There are some gadgets that you do not realize you want or need until you stumble on them. These are the things that you have “made do” without using all kinds of methods. We had one of these moments the other day when an unexpected package was delivered. Upon opening it we found a new product from Thermaltake. It was simple labeled Dr. Power II. My first thought upon seeing it was that it was like the Kill-A-Watt power testers we use to determine power draw from the wall. We could not have been more wrong. The Dr. Power II is a Power Supply tester. With it you can test the nominal voltages from each rail and the PSU as a whole. With a retail cost of only $39.99 it can be a very valuable tool in any DYIer’s home. Let’s take a look and see if it is worth the $40 you will spend on it.
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The Thermaltake Dr. Power II -
The Dr. Power II is a hand sized unit with a plastic outer shell. On the front is a large LCD screen (you can guess what that is for). Along the left side of the Dr. Power II is a power button that is used to kick on the PSU and also begin the testing cycle.
Looking at the bottom we find a standard 24-pin socket which will fit any ATX power supply on the market. One the opposite end you have sockets for 8-pin ATX Aux power, 8-pin PCIe power, four-pin Molex, and SATA power. To run this you only need to have the 24-pin power plugged in, but you can also load up all of the other sockets when you test.
That really is all there is to this product. Thermaltake has kept it simple and easy to use; now let’s see how well it works.
