XFX 1000W Pro Series 80 Plus Platinum
by Martin Kaffei on March 1, 2012 1:38 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Seasonic
- PSUs
- XFX
- 80 Plus Platinum
XFX 1000W Pro Series 80 Plus Platinum
We've recently tested the first 80 Plus Platinum PSUs to hit our labs, courtesy of Seasonic and Enermax. Both were good if expensive PSUs, and next up on the test bench is a Platinum series that's sold by a brand without their own PSU factory: XFX. They sent us their newest product, the Pro Series 80 Plus Platinum Black Edition, which sets its sights on the high-end of the market. XFX has created an interesting casing with some unusual elements, but we need to find out how good this model acutally is.
While efficiency is all the marketing rage in the world of PSUs, we should keep in mind that many manufacturers are trying to reach 80 Plus Platinum levels using some "tricks". As we noted in our Seasonic article, there are various routes to higher efficiency, like removing resistors that may fill other roles. Shunt resistors for example transform some of the power into power loss when current flows through it, since there is a voltage drop. That's actually their job as they measure and prevent overcurrent in an indirect way. So let's see how XFX reached the requirements for 80 Plus Platinum (90%/92%/89% efficiency at 20%/50%/100% load), as well as look at how the XFX model fares in an increasingly crowded market.
XFX has historically tried to cater to gamers, and the external design of the XFX Pro (as well as their other PSU lines) tends to go with an angular and "futuristic" vibe. While the exterior may or may not appeal to your gamer sense, ultimately it's what's inside that matters, and in this case we can see that Seasonic provides the electronics (as you can see from the picture below). We recently awarded Seasonic our Gold Editors' Choice Award for the high quality PSU they provided and this trend seems ready to continue. In any case, XFX made a good choice with the manufacturer. This design offers low ripple and noise results on all output voltages, high-quality capacitors from Japan, and several technologies to increase efficiency. Even so, XFX changed some details such as the fan for cooling.
The question then is whether XFX's design is as good as or even better than the original Seasonic that we tested, and if the alterations made to the core design change the product as a whole. In addition, we would like to take the opportunity to let you know that we will be reviewing some lower wattage Platinum PSUs soon; this will definitely be the last 1000W PSU for the first have of this half-year. Our next reviews will test some 400W-500W power supplies from other brands that use more common designs. Today however we will continue with our high-end testing with the 1000W model from XFX. Besides, it's always interesting to see what features can be implemented when the keeping prices down isn't the primary concern.
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mariush - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
Don't you have auto correct in your text editor?but we need to find out how good this model acutally is.
acutally -> actually
page 2... last paragraph... fan has fluid dynamic), then you use FD bearing at the end, without mentioning the abbreviation before
Martin Kaffei - Friday, March 2, 2012 - link
I'm afraid not!But we've corrected all mistakes now. Thanks a lot.
MySchizoBuddy - Friday, March 2, 2012 - link
Can you do a review of the "Be Quiet" series of PSU. They are supposed to be super silent in operation. http://www.be-quiet.net/be-quiet.net/index.php?Sto...ExarKun333 - Friday, March 2, 2012 - link
Not usually one to care about how an internal component looks, but this PSU is god-awful ugly. I would get the Seasonic in a heartbeat if these were side-by-side every time.kenyee - Friday, March 2, 2012 - link
1000W systems would be hot, loud, and power hungry :-PGet me a 600-700W power supply w/ platinum specs and I'll be happy to stuff it in a low power build ;-)
B3an - Saturday, March 3, 2012 - link
I have the XFX Pro 1250W Black Edition, which is very similar to this PSU and looks the same. All i have to say is that it's an excellent PSU, i've nothing bad to say about it at all.It's powering a VERY high end socket 2011 system with multiple GPU's, SSD's + HDD's, water cooling, 32GB RAM, and a highly overclocked i7 (4.9GHz) and the PSU remains quiet. Looks sexy too, even the cables are nice and all black.
Finally - Saturday, March 3, 2012 - link
Cool story, bro.aranyagag - Tuesday, March 6, 2012 - link
and a serperate IC for PFC control on a single sided PCB.SERPERATE
mikbe - Sunday, May 27, 2012 - link
As you said this PSU is made by Seasonic and they reuse their own design so this is almost exactly the same as the Seasonic eponymous version with the differences being the Seasonic has the better San Ace fan, it doesn't look like it was made by the Dharma Initiative, it has a connection from the main PSU board to the back that the XFX doesn't have (no idea what it's for), and the Seasonic is $25 more than this XFX version. Looking at the parts I think the XFX may also use some less expensive components that are spec'd near the same tolerances to shave a few dollars off production costs.If you want to save $25 (a good 10% of the cost) and don't mind the inferior, but still OK, fan and possibly some inferior components go for it. I'm not sure the better parts will make a real difference. That said I decided to spend the extra few dollars and went for the "real" Seasonic because I was buying the best and didn't want to skimp.