**First User impressions of Leadex Superflower PSU.**

[stulid]

Superflower product page - http://www.super-flower.com.tw/products_detail.php?class=2&sn=16&ID=93&lang==

OcUK product page - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-005-SF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2057


Today I bring a quick look at a new PSU recently listed by OcUK from a very large PSU manufacturer that designs PSU's for themselves and also make PSU's for other well known companies. with a track record for making award winning power supplies.

About us.

Super Flower Computer Inc. was Established in 1991. We specialise in manufacturing and developing of power supplies, computer cases and related products. With our adherence to giving the best quality, we strive to make customers' needs the top priority and to expand our market. Our well-developed products include switching mode power supplies. PC cases, server cases and other accesories.

Jing Hua Co. Ltd. our new power supply plant was established in 2006.
With more than 10 years of design and manufacturing experience in the power supply industry, we offer a total solution and would like the opportunity to become your long-term partner.

If you can't find a suitable model from our catalogue our talented R&D team, can design a custom made power supply to meet your requirements. Our consistent efforts in higher density product development and new advances in technology promise to bring you products of the best quality at all times.

Packaging.

So the PSU comes in a white box.

Some of the key features such as the NIPPON capacitors the Platinum efficiency rating and the ECO thermal intelligence switch.

This graph shows the fan curve on rise and fall.

A multi language user guide is supplied also explaining the ECO thermal intelligence system.


Cables and accessories.

All the cables come in a pouch.

This is what comes in the pouch,

• One cable > 20+4pins MB power connector. 58cm between connectors.
• One cable > 8pins (4+4pins) EPS/ATX 12V connector. 68cm between connectors.
• One cable > 8pins EPS 12V connector. 68cm between connectors.
• One cable > 2 x SATA + 2 x 4pins Molex. 54cm to the first connector, 12cm between the rest.
• One cable > 3 x 4pins Molex + 1 x FDD. 54cm to the first connector, 12cm between the rest.
• Two cables > 4 x SATA. 54cm to the first connector, 12cm between the rest.
• One cable > 2 x 8pins (6+2pins) PCI express connector. 58cm between connectors.
• Four cables > 8pins (6+2pins) PCI express. 58cm between connectors.

A 2pin European plug is supplied but OcUK include a three pin UK kettle lead also.

Four thumb screws are supplied.

All the cables are modular including the ATX 24pin (20+4)

The braid is excellent and the wires are not visible.

All the individual wires are black which really helps.

The connector for the PSU end on all the cables have these jewel like connectors.

These are the rest of the braided cables, the SATA and Molex cables are all flat type which will help cable management around the HDD cages etc in modern PC cases.

PSU body.

The PSU has its own bag.

Stunning to look at in its all white design.

Power rocker switch and a 2-way switch to control the fan, this puts it in either ECO mode or Auto mode which is always spinning and usually at full speed..

All of the power on a single 12v rail.

The powder coating is lovely to look at.

All the connectors are well finished and give a firm tight feel when used.

The illumination of the connectors in daylight is plenty and certainly not dim.

But in the dark they really come to life. Only the ones receiving power illuminate, but some bleed seeps through from the others.


Fan noise.

My test system is the same as used here.

Test setup,

i7 [email protected].
Gigabyte X79-UP4.
Kingston HyperX Predator RAM@2133MHz.
Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD's in RAID0.
Gigabyte R9 280X 2-way Crossfire.

Below are two videos.

The first is 5 minutes of BF4 and a further 5 minutes of Crysis3 gameplay while recording the fan in Eco mode, basically it doesn't spin up, I think I saw it spin up for a minute once last night then it went passive again after about 20 minutes of playing BF4 online.

The second is just a short video showing the fan noise starting of in Eco mode then into Auto mode then back to Eco mode.

Needless to say this PSU is effectively silent at all times. It never spun up to full RPM in Eco mode during my testing of it, during a 2 hour online gaming session I believe I caught it spinning maybe two times in total and that was only for less than a minute each occasion and that was at a slow RPM which again you can not hear.


Final thoughts.

Utterly gorgeous to look at and silent during operation this PSU is fantastic, the cables are nicely braided and of good length for big tower cases. The biggest overall impression is one of absolute silence, no fan noise, no coil whine, no nothing, if it was not for the fact that the PC is ON and the connectors are illuminated you wouldn't think it was working.


Pros.

• It's white.
• It is gorgeous.
• It is silent in Eco mode.
• The cables are well finished and have a nice braid.
• 5 year warranty.


Cons.

• Lol wut? ok it is £209.99, but this is a Platinum rated high quality 1KW PSU, I see Gold rated units for similar.


Thanks to OcUK for the PSU and Ethermaster for the banner.

 

[stuie]

Gorgeous I want one

 

[Gibbo]

Hi there

I think your testing will truly show to people how quiet these power supplies really are.

 

[stulid]

Hi there

I think your testing will truly show to people how quiet these power supplies really are.

Indeed.

Silence is golden.

 

[Zeed]

OMG They come in black to !!!
Well i was putting in some overtimes and my psu got coil whine so tempted to get one.

But 1kw psu for singe gpu setup is bit of an overkill :/

 

[elite_modder]

Got one of these recently with the system I ordered from OcUK and I'm also impressed. Apart from looking stunning through the window it is also whisper quiet.

I think the only thing stopping people is they don't recognise the brand name, most not realising they make PSU's for other better known brands like NZXT, Akasa, Kingwin, Thermaltake, OCZ etc...

 

[tipes]

Indeed.

Silence is golden.

Or in this case Platinum. Lol.

Mark

 

[Nelly]

You know what amazes me, it's not just SuperFlower, but also Seasonic. The actual PSU's are far far more expensive than the exact same equivelant PSU's branded EVGA, Corsair etc, and they need to make a profit to...

You would think if they are directly from the manufacturer, you're taking out the middleman i.e. EVGA, Corsair etc, so should be even cheaper...

 

[Gibbo]

You know what amazes me, it's not just SuperFlower, but also Seasonic. The actual PSU's are far far more expensive than the exact same equivelant PSU's branded EVGA, Corsair etc, and they need to make a profit to...

You would think if they are directly from the manufacturer, you're taking out the middleman i.e. EVGA, Corsair etc, so should be even cheaper...

Valid for Seasonic yes. As Seasonic don't allow any spec change for their partners, they just re-box and change the label.

But Superflower will build to your specification, whethers its an improvement or cost cutting exercise (within reason).

So the EVGA PSU's which are Superflower built, are not identical to the Leadex units, the most obvious of this is how the Superflower Leadex have glowing connectors and the EVGA does not. What other changes there is are unknown, but I know Superflower sold as their own brand is an all out premium high-end product with the absolute highest quality, with zero cost cutting taken into effect.

 

[stulid]

Here are the reviews which will include voltage, ripple etc,

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=340
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/SuperFlower/SF-1000F14MP/
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/57...m-1000-80-plus-platinum-psu-review/index.html

Certainly no messing around with the quality of this PSU.

 

[8 Pack]

I benched 1200w Leadex on 4 R290X and 6.2ghz + Haswell. totally stable for records. With 1.4v to each card. Truly top quality PSU these in terms of both performance and noise levels. I am so impressed with these bad boys they are my new PSU of choice for the 8Pack systems.

 

[Gibbo]

Like 8 Pack says, I'd only buy Superflower myself now after using them, they are simply better than anything else out there in each segment.

Nearly all OcUK systems are now Superflower based as well.

 

[Idleman]

Indeed.

Silence is PLATINUM.

Nice review.

 

[ScottiB]

We put one of the black Leadex in a watercooled 900D system yesterday, it looked frankly awesome sat in the base glowing away majestically

 

[Doco]

I'm a sucker for lights, and the glowing connections look very impressive (even though I dont have a windowed side panel - shush lol)

 

[pexonpcs]

These look truly awesome PSUs, really want to get my hands on one to sleeve, they use a differnet pinout that all other PSUs on the market, so it would be cool to do something different. They look amazing in white too

 

[spixelspixel]

You said that when the fan is in normal mode it spins full speed all the time? Did you test the normal fan mode when the pc is idle? I'd like to know how quite it is then.

This is from techpowerups review

"Because of a very relaxed fan profile, the PSU's fan only started to rotate halfway through the 40% test and was almost inaudible at up to the 60% load test. Super Flower's Leadex Platinum operates quietly under even extreme conditions, which most users will appreciate. We would, since the fan profile is very relaxed, pick its normal fan mode over the semi-passive one if we had this unit installed in our system. In the latter, the fan spins up rather late, allowing for high internal temperatures that affect the lifetime of its electrolytic caps the most. The fan operates at incredibly low speeds most of the time, and I would leave it on all the time to cool this PSU's internals down. That said, Super Flower surely knows the tolerances of the components they use best and wouldn't tune the semi-fanless operation as they have if they weren't sure of it; and nor would they offer a five year warranty."

 

[stulid]

You said that when the fan is in normal mode it spins full speed all the time? Did you test the normal fan mode when the pc is idle? I'd like to know how quite it is then.

This is from techpowerups review

"Because of a very relaxed fan profile, the PSU's fan only started to rotate halfway through the 40% test and was almost inaudible at up to the 60% load test. Super Flower's Leadex Platinum operates quietly under even extreme conditions, which most users will appreciate. We would, since the fan profile is very relaxed, pick its normal fan mode over the semi-passive one if we had this unit installed in our system. In the latter, the fan spins up rather late, allowing for high internal temperatures that affect the lifetime of its electrolytic caps the most. The fan operates at incredibly low speeds most of the time, and I would leave it on all the time to cool this PSU's internals down. That said, Super Flower surely knows the tolerances of the components they use best and wouldn't tune the semi-fanless operation as they have if they weren't sure of it; and nor would they offer a five year warranty."

See the second video, that's Idle.

Sitting here typing this I have it flicked into auto and can hear the fan and air movement.

 

[Ragnahex]

i just asked about quiet high powered psu the other day. seems like this answers my question

 

[spixelspixel]

See the second video, that's Idle.

Sitting here typing this I have it flicked into auto and can hear the fan and air movement.

They must have changed the profile on normal fan mode or there's an issue with yours.

According to the techpowerup review in normal mode at about 200w the fan is still off and spins up to 600rpm at about 400w. In eco mode it starts spinning even later.