To test the power supply unit, we will not connect it to an everyday system initially as we would be unable to know the exact load that we would provide and wouldn’t be able to vary the load. Instead we will use power resistors which are nothing more than normal resistors but capable of consuming a good amount of power. How much power depends on the resistance and capability of the resistor, and can be easily calculated by Ohm’s law ( Amperes = Voltage / Resistance, Power = Voltage * Amperage ).

Hence for example a 1O resistor attached to the 3.3V line will allow 3.3A through it and consume about 10W of power. When adding two of these resistors in parallel, you double the power consumption and allow 20W to be consumed as you halve the resistance this way. Adding more will increase the power consumption. Of course that is not entirely accurate on paper as the fault tolerance of these resistors is high and almost none are exact to their resistance specifications, but after using them we could calculate how much power each bunch of them would consume accurately. This way we can add fake load to any power supply unit, and on any power line we wish with good accuracy.

 

For testing the Neo HE taking into account its design and power specifications, we took the following steps:

Total Load	3.3V Load	5V Load	12V-1 Load	12V-2 Load	12V-3 Load
30% (~170W)	7A (23W)	6A (30W)	5A (60W)	5A (60W)	0
50% (~275W)	12A (40W)	10A (50W)	5A (60W)	5A (60W)	5A (60W)
75% (~430W)	18A (60W)	15A (75W)	10A (120W)	10A (120W)	5A (60W)
100% (~550W)	23A (76W)	20A (100W)	13A (156W)	13A (156W)	5A (60W)
110% (~610W)	23A (76W)	20A (100W)	13A (156W)	13A (156W)	10A (120W)

As you can see, we went beyond the specifications of the Neo HE when testing it and it effectively worked even at 110% load. Take into account though that the Neo HE ratings are for 50 degrees Celsius ambient temperature, and the ambient temperature at the time of the test was only 24 degrees, allowing it to perform beyond its rated capabilities. I even tested 130% load after that, but the Neo HE shut down after a short period of time. I left the Neo HE warm up for a few minutes before taking voltage measurements between the tests.

	30% Load	50% Load	75% Load	100% Load	120% Load
3.3V	3.29V	3.31V	3.34V	3.32V	3.32V
5V	3.29V	5.04V	5.12V	5.02V	5.04V
12V – 1	12.04V	12.04V	11.98V	12.04V	11.86V
12V – 2	12.04V	12.04V	11.96V	12.04V	11.92V
12V – 3	-	12.06V	12.02V	12.00V	11.91V

The Neo HE kept the voltage lines exceptionally close to the rated specifications. Even at 110% load, the only point where the 12V lines alone weakened, they remained close to 1% fault and Antec rates the Neo HE with a 3% tolerance factor. Even at 130% load, voltages refuse to fall lower than 3% of their rated values, but the Neo HE couldn’t hold for long and it shut down in a short period of time. The fan of the Neo HE only became audible after 75% load, while I cannot say that it became annoying even when it reached its maximum speed. At 50% load and below, the Neo HE was entirely silent, much like a passive unit.