Intel requires the PSUs to have a slew rate of at least 5 A/μS, so an electronic load must be at least as fast as that figure to be able to perform ATX 3.0 compliance testing. From a professional’s point of view, proper testing would require the testing equipment to be at least 30% faster than the absolute minimum required. This requires a highly advanced (and expensive)electronic load with multiple modules, like the Chroma Mainframe andHigh-Speed modulesIntel themselves is using, which has a total slew rate of 8 A/μS and it would need only 0.02 ms to get the load from 65 A all the way up to 215 A – and that still is 20% of the test’s required 0.1 mstime in our example, a figure that many expertswould find far too great for precise measurements.

We are at a point time in the PC hardware market where the power demand is rising consistently and from what we are hearing, things aren't going to stop. Enthusiasts PC builders and high-end gamers are constantly aiming for the highest-end products with CPUs sipping in an average power of around 200 Watts and GPUs now ending up around the 300-400W range. This along with all the combined hardware in one high-end rig is going to set you close to 800-1000W power requirement. In light of the new ATX 3.0 standard, we took a shot at adding power excursion compliance testing into our articles. Given that this is the big addition to the ATX 3.0 specification– and indeed its very reason for being – it’s where we would like to see if PSUs are truly living up to the very high standards set by the new specification. The cables are a mixture of sleeved and custom sleeved to fit into a variety of builds. MSI also supply a MINI USB to USB cable as this power supply can be controlled via MSI software. Electrolytic: 5x Nippon Chemi-Con (105°C, W), 1x Nichicon (2-5,000h @ 105°C, HD), 4x Nippon Chemi-Con (4-10,000h @ 105°C, KY), 1x Nippon Chemi-Con (2-5,000h @ 105°C, KZE), 3x Rubycon (4-10,000h @ 105°C, YXJ), 3x Rubycon (4-10,000h @ 105°C, YXF)

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We managed to get the PSU to achieve 1428W before it would shut down, delivering 128W more than the rated specifications.

Instead of having a physical switch on the rear of the power supply to toggle between multi rail and single rail, you can control this via the software itself. One interesting feature MSI have incorporated- the two panels on the side are held in place magnetically, so they can be easily removed and flipped – depending on your chassis install rotation. This way you get to see the ‘MEG' logo as you want (or you could in theory remove them completely to get rid of some of the gold accenting if you wanted). These do have a tendency to drop off quite easily so you need to be careful when handling the power supply. On a design level, CWT have helped MSI create a very capable unit, able to deliver in excess of 1,400 watts before it safely shut itself down. Ripple suppression is very impressive, and it handled our cross load test without any issues. The adoption of high grade Nichicon 105c rated Japanese capacitors in the primary stage gives peace of mind and it is clear that corners haven't been cut which helps somewhat to justify the 360 euro asking price. What one can take away from the above table is the MSI MEG Ai1300P has everything you need for a powerful PC build. We don't have the means to measure ripple and other variations in power conversion, but we are able to monitor efficiency and how the power supply performs through use with a PC.

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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 itsefficiency under very low loads is quite high, at above 83% for a 5% load.