely usable location, and on top of that, it only shows AC watts. "


The hardware inside is solid, because the design was done by Seasonic based on their Prime Platinum platform but they will be charging for useless features.

You are beter off saving some money and buying said Seasonic Prime Gold/Platinum Ultra 850/1200W unit.

[Arne Saknussemm]

I got as far as "Thor was the Norse God of War"

Who knows what else they got wrong...

It's a Seasonic with bling and some idea of power output (if it's draw that's in direct contradiction to marketing and would be a bit of a no-no...but the jury is out on that for me)...what's not to like...


Hmmm

[KeksimusMaximus]

I got as far as "Thor was the Norse God of War"

Who knows what else they got wrong...

It's a Seasonic with bling and some idea of power output (if it's draw that's in direct contradiction to marketing and would be a bit of a no-no...but the jury is out on that for me)...what's not to like...


Hmmm

The highlighted part on marketing materials "power draw" can apply both to PC components power draw (DC output measurement) and PSU power draw (AC input measurement).

But internals speak by themselves, it is the AC power draw. The circuit used in the PSU, as per the teardown reviews, is ACS725T which is capable of measuring at most 50A in it's best variant. https://www.allegromicro.com/en/Prod...Cs/ACS725.aspx

This means, the chip would be capable of measuring only up to 600W of 12V power output, which is nowhere near the rated power output of PSU.

Its physically impossible for the Asus Thor PSU to measure total power output in its current design and construction.

[Arne Saknussemm]

Well draw it is then...but since it's aimed at the mass consumer market that seems fine to me too.

You'd need sophisticated metering to provide accurate numbers for all rails which would skyrocket cost. Less than that would be a rough and ready idea, which is what you have...here.

I fail to see the great fail to be honest

Having a movable display would have been a better idea...but that's hardly worth getting upset about...still, each to their own.