Conclusion

Andyson may not be the most reputable manufacturer when it comes to high-end units but it seems that they really wanted to turn the tide around. As far as performance is concerned, the Platinum R 1200W has literally nothing to fear from its competitors. With superb output quality, efficiency and thermal performance, it excels on every performance aspect. It also has extreme thermal resistance, with high ambient temperatures having almost no effect at all on the performance of the PSU. The combination of great thermal resistance and high efficiency allows the fan to operate at low speeds, maintaining low noise levels under most conditions.

Aesthetically, the Platinum R 1200W is rather uninteresting. The full modular design and the all-black cables certainly enhance the appeal of this PSU a lot. On the other hand, printing a logo that will be facing upside down on the side of the unit is an amateurish mistake. It is not a secret that almost every case in existence that has the PSU compartment below the motherboard tray is designed to have the PSU installed with its fan facing downwards. It is unlikely that most people will care about the logo, yet modders will obviously seek to correct it somehow.

The quality is a little more complicated matter. The ten year warranty is certainly reassuring, the design is exceptional and the assembly job immaculate, yet we feel that Andyson did a childish mistake by selecting Teapo capacitors. It is not that Teapo capacitors are technically worse than their Japanese counterparts are. On paper, they are identical or even better. However, it all goes down to market psychology and Teapo capacitors simply are not loved among advanced users, which are exactly the target group of this product.

Andyson claims that the Platinum R 1200W is the most cost-effective PSU of its class. True enough, with an MSRP just over $200 and such performance, it could wreak havoc to the sales of its competitors. However, it is exceedingly difficult to find in the US at this point of time, or almost anywhere outside Eastern Asia for that matter. This negates the company's argument and reveals a major flaw, that of availability. There is no point with having an excellent product if the majority of your potential customers have no access to it. If it becomes readily available to the "western" markets and the price remains similar, then it will most likely be in the shortlist of every enthusiast shopping for a >1kW PSU.

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  • TurboTastic - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link

    80 Plus isn't marketing if you're paying the electric bill!
  • DanNeely - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link

    At the 10-15 cent per kWh electric rates common in most of the US the price premium for a platinum PSU only pays off over a gold one if you're running 24/7 at full load; and even that takes several years. If you only game a few hours/day and leave your PC at idle/off the rest of the time you might as well go with a sanely sized cheaper one. If you're unfortunate enough to be paying several times that then even casual gaming will push the payback period to a reasonablish timeframe.
  • Laststop311 - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link

    Unless you want your PSU operating in its fanless mode as the high end semi fanless psu's dont kick then fan on till around 30% load. 30% of 1500 is 450 watts of fanless operation while a 500 watt supply only has 150 watts of fanless operation. Some people care about noise.
  • CrazyElf - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link

    80 PLUS actually means very little for real world efficiency. They usually send their best units to ECOS. It's real world efficiency that counts under load and often the ones with the stickers are overrated.

    As far as the costs - it's only a few dollars per year because we're talking single digits. The purchase price vastly overshadows that. I'd go with voltage, ripple, and reliability any day over advertised efficiency.
  • meacupla - Sunday, April 26, 2015 - link

    I haven't really seen any 80+ Bronze or higher PSU suffer from voltage, ripple or reliability issues.
    Usually the makers skimp on the fan first.

    I prefer 80+ Gold/Platinum, because I can count on makers to stuff the very best they have into those units, which means happy ears and reliability.
  • TurboTastic - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link

    Also, the efficiency is directly correlated to the heat produced by the PSU, and that is inversely related to both the quietness and the speed of your computer, which are qualities everyone cares about.
  • der - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link

    A Wise man once said: "A Great gaming computer comes with a great Power Supply/PSU".
  • etamin - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link

    I only click on these PSU reviews to read the comments about irrelevantly powerful PSUs. Maybe AT will listen eventually. But the sponsors are to blame as well...I would think a review on lower wattage units would have greater impact on sales.
  • Mickatroid - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link

    LOL, I am here for the comments too. The claws are out, loving it.
  • Laststop311 - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link

    I've been waiting for a nice 600-800 watt 80+ titanium unit to come out.

    There are some good reasons to get larger power supplies now that they have semi fanless mode. Now most psu's have no fan mode that works up to about 30% of the PSU's output. So if you have a 1000 watt unit you can draw up to 300 watts before the fans need to kick on. Almost all single GPU systems nowadays stay under 300 watts at most normal loads. Sure you could just get a 500 watt PSU but the fans come on at 150 watts or more so you end up with more fan noise. Surely an i7-7960x 8 core skylake overclocked to the maximum efficient overclock of 4.2ghz (if the oc power response curve is the same as haswell after 4.2ghz on the 8 core power use rises sharply 14nm could possibly make it 4.3 or 4.4ghz before power use risies sharply) and a nice EVGA classified GTX 980ti will only draw 250-280 watts on most normal workloads and gaming and someone that is an absolute freak about having the quietest powerful pc possible will want a 80+ plat or even titanium 1kw unit to make sure their psu rarely spins up a fan.

    I will be sparing no expense on my skylake-e build and will be picking every component with noise as a top priority as my pc is in my bedroom and I am looking for a 1kw or higher 80+ titanium unit. Currently I think 1500 watt is the lowest titanium available which gives you 450 watts of fanless operation. I will be going all air cooled as I prefer the dead silence of noctua fans over the hum of water pumps. I go the route of maximizing case fans in every available spot usually like 12 fans which allows you to use the ULNA adapters to keep the max PWM speed below audible levels and the sheer huge quantity of them makes up for the loss of airflow from reduced rpm's. It's less efficient money wise but with all the right parts picked the only time the pc can be remotely heard is when gaming and the graphics card kick on tho even this noise can be drastically reduced with a triple slot artic accelro extreme IV with the front and back heatspreaders and 3 front fans and 2 rear fans and the best performing liquid metal ultra tim applied to it.

    Since it will have been 6.5 years since I built a PC I am able to spend way more money than usual when I'm building a PC as I got a nice little egg saved. And I think a lot of people will be in similar situations because of how slow CPU performance upgrades have been. And for people like us going to these extreme lengths for top performing quiet PC's we need the huge unites so we can stay in fanless mode.

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