Antec released Platinum-rated models of its EarthWatts family some time ago, and today there are three models ranging from 450 to 650 W. The EarthWatts Platinum power supplies are value-oriented and marketed to the "Casual" and "Office" segments. This is a surprising strategy from Antec; most other PSU manufacturers only stick that coveted 80 PLUS Platinum logo on premium products with higher output levels. Nevertheless, as we mentioned on the previous page, Antec achieves its rating at the lowest price point.
While the Antec power supply's packaging reflects its value-oriented product positioning, the workmanship that went into building the PSU itself is impeccable.
Unfortunately, the EarthWatts Platinum doesn't employ modular cable management, though this obviously helps maintain a low price point. Despite the lack of modularity, the cable strands are of the quality, sleeved sort. Antec provides slightly fewer connectors than competing models, but we still think that two PCIe connectors, four Molex connectors, and five SATA connectors are sufficient for a 550 W unit. You'll only really need to look elsewhere if you're planning to use more than one graphics card or a big array of storage drives. The cable lengths are typical for power supplies in this class.
Antec leans on a 120 mm fan, which is smaller than the fans used in the other PSUs we're reviewing today, though there's nothing wrong with that per se. The EarthWatts power supply is also the only one in this test sporting a four-rail design. Breaking 12 V power up into multiple rails can sometimes be less flexible than just one rail. However, each of the Antec’s four 12 V rails can supply up to 30 A of current, for a combined maximum of up to 516 W.
| Antec Earthwatts Platinum 550 W | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC Input | 100-240 V, 50-60 Hz | |||||||
| DC Output | +3.3 V | +5 V | +12 V (#1) | +12 V (#2) | +12 V (#3) | +12 V (#4) | -12 V | +5 Vsb |
| 16 A | 16 A | 30 A | 30 A | 30 A | 30 A | 0.3 A | 3.0 A | |
| Individual Output | 3.6 W | 15 W | ||||||
| Rail Utilization | Sys | Sys | CPU And VGA | |||||
| Combined Output | 95 W | 516 W | ||||||
| Total Continuous Output | 550 W | |||||||
| Peak Output | 605 W | |||||||
- In The Power Supply World, Gold Paves The Way For Platinum
- Antec EarthWatts Platinum 550 W
- Results: EarthWatts Platinum 550 W
- Enermax Platimax 600 W
- Results: Enermax Platimax 600 W
- Kingwin Lazer Platinum 550 W
- Results: Kingwin Lazer Platinum 550 W
- Cooler Master Silent Pro Platinum 550 W
- Results: Silent Pro Platinum 550 W
- Rosewill Fortress 550
- Results: Rosewill Fortress 550
- Test Setup, Hold-Up Time, And Inrush Current
- Efficiency (According To The 80 PLUS Spec)
- Efficiency (Based On Performance Profiles)
- Which Platinum-Rated Power Supply Should You Buy?






and i was making popcorn.
and i was making popcorn.
Pleasant read, though, I like PSU reviews.
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.
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!
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
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.
Sorry!
The page you requested couldn't be found
fix'd that for ya
Sorry, take the period out of the end of the URL.
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.
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+%).