be quiet! SFX L Power 600W PSU Review

By Aris Mpitziopoulos
published

Protection Features

Check out our PSUs 101 article to learn more about PSU protection features. Our protection features evaluation methodology is described in detail here.

Protection Features
OCP12V: ✗ 5V: 37.1A (168.6%) 3.3V: 36.1A (164.1%) 5VSB: 5.5A (183.3%)
OPP809.38W (135%)
OTP✓ (135°C @ secondary side)
SCP12V: ✓ 5V: ✓ 3.3V: ✓ 5VSB: ✓ -12V: ✓
PWR_OKOperates properly
NLO✓
SIPSurge: MOV Inrush: -

Over-current protection on the minor rails is set at its familiarly high level. The same goes for the 5VSB rail. Over-power protection is also way up there at nearly 810W, particularly in light of be quiet!'s small form factor. It is impressive to see such a small PSU deliver 810W of power without blowing up. But we'd really like OPP set at a more reasonable level.

The most notable omission is an NTC thermistor for suppressing high inrush currents. We don't know why High Power failed to install such an inexpensive component, but the fact of the matter is that we observed high current readings during the PSU's start-up phase as a result.


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Aris Mpitziopoulos
Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a Contributing Editor at Tom's Hardware US, covering PSUs.

7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • reghir
    Not sure take a look at NewEgg reviews which show 3 users reporting DOA units
    Reply
  • AC____
    How does it compare to Corsair's?
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    The SF600 has higher performance. This is shown in the relative performance chart. However in the overall noise score the SF600 is much higher as well, because its fan profile gets highly aggressive once you load its minor rails. In real life conditions where the minor rails are lightly used, it is quite silent.
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    DOA can happen for several reasons, with hard shipping conditions being one of them.
    Reply
  • expert_vision
    You know what baffles me? How is it possible that no monitoring is offered in today PSUs ? I used to have a HighPower PSU 10 years ago that had a simple 7 segment display, showing instantaneous power draw in watts, and a 3 header pin for FAN RPM. You'd think by today that would be standard. But no, instead they put freaking RGB in everything ...
    Reply
  • HERETIC-1
    Too expensive when you cheap out on a 85C primary cap.
    Reply
  • below
    I had bought one of them a few weeks ago and after installing in bitfenix portal case it has start to randomly make noises. I had rebuild my block two times just to make sure that there is nothing except PSU fan itself making that noise. The noise is comparably with very old HDD's or even Floppy crunching, its super annoying and only appears in PSU working state (when fan at the bottom) and mostly on high load, also noise could be very loud

    Also I have found some review on Spanish (I think) from amazon about this PSU and customer have exactly the same issue, so looks like it could be design problem.
    This PSU is a winner of most comparisons an reviews everywhere and I very dissapointed that none of reviewers couldn't find such awfull issue for quiet PSU.

    Also it should be a shame for company named 'be quiet' that it's 'silent wings' in that PSU making that horrible noises.
    Reply