Five 550 And 600 W 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supplies, Tested

[Guest]

A good power supply doesn't just provide you with ample output. Increasingly, vendors have put a bigger emphasis on delivering power more efficiently, too. We're testing five 80 PLUS Platinum-rated power supplies in the 550- to 600-watt range.

Five 550 And 600 W 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supplies, Tested : Read more

 

[Guest]

what? no overload it until it blows test?

and i was making popcorn.

 

[mousseng]

Is that a typo in the first chart for Kingwin's Lazer? It claims that it fails 80 Plus's 50% load spec (82% of 92%); I assume that was meant to say 92% (since that's what the chart below it shows).

Pleasant read, though, I like PSU reviews.

 

[Guest]

What happen to Seasonic? They have the 520W fanless SS-520FL Platinum version. No PSU test is complete without a seasonic to compare to, in my own opinion.

 

[dudewitbow]

[citation][nom]jupiter optimus maximus[/nom]What happen to Seasonic? They have the 520W fanless SS-520FL Platinum version. No PSU test is complete without a seasonic to compare to, in my own opinion.[/citation]
they asked for vendors for the PSUs. Theres the offshoot chance that seasonic declined the offer. On other sites, the 520w fanless seasonic unit was compared to Rosewill's 500w silent night unit. The seasonic unit I believe in that review barely edged out a victory.

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]iknowhowtofixit[/nom]Either the Rosewill FORTRESS was defective or your calibration was off for the last test. Your o-scope shots do not match those of other highly credible reviewers. Also, I'm curious of your testing methodology, but it was not listed.[/citation]
I believe this is still applicable to all of the power supply testing our German team does: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/psu-test-equipment,2657.html. I'm waiting for confirmation that I'm right.

Edit: Yup, that's the correct testing equipment/procedure!

 

[Guest]

Dun dun dun..................... no acoustic performance measured, the only reason some people buy high end PSU's.

 

[sebbesapa]

WOW! Thanks a bunch for including the 25watt "Low-Power PC" efficiency test! All other reviewers stop @ 20% load witch is not "idle" or "low load" at all. 🙂

 

[sanilmahambre]

Power supply unit is where a system builder cannot use a word "BUDGET"

 

[jaideep1337]

I don't understand
Why is the 80 plus spec officially test by having more load on the 3.3v and 5v rails?
Clearly loading the 12v rail would give us a better overall image

 

[jaquith]

[strike]Interesting, IMHO the most important aspect is 'Ripple Voltage' @ Rated Load. The only mention I see is a vague reference in your conclusion page.[/strike]

Never mind I see the ripple data buried in the individual tests. It would have been better in the summary side-by-side tests.

Nice article.

 

[Guest]

Power supply unit is where a system builder cannot use a word [strike]"BUDGET"[/strike] "CHEAP"

fix'd that for ya

 

[nix327]

Sometimes in reviews like these there've been products that produce disappointing results compared to well known manufacturers. So why do they send their stuff in the first place knowing that their product is of lower quality than the competition. Do they gain something from these reviews? Just curious.

 

[sandman21dan]

By reading this article, i just thought of a great idea and help for us users, a Best PSU for your money guide, i think that would be incredibly helpful since PSUs are hard to buy and to know wich ones are really good, of course i know that is a lot of work, but it could be like once or twice a year and not monthly like Video Cards and CPUs, what do you think about it?

 

[Azn Cracker]

I guess these psu's are only for bragging rights. For 120, you can get good 700-800w psu

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]iknowhowtofixit[/nom]Sorry!The page you requested couldn't be found[/citation]
Sorry, take the period out of the end of the URL.

 

[JPForums]

But two of these products stand out from the crowd: Cooler Master's Silent Pro Platinum gives us unprecedented power efficiency, followed by the value-packed Rosewill Fortress 550.

Most of the samples we reviewed exhibited minor flaws. For example, Rosewill's Fortress 550 exceeds the maximum allowable ripple voltage on the 12 V rail, which is an indication of cutting corners in circuit design or component quality.

Your priorities are obviously backwards. Rosewill's entry, by your testing, failed to meet ATX spec by producing an unacceptable amplitude of ripple on the 12V rail. By definition, this is a fail. This isn't a minor flaw, this is violating spec. A failure can not stand out from the crowd (at least in a positive sense). Now, there are other posters here that dispute your results, but you don't have that luxury. Both your results and summary comments indicate that this unit is a failure no matter how good the efficiency, price, or other metrics look.

You can argue the importance of efficiency versus DC output quality all you want when the unit meets spec, but all of the components in your system rely on PSUs to actually meeting spec in order to function properly. Without meeting spec, there is no way to guarantee components will work properly. In fact, failing to meet spec pretty much guarantees that some component somewhere will not work properly. I've seen enough devices (granted poorly designed) fail to work properly with PSUs that had ugly DC quality, but were technically within spec to recommend one that is out of spec.

 

[slomo4sho]

I would like to see a fully modular PSU review.

Also, the difference in cost between the Gold and Platinum rated models seems to negate the power savings one would realize by going with a Platinum model. Since I do run a few of my machines 24/7, I am curious to see where the efficiency lies for low power consumption for a variety of 80+ certified models as this level of power consumption occupies a large majority of the up-time (70+%).

 

[Zagen30]

[citation][nom]Azn Cracker[/nom]I guess these psu's are only for bragging rights. For 120, you can get good 700-800w psu[/citation]

Or, you know, power savings, coupled with not needing 700-800 watts.

 

[falchard]

I think the PSU is the most important component on the machine. If it fails or over-volts a rail it will kill components. So I usually get the highest effeciency PSUs because I can be sure they would need good build quality in order to get that rating. Last one I did, I stuck an Antec Earthwatts 550w platinum in a machine. I liked how it was not that expensive for a platinum psu, I can live with 1% lower effeciency.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]Zagen30[/nom]Or, you know, power savings, coupled with not needing 700-800 watts.[/citation]

The power savings over a proper Gold or even Silver are often too small to matter with low wattage systems. If you don't needs 700-800 watt PSUs, then getting a cheaper lower wattage model that's still high-quality means more for the money and more money that can go somewhere more important.

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]iknowhowtofixit[/nom]Either the Rosewill FORTRESS was defective or your calibration was off for the last test. Your o-scope shots do not match those of other highly credible reviewers. Also, I'm curious of your testing methodology, but it was not listed.[/citation]

Rosewill = newegg = major sponsor of tech review site = biased useless information

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]Andy Chow[/nom]Rosewill = newegg = major sponsor of tech review site = biased useless information[/citation]

Are you accusing Tom's of not being objective in this review? If so, then you'll have to do better. Rosewil, although they sell many products on Newegg, is not a part of Newegg. Furthermore, according to reviews of that Rosewill PSU from other sites, it would seem that Tom's simply had a defective unit.

 

[RedJaron]

The power savings over a proper Gold or even Silver are often too small to matter with low wattage systems. If you don't needs 700-800 watt PSUs, then getting a cheaper lower wattage model that's still high-quality means more for the money and more money that can go somewhere more important.

Precisely. A quality 700W PSU is enough to Crossfire/SLI even the highest end cards. The ~500W range is more than adequate for any single-card configuration + OCing. Typically a high quality 500W will run the same as a a lesser 750W, so why wouldn't I want the more efficient model?

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Are you accusing Tom's of not being objective in this review? If so, then you'll have to do better. Rosewil, although they sell many products on Newegg, is not a part of Newegg. Furthermore, according to reviews of that Rosewill PSU from other sites, it would seem that Tom's simply had a defective unit.[/citation]

I'm accusing both Tom's and the commenter. The Rosewill PSU does not meet ATX specs. It does not qualify as a platinum PSU, It even seems like a very bad PSU, from all the ripples etc. Then Tom's recommends it?

[citation][nom]Tom's[/nom]But two of these products stand out from the crowd: [...] Cooler Master's Silent Pro Platinum gives us unprecedented power efficiency, followed by the value-packed Rosewill Fortress 550.[/citation]

I don't believe the commenter claiming a defective unit was impartial either. Probably the same dude who sent in the unit. Claiming Tom's does not have an interest in maintaining a healthy relationship with Newegg ... is ... laughable.