Today on our bench are two supplies that in many respects are identical, but in a few are not. As you'll see from the upcoming photos, their designs differ as well as the circuitry within. The real difference here though, is the addition of APFC, or "Active Power Fault Correction". The purpose behind this technology is to sweep clean the power that enters your supply, so that it can consume less of it under a load, which makes for cooler operation, as well as a lesser draw from the wall. What will this mean to the consumer? It's a promise of lesser power consumption on a way to a green lifestyle. Our two guinea pigs for today's experiment were provided kindly by Ultra Products. They will be tested against each other in the standard way (the use of OCCT to look for ripples), as well as have their inrush current monitored via the use of a "Kill-a-watt" meter we've borrowed for this review. It'll help us to see how much the supplies are drawing under a load, allowing us to see if APFC really does work, or if it's more marketing hype than technological leap.
