Caporegime
Super Flower Product Page - Does not appear to be one.
OcUK Product Page - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/supe...us-platinum-power-supply-black-ca-042-sf.html
Today I will be unboxing and reviewing the Super Flower Platinum-Rated 550W PSU.
This features a fully-modular PSU design with selectable ECO fan mode (runs passive at low temperatures) and joins a family of great PSUs with a plethora of positive reviews and awards.
At £87.95 it is not cheap for a 550W PSU but it does meet the second highest efficiency rating on the market. An 80 Plus Platinum rating means this unit offers up to 94% efficiency when the PSU is at 50% load, and a minimum of 90% at just 20% load.
Packaging
Just like every other PSU I have had before this one, it comes in a cardboard flip-open box with the cables in their own Velcro canvas-style bag.
Cables
The cables included are:
• 24pin (20+4) ATX at 550mm long.
• 8pin (4+4) ATX at 650mm long.
• 8pin (6+2) PCI-E at 550mm long.
• Two 8pin (6+2) PCI-E at 550mm long.
• Two SATA and two Molex at 500mm Long
• Two cables with four SATA at 500mm long.
• One cable with 3 Molex and one Floppy connector at 500mm long.
The ATX and PCI-E cables are braided and have all-black wires, the 'total stealth' look is good to see.
The SATA and Molex cables are in flat ribbon styles.
All the cables have these clear plastic connectors where they fit into the PSU: this is for illumination (which I will show later).
PSU Body
I have the black version here but it is also available in white.
At the rear is an ON/OFF switch. The unit will auto-switch between 110V and 240V.
This side has a pressed Super Flower logo.
This label displays the stats for wattage and amperage on each rail: 45.8 Amps on the 12V rail is bang on and shows that this is a true 550W-capable PSU.
A 135mm double ball-bearing fan cools the unit when it has to spin up.
At the front of the PSU we find clear connectors that illuminate, and the switch to control the fan mode between always-on or passive at low temperature.
Fan Noise
Below is a video of me turning the PSU on in ECO mode then switching to AUTO mode and back again.
Hopefully, you can hear that this PSU outputs no noise when in ECO mode - even in AUTO mode it's virtually silent. (The video is not the most flattering as it has a touch of background noise that I could not hear whilst it was spinning.)
According to the manual the starting point for the fan to spin up is 55ºC at which point it rotates at 750 RPM, at 65ºC it will rotate too a maximum of 1500 RPM. If it then drops to 60ºC it will spin at 750 RPM again and finally at 45ºC it stops.
Connector Illumination
When the unit is ON and a cable is plugged into one of the connector blocks, that connector will light up to show this, and provide some interior illumination for your case if you have a side window.
Because the connector blocks are made from a clear plastic even the ones without a fitted cable shine brightly.
Super Flower use a unique connector design and have recently started to offer braided cable sets in a few colours. Hopefully more will follow to suit other colour themes.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cases-and-modding/modding/cables?ckSuppliers=578&ckTab=0&sSort=2
Unscientific Testing
Unlike reviewers that have access to expensive testing equipment I cannot test this unit properly, so all I can do is show the voltages shown via the system event viewer.
During use this PSU barely ever spun the fan up - perhaps once or twice during a long Battlefield 4 session.
I guess it is one way of buying a fully passive PSU without actually going the extra expense that those units cost.
Summing Up
So, to sum up, this is certainly a good quality piece of gear. It is well made, quiet or silent during operation and has some nice stealthy looking cabling with the option for braided cable kits.
Why would you buy a PSU such as this rather than a more budget-orientated 550W Bronze or 80Plus rated unit? Well the internal components used will be of a much greater quality and it will use all Japanese capacitors from the likes of Nippon Chemi-Con which are regarded as some of the best with longer-rated life-spans that can also operate in higher temperatures without affecting output operation and voltage quality.
You will also find that even the quality of the soldering will be superior on a high-end PSU rather than a budget unit - so that is another potential point-of-failure eliminated.
It is expensive, certainly, and depending how much you use your PC and how long you have it running each day, the Platinum-rated efficiency could still take you 2 years+ to pay itself back when compared to a Silver or Gold-rated unit.
This PSU has a 5-year-long warranty (which is average across other brands).
Would I buy it? The answer is no: I feel I would spend my money on an EVGA G2 PSU that is also made by Super Flower and has the same fan mode choices combined with an even longer warranty.
So, a nice 550W PSU - but expensive.