Verdict: Stable, but noisy and hot

Aerocool submitted two PSUs for review but the 550W model blew up as soon as we plugged it into the mains. This could simply have been a faulty unit, though, and the 450W model behaved itself during the testing process.

However, there's a discrepancy between the AeroPower's listed specs and the claims made by Aerocool on its website. The actual specs are as follows: a 28A 3.3V rail, 32A 5V rail and a 26A 12V rail. The website, however, claims that it has a 28A 3.3V rail, 38A 5V rail and a 25A 12V rail. However, the AeroPower has support for both 20- and 24-pin power connectors, plus eight Molex, two FDD and two S-ATA plugs. There's no PCI-E power connector though. All the cables are UV-reactive and cooling is provided by two blue fixed-speed 80mm fans. Unfortunately, these fans make a nasty racket, while the MOSFETs inside the PSU make a worrying ticking noise when it's fully loaded.

Despite the worrying noises, the AeroPower passed all the voltage stability tests, although it became extremely hot at 100 per cent load, with the air from the output fan reaching 58ûC during the 30-minute stress test. This partly explains its poor efficiency (72 per cent), but it's also a fairly low-cost PSU.

The AeroPower is capable of powering a modern PC, but it became so hot during testing that we're not entirely convinced that we'd want to use it on a long-term basis. As it's also noisy, we'd recommend shopping around for something better.

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