The MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 1300W PSU Review: The ATX 3.0 Era Has Begun
by E. Fylladitakis on December 8, 2022 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- MSI
- PCIe 5.0
- ATX v3.0
Cold Test Results (~22°C Ambient)
For the testing of PSUs, we are using high precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2700 Watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox and various other bits and parts. For a thorough explanation of our testing methodology and more details on our equipment, please refer to our How We Test PSUs - 2014 Pipeline post.
The efficiency of the MSI MEG Ai1300P does meet the 80Plus Platinum certification requirements when it is powered from an 115 VAC source. However, when the main’s voltage is 230 VAC, the efficiency is raised by an average of 1%, which is not enough to meet the 80Plus Platinum requirements for that input voltage. The average nominal load efficiency (20% to 100% of the unit's capacity) is 92.1% with the unit powered from a 230 VAC source, and drops down to 91.3% if the unit is powered by a 115 VAC source. It is also interesting to note that its efficiency under very low loads is quite high, at above 83% for a 5% load.
The fan of the MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 is thermally controlled by default, with the unit keeping it disabled until the load was over 430-440 Watts. Regardless, the internal temperature of the PSU is quite low considering the massive power output. Once the fan does start, it is very quiet at first but then speeds up very quickly as the load increases, making the Ai1300P clearly audible when the load is greater than 800 Watts.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
67 Comments
View All Comments
Arbie - Friday, December 9, 2022 - link
An impressive piece of engineering, and high quality construction.I think the fan noise is a non-issue. It only starts running at ~400W (!) load by which time all case and graphics card cooling will be working hard. It's 40 dBA at 800W (!!) when everything else will be howling. With this buried in a case you probably will never even notice its noise contribution.
As for the price - the point is made that this should last for quite a few years and PCs. So, not bad, and you are getting what you pay for. In the hugely unlikely event that I ever build a digital space heater, this looks like a great choice.
Oxford Guy - Friday, December 9, 2022 - link
40 dB at 500W in the hot test, and up up from there.Arbie - Friday, December 9, 2022 - link
The hot box had intake air at 45C. That tests the design limits but isn't applicable to a desktop, where very few people will even be at 29C ambient. The "cold" test at 25C is far more relevant. And that's the basis for my opinion that fan noise will be a non-issue.GreenReaper - Tuesday, December 20, 2022 - link
Perhaps. 2023 is meant to be warmer, and it is likely to continue to warm over the lifetime of the unit. Of course if you have A/C, maybe that is not an issue, but it is relatively uncommon in Europe.quorm - Friday, December 9, 2022 - link
Can you elaborate on patent restrictions for 135mm fans in psu?PeachNCream - Friday, December 9, 2022 - link
Yeah so I rather dislike the marketing style of this article which holds back on listing the price until the last page. Please stick that at the start of the article so I can decide in the first paragraph if I'm going to read it because its affordable and worth considering or if I'm going to just read for fun. (I'll still read either way as will most of us, but for the cost, this is a hard no since its basically the cost of an complete, capable laptop and all you're getting is AC to DC power conversion, not even processing capability.)Arbie - Saturday, December 10, 2022 - link
Yes, I too want to see prices up front, for the same reason.Ryan Smith - Sunday, December 11, 2022 - link
That's fair criticism. We're certainly not trying to hide the price; it just didn't come up in the natural flow of trying to write an interesting introduction.I've gone ahead and added it to the specs table.
Kaggy - Sunday, December 11, 2022 - link
ATX should really refresh, I don't get why GAN isn't more common in such power supplies and go for a smaller form factor.Do people really still get full sized ATX and use all the available bays?
Glock24 - Monday, December 19, 2022 - link
Some GPUs are larger than an ITX case, and some ITX cases are so large thet they are called ITX because they'll ony fit and ITX motheroard.It's been more than 10 years that I only use SFF computers, but a lot of people apparently like humongous cases with lots of leds.