Kolink Continuum KL-C1500PL PSU Review: Miner's Delight?

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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.

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Neither the hold-up time nor the power-good signal satisfy the ATX spec's requirements. At least the power-good signal is accurate. You should avoid any PSU that reports this signal falsely; it'll apply a lot of stress to your system's components any time power is lost.

Inrush Current

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

For such a high-capacity PSU, the inrush current is pretty low with both voltage inputs.

Load Regulation And Efficiency Measurements

The first set of tests reveals the stability of the voltage rails and the KL-C1500PL'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.

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Test # 12V 5V 3.3V 5VSB DC/AC (Watts) Efficiency Fan Speed PSU Noise Temps (In/Out) PF/AC Volts
1 10.486A 1.969A 1.984A 0.983A 149.517 87.838% 0 RPM <6.0 dB(A) 44.64°C 0.977
12.199V 5.077V 3.325V 5.090V 170.219 37.96°C 115.77V
2 22.065A 2.961A 2.988A 1.183A 299.648 90.432% 1155 RPM 31.8 dB(A) 38.57°C 0.981
12.180V 5.065V 3.312V 5.074V 331.353 45.60°C 115.56V
3 34.012A 3.461A 3.481A 1.384A 449.611 91.215% 1390 RPM 36.8 dB(A) 39.13°C 0.988
12.161V 5.056V 3.302V 5.057V 492.912 46.44°C 115.46V
4 45.957A 3.963A 4.007A 1.587A 599.661 92.144% 1442 RPM 38.1 dB(A) 39.37°C 0.980
12.152V 5.047V 3.292V 5.040V 650.786 46.90°C 115.36V
5 57.635A 4.964A 5.030A 1.792A 749.841 91.721% 1843 RPM 43.3 dB(A) 39.88°C 0.982
12.134V 5.036V 3.280V 5.023V 817.522 47.70°C 115.15V
6 69.327A 5.971A 6.060A 1.998A 899.916 91.214% 2160 RPM 46.9 dB(A) 40.98°C 0.986
12.118V 5.025V 3.268V 5.006V 986.595 49.18°C 115.02V
7 81.029A 6.981A 7.096A 2.205A 1050.045 90.695% 2310 RPM 49.5 dB(A) 42.16°C 0.990
12.106V 5.014V 3.256V 4.989V 1157.776 50.52°C 114.77V
8 92.650A 7.997A 8.139A 2.415A 1200.222 89.948% 2310 RPM 49.5 dB(A) 43.53°C 0.992
12.108V 5.003V 3.244V 4.971V 1334.353 52.24°C 114.62V
9 104.572A 8.511A 8.657A 2.419A 1349.925 89.407% 2320 RPM 49.5 dB(A) 45.86°C 0.993
12.120V 4.994V 3.235V 4.962V 1509.870 54.67°C 114.47V
10 116.182A 9.028A 9.212A 3.047A 1499.936 88.691% 2320 RPM 49.5 dB(A) 46.02°C 0.994
12.138V 4.985V 3.225V 4.925V 1691.190 55.13°C 114.21V
11 128.320A 9.040A 9.229A 3.051A 1649.822 88.167% 2320 RPM 49.5 dB(A) 47.61°C 0.995
12.158V 4.979V 3.218V 4.916V 1871.253 57.08°C 114.06V
CL1 0.735A 14.002A 13.997A 0.000A 125.184 81.838% 2290 RPM 49.4 dB(A) 44.10°C 0.979
12.204V 5.025V 3.276V 5.125V 152.966 47.33°C 115.78V
CL2 125.006A 1.000A 0.998A 1.000A 1533.121 88.672% 2320 RPM 49.5 dB(A) 46.73°C 0.995
12.158V 5.021V 3.262V 5.021V 1728.983 53.87°C 114.18V

Load regulation on the +12V rail is tight enough, it's decent at 5V, and fairly mediocre on the 3.3V and 5VSB rails. The 5VSB rail registers the worst performance with close to 4% deviation. Fortunately, load regulation on that rail doesn't matter much so long as the voltage levels stay within spec.

This PSU's efficiency meets the 80 PLUS Platinum requirements with 20% load, and it comes pretty close with 50% and full load, even at the very high ambient temperatures we use during our measurements. Clearly, the platform is resilient to heat; it delivers more than its full power at close to 48°C. You'll simply have to tolerate a super-noisy fan. Enhance tunes its speed profile aggressively to keep air moving through the internals. But for a PSU mostly aimed at miners, this is logical.


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Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

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

  • ozicom
    "The problem we see is that all eight-pin connectors have the same pattern, making it possible to accidentally connect an EPS cable to a PCIe socket and vice versa." Well I had a fully modular PSU in past and you can't connect eight pin of EPS to PCIe because the sockets may look same but they're not. If you look closer on top left two sockets of black and blue eight pins the notches are not same so you can't connect it. But if you tried and connect it it's a problem of course.
    Reply