The Rosewill Photon 1050W Review
by E. Fylladitakis on March 24, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Rosewill
- 1050W
- Sirfa
Cold Test Results
For the testing of PSUs we are using high precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2700 Watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox and various other bits and parts. For a thorough explanation of our testing methodology and more details on our equipment, please refer to our How We Test PSUs - 2014 Pipeline post.
Even though only barely, the Rosewill Photon 1050W does honor its 80Plus Gold certification badge. The energy conversion efficiency reaches 92.2% at 50% load, with an average of 90.7% within the nominal load range (20% to 100% of the unit's capacity). At low loads the unit performs very well, maintaining an efficiency of 85.6% at 10% load and 78.5% at just 5% load.
The thermal control circuitry of the Rosewill Photon 1050W seems to favor acoustics over thermal performance, allowing the internal temperatures of the unit to get a little higher so that the fan will not be as noisy. At room temperature, the Photon 1050W is almost entirely inaudible up to 50% load, which is an output of over 500W. After that point however, the fan will start increasing its speed sharply and becomes clearly noticeable.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
42 Comments
View All Comments
Oxford Guy - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
It would be nice to see a review of the Corsair RM 850. Techpowerup's review suggests that it is the quietest actively-cooled PSU available. While they gave the RM 750 an even better rating for the average noise level throughout its operating range, the 850 delivers more watts before noise ramps up. So, it appears to be the best option for those who want to avoid noise while still having the ability to go beyond what passive PSUs offer.However, the concern is the quality of the capacitors primarily. It would be good to see another review site verify or contradict Techpowerup's results.
gsuburban - Sunday, June 28, 2015 - link
Yes. I've heard the Corsair RM model's are debatable because they are manufactured by Great Wall or some other maker. Folks tend to suggest on the Corsairs made by Seasonic are worthy such as the AX models. I haven't had any issues with their TX and TX-v2 PSU's in the past years but now the RM has replaced those. There's lot of features with the RM and reviews give them high points for total output accuracy while some say they a few percentage of them don't last or have problems.It would be reasonable to ask many of the hardware review people to do long term 60% power usage with daily on-off cycle testing combined for a final determination of longevity and/or problems. Most will say all PSU's loose total power output after a few years which stands to say why folks should purchase a PSU with about double the power they really need to allow for that and to allow the unit to operate and full efficiency.