EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 P2 Power Supply Review

Extreme Power And Silent Operation

EVGA's close collaboration with Super Flower continues to produce great results. The 1600 P2 is currently the flagship of EVGA's portfolio and surely one of the best power supplies money can buy. Its main internal competitor is the EVGA 1600 G2. Even though that unit has offers lower efficiency overall, it registers higher performance thanks to its extra-tight voltage regulation and the even lower ripple levels on all of its rails. The only PSU from a competing vendor that manages to meet and pass the 1600 P2's performance is Corsair's mighty AX1500i, which costs more. And in order to offer higher performance, that unit utilizes a lot of electronic gizmos, which have yet to prove their reliability over time.

On the other hand, EVGA looks to be super confident in the reliability of its high-end platforms, given a huge 10-year warranty. However, we can't help but be a little concerned about the 1600 P2's reliability over time, since the semi-passive (ECO) mode allows for increased temperatures before it finally engages the fan. On the other hand, Super Flower's and EVGA's engineers must have thoroughly tested this platform, or else they wouldn't have offered the aforementioned guarantee, which exceeds by three years the second-longest warranty period. On top of that, the exclusive use of high-grade Japanese capacitors, both electrolytic and polymer, ensures that this PSU will retain its good performance for a very long time. Tough conditions really shouldn't affect its reliability. 

The new EVGA 1600 P2 is the ultimate PSU for anyone wanting to build a super PC with lots of highly overclocked components, especially power-hungry graphics cards. Under stock speeds and normal conditions, lower-capacity PSUs can handle the consumption of even high-end components. But when the clock rates go much higher, power delivery needs increase quickly and can easily get out of control. This means that if you plan to do some serious overclocking or you just want to be super future-proof, then you should take PSUs like the 1600 P2 into serious consideration. In this price range, the only actual competitor for the 1600 P2 is its sibling, the 1600 G2. As of this writing, their price difference is small, only $30. However, the 1600 G2 registers even higher overall performance thanks to its tight voltage regulation, lower ripple and longer hold-up time. Nonetheless, it is less efficient and, most importantly, makes much more noise since it isn't equipped with a semi-passive mode. If you don't care much about acoustics and want to save a small amount of money, then you should go with the 1600 G2. Otherwise, the Platinum-rated offering is simply a better deal.

The EVGA 1600 P2 offers a huge amount of power with excellent performance of the +12V rail with transient loads. The PSU is capable of delivering full power at 47 degrees Celsius flawlessly along with superb ripple suppression. The unit is very quiet for a 1.6 kW PSU (much quieter than the G2-1600, which doesn't feature a semi-passive mode). A nice plus in this PSU is that only Japanese capacitors are used and a great number of cables and connectors come in the box (including 14 PCIe connectors). The EVGA 1600 P2 also offers ATX-bridging plug in the bundle, long and stealth cables, and a high-quality AC power cord that’s thick enough to power the amperage with 115V. The EVGA 1600 P2 comes with a 10-year warranty and is compatible with the G2/P2 Power Supply Cable kit (individually sleeved cables), which features high-quality sleeving.

However, the EVGA 1600 P2 has very large dimensions and offers lower than 16-ms hold-up time. The ECO switch for the fan is located at an inconvenient place, there’s only a short distance among peripheral connectors and the ATX cable should be a little bit longer. Finally, the 5VSB rail should be more efficient.