Regardless of the price I'd still go for the E3631 for these reasons:
1. Rigol known overshoot. Think that is resolved but you don't ship a power supply that overshoots in this century ever.
2. Rigol filed off chip identification limiting repair options.
3. Rigol noisy as hell.
4. Rigol spikes on power up
5. Rigol crappy banana sockets on some units
6. Rigol outstanding bugs
I was going to buy one recently but decided to stick with my TTi supplies for now until something like an E3633A with some wumph comes along cheap.
E3631 has been on the market for a long time. You can still buy new ones and parts now. A second hand unit is a very good investment. So you miss readout for all channels? Not bothered myself.
Note that an E3631, even an old one was a $1000+ supply when it was new.
Hi, I can understand some of your points, but for me, these are quite ok.
1) Never noticed any during my testing, and I have the scope quite often connected to test turn on behaviour of the DUT
2) Maybe, but sofar both of mine have been going good for I think now 4 years
3) Define what you call noisy and how you measured this. From my measurements they meet their specs of 2mVpp and <350µVrms, which is identical to the E3631
4) Ok, that can be a dealbreaker for some. Defenately not only Rigol, and I consider this not so critical because low energy and low voltage. But for very sensitive loads, I would always disconnect the load, even with the most high end power supplies available. In my case when I am testing, the DP832 is always power on, I only use the enable/disable buttons.
5)
Never seen these, that would indeed be very annoying...
6) Never ran accross a bug, but I only use it as a power supply, no automation or advanced features. Do you have a reference?