Corsair SF600 Platinum PSU Review: Setting The SFX Performance Bar Higher

Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

Load Regulation, Hold-Up Time & Inrush Current

To learn more about our PSU tests and methodology, please check out How We Test Power Supply Units. 

Primary Rails And 5VSB Load Regulation

Load Regulation testing is detailed here.

Hold-Up Time

Our hold-up time tests are described in detail here.

The hold-up time we measured was longer than 17ms. However, the power-good signal's duration didn't reach the 16ms mandated by the ATX specification. At least it's accurate.

Inrush Current

For details on our inrush current testing, please click here.

With 115V input, the inrush current is low. It's much higher with 230V input, though.

Load Regulation And Efficiency Measurements

The first set of tests reveals the stability of the voltage rails and the SF600’s efficiency. The applied load equals (approximately) 10 to 110 percent of the PSU's maximum load in increments of 10 percentage points.

We conducted two additional tests. During the first, we stressed the two minor rails (5V and 3.3V) with a high load, while the load at +12V was only 0.1A. This test reveals whether a PSU is compatible with Intel's C6/C7 sleep states or not. In the second test, we determined the maximum load the +12V rail could handle with minimal load on the minor rails.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Test #12V5V3.3V5VSBDC/AC (Watts)EfficiencyFan SpeedPSU NoiseTemps (In/Out)PF/AC Volts
13.160A1.970A1.953A0.993A60.12385.790%0 RPM<6.0 dB(A)47.48°C0.976
12.191V5.077V3.379V5.034V70.08239.28°C115.29V
27.295A2.955A2.931A1.193A119.82990.149%0 RPM<6.0 dB(A)49.22°C0.969
12.190V5.077V3.378V5.029V132.92440.27°C115.22V
311.791A3.448A3.406A1.393A179.73191.489%0 RPM<6.0 dB(A)50.81°C0.976
12.189V5.077V3.378V5.025V196.45141.22°C115.14V
416.292A3.943A3.912A1.594A239.75491.860%1319 RPM14.0 dB(A)41.80°C0.983
12.186V5.075V3.376V5.020V260.99851.80°C115.16V
520.463A4.928A4.889A1.795A299.85391.835%1334 RPM14.3 dB(A)42.03°C0.987
12.185V5.075V3.375V5.015V326.51452.93°C115.07V
624.632A5.914A5.868A1.996A359.94891.516%1544 RPM18.9 dB(A)42.80°C0.990
12.185V5.074V3.374V5.010V393.31954.23°C115.00V
728.762A6.900A6.847A2.198A419.63590.720%1812 RPM23.0 dB(A)43.23°C0.992
12.187V5.074V3.374V5.005V462.56255.16°C114.90V
832.969A7.886A7.826A2.400A480.13890.230%2410 RPM32.1 dB(A)43.71°C0.993
12.185V5.074V3.373V5.000V532.12856.12°C114.91V
937.504A8.380A8.304A2.401A539.42389.731%2931 RPM37.1 dB(A)44.51°C0.994
12.183V5.073V3.372V4.998V601.15657.46°C114.82V
1042.136A8.876A8.814A2.504A600.27589.180%3021 RPM37.6 dB(A)45.23°C0.995
12.176V5.072V3.370V4.994V673.10458.69°C114.73V
1147.056A8.878A8.818A2.505A660.33888.459%3839 RPM44.3 dB(A)46.16°C0.996
12.179V5.072V3.369V4.992V746.48960.34°C114.73V
CL10.151A14.006A14.000A0.000A120.34186.334%904 RPM7.1 dB(A)43.40°C0.970
12.201V5.081V3.381V5.037V139.39055.07°C115.30V
CL250.024A1.003A1.000A1.000A622.66289.514%3459 RPM41.2 dB(A)45.72°C0.995
12.178V5.072V3.369V5.014V695.60259.51°C114.80V

These load regulation numbers are super-tight, setting an example for all of the other high-end SFX-based PSUs to follow. When it comes to efficiency, the 80 PLUS Platinum standard's requirements are satisfied under 20% and full loads. It comes close to 92% at a 50% load. Keep in mind that we test at much higher ambient temperatures than the 80 PLUS organization, so lower efficiency readings are expected.

The cooling fan's profile is very relaxed. It only gets crazy with 110% load and in an ambient environment warmer than 46°C. Moreover, the semi-passive mode lasts up to our third test, since load on the minor rails remains low. As the load increases on those rails, the fan kicks in to cool the DC-DC converters responsible for generating those rails.

MORE: Best Power Supplies

MORE: How We Test Power Supplies

MORE: All Power Supply Content

Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a contributing editor at Tom's Hardware, covering PSUs.

  • Dark Lord of Tech
    Great review ARIS , I run the SF600 GOLD in my inwin case setup.
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    Less than 1% efficiency difference between Gold and Platinum ? Hard to make that pay under any normal use scenario.

    Glad to see that they made several other improvements for the Platinum model.
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    I don't see the load chart.
    Reply
  • iankphone
    I just completed my ncase-m1 build with this. It's really good.

    8700K, 2080Ti. Like a boss. I'm not overclocking however (insufficient cooling for that).
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    Just wait now for the SF750 to get reviewed :)
    Reply
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    21685936 said:
    Just wait now for the SF750 to get reviewed :)

    Looking forward to it. I will most likely get one for my next setup.
    Reply
  • smitty2k1
    Did you test the SF600 platinum with Vega graphics cards? I'm getting the OCP to trip on my just running the Vega 56 in turbo mode. The same thing was happening with my older Silverstone SX-650G power supply, and Silverstone confirmed that they had made an engineering change to fix the OCP tripping.

    It only happens in Destiny 2, no other games. I'm curious if this is a widespread issue, or something else with my system. It seems the Vega cards are tough on PSUs.
    Reply