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Pros, Cons And Final Verdict
Super Flower decided to expand its Titanium line with two PSUs featuring 1kW and 750W capacities. We are pretty sure that in the near future, the company will release more Titanium-rated PSUs with even lower capacities to cover the enthusiasts who want efficient 550W to 650W PSUs. We're sure some users want versions even lower than 500W, though those would probably be prohibitively expensive to manufacture, resulting in a low value score.
At least for the next couple of years, Titanium-rated PSUs will bear big premiums. Pricing will only start coming down once there are enough relevant products on the market. Titanium efficiency requires advanced designs and high-quality components. The truth is that analog platforms have a hard time further restricting energy losses. Wider adoption of digital platforms should make Titanium-class efficiency more readily accessible thanks to the tighter control that digital circuits allow.
The 1kW Leadex Titanium PSU achieves good performance. Efficiency is naturally its strong point, since Super Flower tuned its platform with the 80 Plus Titanium standard in mind. This PSU also fared well in our load regulation and ripple suppression tests, though we've seen lower-efficiency Leadex platforms with tighter load regulation and lower ripple. Obviously, in order to achieve the highest possible efficiency, Super Flower had to make some compromises. These changes include less-capable filtering circuits that end up being more efficient due to the lower impedance of their parts. This is why we measured such high ripple on the 3.3V rail, while a majority of lower-capacity Leadex platforms are ripple-proof. At the end of the day, though, ripple suppression on the minor rails isn't particularly important, since those rails are lightly used in modern systems. What matters most is the +12V rail's performance. In this case, the +12V rail performs amazingly well, featuring tight load regulation and low ripple; its response to transient loads is amazing as well.
Super Flower's SF-1000F14HT is currently the most efficient 1kW PSU that we've tested. If you can afford its high asking price, it should compensate you in the long run with lower electricity bills, especially if you run your machine 24/7. A good PSU is an investment and an especially efficient PSU is also environmentally-friendly.
Now, if you don't want to pay a premium price for a Titanium-class PSU, you can splurge on a Platinum- or a Gold-rated unit, which should offer a better performance per dollar ratio. Unfortunately, in the U.S. market, Super Flower's products aren't directly available. Instead, you'll find them under EVGA's brand. Unfortunately, there are no 1kW or 750W capacity PSUs in EVGA's Titanium T2 family at this time, though we're sure this will change soon.
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Aris Mpitziopoulos is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware, covering Power Supplies.
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