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

Features
By Patrick Afschar
published

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.

Which Platinum-Rated Power Supply Should You Buy?

If it’s the cream of the power supply crop that you seek, then we just looked at five different models that certainly deserve such a distinction. They all sport very high efficiency, which is what we were expecting from a round-up of Platinum-rated PSUs. 

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.

However, the Enermax Platimax 600 W and Kingwin Lazer Titanium 550 W aren't all that far behind. 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. While Enermax's Platimax also exhibits spikes on the DC rails, they're extremely short and can safely be disregarded.

Although the Cooler Master and Kingwin models don't suffer any specific flaws, we still have suggestions for both manufacturers: we’d like to see longer cables on the Silent Pro Platinum, and better soldering on the Lazer Platinum. 

At the end of the day, Cooler Master, Enermax, and Kingwin share a first-place finish in today's round-up, and prospective customers should make their decision between those three power supplies based on your own criteria (price, the number of 12 V rails, connector counts, and so on).

The price/performance winner is Antec. No other company offers such high efficiency at an entry-level price. Though the EarthWatts Platinum 550 W misses the stringent 80 PLUS Platinum thresholds by a slim margin, we think the power supply's price point offsets that to a large degree. We also determined that the 80 PLUS organization's test criteria partly differs from ours, primarily with respect to the load placed on each rail. So, we do believe that Antec deserves its Platinum logo, as long as you follow the organization's methodology. If you can live without modular cables, the EarthWatts Platinum is worth looking at, too.

Patrick Afschar
59 Comments Comment from the forums
  • what? no overload it until it blows test?

    and i was making popcorn.
    Reply
  • 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.
    Reply
  • 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.
    Reply
  • dudewitbow
    jupiter optimus maximusWhat 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.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.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    iknowhowtofixitEither 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.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!
    Reply
  • Dun dun dun..................... no acoustic performance measured, the only reason some people buy high end PSU's.
    Reply
  • 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. :-)
    Reply
  • sanilmahambre
    Power supply unit is where a system builder cannot use a word "BUDGET"
    Reply
  • 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
    Reply
  • jaquith
    Interesting, IMHO the most important aspect is 'Ripple Voltage' @ Rated Load. The only mention I see is a vague reference in your conclusion page.
    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.
    Reply