Andyson Platinum R1200 Power Supply Review

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Packaging, Contents, Exterior And Cabling

Packaging

The box has a plain graphic design with no photos of the product on the front. Only a small Andyson logo is found there, along with the unit's model number and a tiny 80 PLUS Platinum icon. Usually the 80 PLUS certification appears more prominently, especially when it represents Platinum efficiency. Hopefully this has nothing to do with the fact that, at the time of our review, the R1200 still isn't officially certified by the 80 PLUS organization.

On the bottom-front of the packaging, a number of icons represent the PSU's most notable features. We think that a 10-year warranty is the most significant of these. Currently, only EVGA dares to provide such a long warranty period for its high-end PSU offerings. All of the competition, including Corsair and SeaSonic, provide at most seven years. On the top of the box, the PSU is depicted with its modular panel exposed.

We find more details about the product on the back of the box. In this case, Andyson provides an x-ray photo of the PSU, showing a general view of its internals along with a long feature list. There are three additional photos of the product showing its fully modular panel, the PCB's clean design and the nicely designed EMI filter. Finally, a table shows the cable configuration.  

Contents

Packing foam protects the box's internals, while a small compartment inside the top piece of packing foam hosts all of the bundled items. The PSU itself is wrapped in plastic to avoid accidental scratches during unboxing.

The bundle includes Velcro straps and zip ties, sets of screws for chassis mounting, a black noise dampener and a pouch for storing the many modular cables. Finally, the included EU type AC cord is thick enough for 230 VAC input. 

Exterior

The PSU features an almost matte finish, which doesn't attract fingerprints easily. The design up front doesn't follow convention — at least in the AC socket and main switch area, since both of them are installed on a metal piece that attaches to the PSU chassis with three screws. This is because the first part of the transient filter is directly soldered onto the main PCB.

On one of the two sides, we find a small sticker with the product's model number. On the other, a significantly larger sticker provides some additional information (capacity description and efficiency certification).

There is a power specification label that covers almost half of the bottom. The modular panel naturally hosts a lot of sockets, as 1200W PSUs need many connectors and cables by design. A high-capacity unit like this one would be practically useless if it didn't enable enough of them, since only a specific amount of amperage — and, consequently power — can pass through a cable and a connector, and the exact amount depends mostly on the gauges' diameters.

There's nothing too fancy on this unit, except the white part that hosts the pair of AC sockets and the on/off switch. The dimensions are substantial, which is understandable considering a 1.2kW PSU needs large components in order to generate its max power.

Cabling

All of the cables are stealth, meaning that they have black wires that will be less visible inside a chassis with a black painted interior. Usually, in PSUs with high capacities and a lot of cables, manufacturers tend to use flat ribbon cables. But in this case, Andyson goes with the plain, round ones. We would have preferred to see flat cables because they block less airflow inside the chassis.

All of the cables are fully sleeved, though the sleeving quality isn't top-notch. That's somewhat commonplace, since high-quality sleeving can significantly increase production cost and affect the product's final price. Finally, all of the PCIe and EPS cables feature capacitors, which provide some extra ripple filtering.

Contributing Editor

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

  • blackmagnum
    Thank you for the read. Did you know that the power feeding this PSU can instead be fed into 3 normal sized machines? The power of choice is yours to make, but electricity will not be infinite.
    Reply
  • ykki
    Now THAT is a detailed review!
    Reply
  • iam2thecrowe
    Teapo capacitors are a hit and miss. I'd say if your running it 24/7 as a coin mining machine with high load it would not last 10 years. For normal use with a few hours gaming per day it might be ok, but 10 years is a long shot for even the best capacitors not to have some degradation.
    Reply
  • daglesj
    Can we have some reviews of really high quality 300-600W PSUs? You know the ones that 90% of us here would actually use/need.
    Reply
  • vrumor
    Thank you for the read. Did you know that the power feeding this PSU can instead be fed into 3 normal sized machines? The power of choice is yours to make, but electricity will not be infinite.

    Did you know that anyone who cares about this PSU, isnt going to be thinking about the 3 400w HTPCs that it could run. Keep your politics out of a PSU review lol.
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    I will review mid-level and mainstream PSUs as well, no worries about this.
    Reply
  • rolli59
    Always nice to see reviews of the high end stuff but really the 300-850watt range will cover the needs of 99% of readers of the side.
    Now lets see if Andyson can follow up and start putting out decent lower power units.
    Reply
  • damric
    Andyson, the notorious RAIDMAX OEM. Not sure any sane person would pick you for a high end PSU, but thanks for trying.

    Reply
  • iam2thecrowe
    Can we have some reviews of really high quality 300-600W PSUs? You know the ones that 90% of us here would actually use/need.
    i disagree, can we get a roundup of complete rubbish generic psu's like low end radimax and the like and watch them burn! i think it needs to be done to show people what not to buy.
    Reply
  • damric
    15588307 said:
    15588123 said:
    Andyson, the notorious RAIDMAX OEM. Not sure any sane person would pick you for a high end PSU, but thanks for trying.

    is it andyson's fault that raidmax wants them to supply cheap PSU?

    Yes, absolutely. Same with other OEMs like Channel Well that know how to make good PSUs but instead churn out cost-cutting junk because that's the best contracts that they can win. I am not forgiving when it comes to PSUs.
    Reply