Overview
The Thermaltake Dr. Power II power supply tester is a simple, yet useful piece of equipment many enthusiasts should have. The unit is composed mostly of plastic, with exception for the large LCD screen. It fits snugly into the average hand, making it easier to read and handle. A more glossy plastic covers the top of the unit, which is labeled on the back for your PCI-E, Molex, SATA, and CPU inputs; you will also find the 24-PIN labeled on the bottom of the unit.
The device is pretty simple, so there’s no a whole lot to cover with it. Looking at it from the top, going from right to left is the PCI-E (in red), Molex and SATA in the middle and the 8-pin CPU on the right. On the bottom of the unit you will only find a spot big enough for a 24-pin power connector. Also, on the left side of the unit is a small power/check button.
Usage
The Dr. Power II is a pretty simple device to use. It’s used to not only test your power supply to see if it’s faulty on any connections, but also to show you your current voltages on each connection. Before attaching any cables, make sure you either shut off your power supply or unplug it. To use the tester, you must attach the 24-pin power connection. It’s not necessary that you connect any additional connections, unless you want to get the voltages of those as well. For our testing we will be using the NZXT HALE82 750W PSU with everything except the Molex connected.
Once you have everything connected all you have to do flip your power switch on. Once it powers on, a blue screen will be displayed along with which cables are connected, found at the bottom of the screen.
Before you press the check button you have one of two options to use with the power supply tester. You can either manually go through the connections or have the tester go through all of them automatically. To go through them automatically you have to hold the check button for more than 5 seconds, it will then proceed to scan through all of the connections, changing to the next after 5 seconds. If you want to go through them manually, just simple press the button once, without holding it.
The Dr. Power II will keep going through the connections until you shut it off or there’s a problem with the PSU. If there’s a problem with the PSU an F will be displayed on the unit whenever it reaches that connection and the screen will be lit up with red instead of blue and the unit will beep.
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This baby is perfect for what it’s supposed to do. In fact, it’s the best hand-held PSU tester on the market. I haven’t found a review of this one compared with the other prominent design being sold by about 8 different companies. I’m sure you know which one I’m talking about. Well, I not only have had both of these units, but I also had a unique opportunity a few weeks ago to compare them when checking a particularly nasty PSU. By ‘nasty’ I mean that it was putting out inordinately high voltages. In fact, it literally fried the other unit, including the smoke and stink, but this one took it like a champ and only displayed a red error screen and indicated the voltages were too high. It nearly brought tears to my eyes to go through a second of that other type of meter, and I would have assumed that it was maybe defective or, even if this PSU was particularly ‘bad’, that these hand-held units all die when they hit a PSU with this kind of flaw. I’m happy to say that I no longer have to wonder every time I plug a PSU into my tester whether it is going to be the last one the unit tests before it fries. I can’t believe they still sell the other units, but I’m sure that reviews like mine that point out its significant defect are few in deed. This must be your lucky day to come across mine.