Q-Technology 350W Power Supply

     The importance of a power supply sometimes can go unrecognized, but you can beat that it can sometimes be just the ticket to unleash the overclocking potential that your computer can have. With numerous designs coming from several different companies like Antec, Enermax, and our new king Thermal Take, it kind of seems rather difficult to acknowledge a product that comes from an unproven company. Of course this doesn't mean that there is junk out there. Just a few months back I thought the only power supply we would ever use had to be Enermax or Antec, but much to my surprise Thermal Take's offering schooled them both in our testing. Perhaps such a spoiler is exactly what we overclockers need to insure that other power supply manufacturers stay on their toes, so how about we take a look at the newest offering from Q-Technology. Q Technology is a new company to come into the spectrum of manufacturing power supplies. By the looks of our sample they seem to know what they are doing with features like a quiet fan, and an attractive design.

Specifications

Ultra Quiet - only 19db(A)
ATX12V for INTEL P4 and AMD Athlon
Active PFC
Temperature controlled
High efficiency
Remote ON/OFF Control
Power Good Signal
Short circuit, over current & voltage protection

Features

A big and silent 120mm fan cools the QTech

Ack! no exhaust fan? At least there is good breathing...

The Q Tech power supply is very simple but also very functional. A long loom of assorted wires insures full tower friendliness.

SATA, ATX, P4 style, and that other one that I've never, ever used in all my years of overclocking... I usually take the wire cutters to it. 7 Molex connectors are also part of the well-equipped Q Tech.

30A is quite a bit for a 350W power supply!

Performance

Our test setup is as follows:

• Asus P4C800E

• Intel Pentium 4 Prescott 3.0E

• OCZ EL PC-4200 2x512mb

• Danger Den h2o TDX CPU, Maze 4 GPU, Z-Block chipset, D4 pump, Black Ice Micro II w/2 800mm Sunon fans, small bay reservoir, and Tygon tubing

• Visiontek X800 Pro 256mb

• 2x74gb Western Digital Raptors in RAID 0

• 2x80gb Maxtor IDE

• NuTech 8xDVD+RW

We tested the Q Tech against our reigning champion a Thermal Take 480W. (Click on the thumbnails for a larger image.)

Q Tech Idle

Thermal Take Idle

Q Tech Load

Thermal Take Load

     Yes, the temps are odd, but nonetheless the important thing to consider once again is the 12V line which is quite low except under load, also notice the 3.3 line output, not quite as important as the other lines. but still worth attending to if you're into overclocking. The Q Tech actually does surprisingly well in our testing.

     The Q Tech is simply an option for those of you building simple boxes. Sure it performs well, and can handle a mild overclock, but for those of you looking for a solution to your 16 IDE water cooled system should look in upwards of something in the 450 range, as 350 simply doesn't cut it. It still managed to keep our Prescott at 245fsb which is nothing shocking, but with the summer months our test setup runs a lot warmer than usual. Basically the 12V line output suffered quite a bit which can result in instability, and is usually the first sign that a bigger power supply is needed. ClubOC recommends this product so long as it's kept within a mildly overclocked machine.