Review: Apevia PSU Tester

Our first review will cover a tool any good computer technician should have in their arsenal, something to test power supplies. One of the components that fails often in a computer is the power supply. Symptoms of a PSU failure can show up as a multitude of things, memory errors, generic Windows errors as well as random reboots and shutdowns. For this reason, troubleshooting the PSU first can save a lot of time, money and frustration.
The unit we use, and have used for about 6 months now, is produced by Apevia model# 311181-3. This seems to be a pretty generic unit, as I've seen it in different colors under different brand names. The device has a brushed aluminium body, and generic connectors for devices. It also features a nice blue back lit LCD. The unit can handle 20-pin and 24-pin ATX connectors, as well as +12volt, P8, P4, 6P PCI express, Floppy, Serial and standard 4-pin molex connectors.
Using the unit is straightforward, plug the power supply into a wall outlet, plug any of the connectors the PSU has, in any configuration and turn the PSU on. If the tester does not come on, the PSU is bad. If it comes on, the LCD will show you the voltages the PSU is putting out (as a note the LCD only gives voltage readouts for the 20-pin and 24-pin, and 12+).
The unit is nice and small, and is of good quality, it will handle rugged use just fine. The only major drawback to the unit is it will not put enough power draw on the PSU to show faults that occur when the PSU is in normal use, for this you still need to swap out a PSU to test, or use a volt meter. But, the tester is a great way to test a PSU when it first comes in, an un-known PSU and is easier than swapping a PSU out for first diagnosis. Also, it's cheaper than toasting a brand new motherboard.