The newly launched NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics card is the ceiling of consumer graphics, and its performance is unparalleled. However, the improvement in performance is always based on power consumption, the stronger the performance, the higher the power consumption, the RTX 3090 Ti's nominal power consumption has reached 450W, and it will be higher if it is fully loaded. At the same time, platforms that usually wear top-of-the-line graphics cards will also choose flagship products such as the Core i9-12900K in terms of processors. Coupled with motherboards, hard disks and other accessories, the total power consumption of the platform will easily exceed 700W, which is why NVIDIA will officially recommend 850W and above power supply for the RTX 3090 Ti. If the graphics card and processor are under the "extreme pull", the power will be higher, and it is necessary to choose a kilowatt -- (rated at 1000W and above) power supply. At present, the kilowatt-level power supply on the market is becoming more and more abundant, how to choose to make many users difficult, the following we will analyze how to choose a kilowatt-class power supply suitable for themselves.
80PLUS ≠ high quality
Consumers who understand the PC power supply should be familiar with 80PLUS, through the promotion of various power supply manufacturers for many years, 80PLUS has been recognized by many consumers. 80PLUS is actually a certification standard, before the release of the 80PLUS certification standard, the PC power conversion efficiency on the market is generally below 80%, and after the release of the 80PLUS certification standard, it naturally raises the threshold of high-end power supplies. Nowadays, the power supply is very mature in the technical solution, and the technical problem of passing the 80PLUS certification is not a problem, the problem is whether you are willing to pay the certification fee.
▲ Compared with the words of a manufacturer in product promotion, the so-called "high-quality Japanese capacitors" are limited to the main capacitor.
However, many consumers who do not know the truth mistakenly believe that the power supply that has passed through 80PLUS is a high-quality power supply. In fact, 80PLUS only means that the conversion efficiency is higher, and it does not mean that the quality is better. For example, two power supplies with the same power, one using the international first-line brand of all-solid capacitors and MOSFETs, the other is the use of unknown brand capacitors, they can actually pass 80PLUS in technology, but the quality of the two is not the same, because the use of first-line brand capacitors in filtering, anti-surge and other performance is better. For users, the 80PLUS certified power supply is only a plus, and it also needs to look at the material quality of the power supply.
Pay attention to The Japanese and All-Japanese Capacitances
As a consumer, the advantages and disadvantages of power supply in quality cannot be intuitively distinguished. The interior of the power supply is too complex, to identify the need for strong professional knowledge, even with relevant expertise, it is difficult to see the disassembled power supply internal materials. It is precisely in this way that many manufacturers fish in muddy waters, shoddy, and then brand with cost-effective slogans to tempt consumers.
At present, kilowatt-class power supplies are almost all high-end products of major power supply manufacturers, most of which use high-quality materials, such as the Japanese capacitors of international first-line brands such as Rubycon (ruby), NCC (Nippon Chemi-Con), Nichicon (Nijicon), and Germany's INFINIT (Infineon) MOSFET. In order to attract users, some manufacturers claim that their own power supply uses Japanese capacitors, while the actual situation is that the main capacitor only uses Japanese capacitors, and other capacitors such as secondary side capacitors are from unknown small brands, thus saving costs. For such publicity, consumers often think that all the capacitors in the power supply are Japanese brands.
For consumers, when purchasing a power supply, they must see whether the power supply is advertised by the japanese capacitor or the all-Japanese capacitor, a word difference, but the quality of the product is very different. In addition, consumers can search the Internet for whether the relevant power supply has a product disassembly evaluation, so that they can have a comprehensive understanding of the real material usage inside the power supply.
Preferential selection of well-known professional brands
Nowadays, there are more and more power brands, in addition to the old power supply brands represented by Haiyun, Zhenhua, American Pirate Ship, Great Wall, etc., there are now some brands with relatively unfamiliar names, such as Wind Chaser, American Business Ai Pan E-sports, etc. Our recommendation is to give priority to first-line professional brands of power supplies at the same price point, because these brands are more mature in technology and the products are relatively more stable.
In addition, in the kilowatt-level power supply market, such as the wind chaser AMP1000W, Kyushu Fengshen PQ1000M is actually the OEM version of Haiyun Focus GX1000, this kind of product also belongs to the regular brand, and provides a 10-year warranty, as long as the price is right, it is actually worth buying. It is worth noting that there are many unknown niche brands on the market, although under the banner of 10 years of replacement, but whether this brand can last until 10 years is unknown, it is recommended that you choose carefully.
The longer the warranty period of the power supply, the better. At present, some of the main cost-effective power supplies on the market often only have a 5-year warranty, and it is recommended that consumers give priority to products with a 10-year warranty. In general, the probability of power supply failure in previous years is relatively low. With the computer running for a long time, there may be dust inside the power supply, device aging and resulting in power failure, if you support a 10-year warranty, you can avoid worries.
▲ 10 years warranty plus big brands are more secure.
The choice of power supply power is not simply the addition of hardware power consumption
We know that the processor and graphics card in a computer are large power consumers, and the motherboard, hard disk, and heatsink will also produce a certain amount of power consumption, but it is very small compared to the processor and graphics card. There are many users who often decide the power of the purchased power supply based on the thermal design power consumption (TDP) of the processor and graphics card, and then add about 100W to the power consumption. This calculation method is not a problem for low-end platforms, but it is not suitable for mid-to-high-end platforms. Because on the mid-to-high-end platform, many players usually have the need for overclocking, which has higher requirements for the power consumption of the power supply, and needs to reserve higher redundant power on the basis of thermal design power consumption.
▲The power consumption calculated by a website is only to add the thermal design power consumption, which is not reliable.
For example, we choose Core i9-12900K processor, RTX 3090 Ti graphics card, Z690 motherboard, hard disk, fan, etc., if only according to the thermal design power consumption is simply added, then the power consumption of the whole machine is about 600W. In fact, we can't buy a power supply with a power of about 600W, because through our actual measurements, the power consumption will be as high as 850W when the whole machine is "double baked". At the same time, it is also necessary to take into account the instantaneous peak power consumption and overclocking requirements of the whole machine, so it is necessary to add more redundant power on this basis. For high-end platforms, it is recommended to add more than 50% of redundant power to the thermal design power consumption.
Finally, for consumers with "choice difficulties", take a look at a few of the products we recommend below.
Tt Steel Shadow Toughpower PF1 ARGB
Reference price: 1050W: 1759 yuan / 1200W: 1959 yuan
The Tt Steel Shadow ToughPower PF1 ARGB is available in 1050W and 1200W versions in the kilowatt class, both of which are certified platinum by 80PLUS. Its fans support lighting effects, and by setting 18 ARGB LED beads that can be individually colored on the fan, they can display dazzling lighting effects when lit. At the same time, the RGB lighting effect of the fan can also be linked with the RGB system of ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI and ASRock motherboards. Mc has disassembled this power supply, which uses all-Japanese capacitors and active PFC+LLC resonance + synchronous rectification and DC to DC solutions. This scheme has become the mainstream of the current high-end power supply, and it is also a very mature and reliable set of solutions. Its internal structure and the layout of the overall material parts are also very elaborate, it has a complete two-stage EMI filter circuit, transformers, solid capacitors, heat dissipation modules and other materials and parts are readily available, arranged in an orderly manner. Its two main capacitors are from the Daily's KMW series and are available in 400V/680μF specifications. At the same time, it also has a large area of heat dissipation module near the capacitor, and its heat dissipation module is larger than the thin aluminum heat dissipation module common to ordinary power supplies, and it is these huge heat dissipation modules that ensure that the power supply still has excellent passive heat dissipation ability even when the fan is down.
Product size: 150mm (width) × 180mm (length) ×86mm (high) Fan specifications: 14mm×14mm Efficiency certification: 80PLUS platinum gold input voltage: 100V ~ 240V Input current: 6 ~ 13A Rated power: 1050W/1200W Warranty period: 10 years
Corsair is RM1000x
Reference price: 1199 yuan
Corsair RM1000x has a higher cost performance than AX and HX series, and it is also an 80PLUS Gold certified power supply with a 10-year warranty. The RM1000x features a fully modular design and supports Corsair Link software, which allows you to view power status. The wire can meet the power supply needs of most hardware and can be flexibly configured according to user needs. In addition, the power supply uses a 135mm ML series magnetic bearing fan and a custom engineered rotor, which also ensures high air volume and lower noise performance under high loads. The fan also supports intelligent temperature control, which stops when the power supply is at low load, thus avoiding noise effects. Corsair's RM1000x uses all-Japanese capacitors, the main capacitor can withstand high temperatures of 105 °C, coupled with a resonant LLC topology circuit and DC to DC scheme, so that the power supply can provide continuous and stable power output. In addition, it supports Modern Standby, which wakes up the power supply ultra-fast in standby mode and has ultra-low standby power consumption.
Product size: 150mm (width) × 180mm (length) ×86mm (height) Fan specifications: 135mm×135mm Efficiency certification: 80PLUS Gold Input voltage: 100V ~ 240V Input current: 6 ~ 12A Rated power: 1000W Warranty period: 10 years
Great Wall Gold Hunting Tribe F12
Reference price: 1259 yuan
As a high-end representative product of the Great Wall, the Gold Hunting Tribe F12 is known as a power supply with connotation. It is 80PLUS Platinum certified and can output 100A of current with a single +12V for a total of 1200W. For the precision current and stable voltage requirements required by the high-end platform, this power supply also adopts graphics card power reinforcement technology (VGA TURBO), which can be pulled up to full load at 0.01ms to meet the needs of the high-end platform under high dynamic current. Gold Hunting Tribe F12 uses a 140mm start-stop fan, when the power supply is less than 20% of the load will stop, the light load state intermittent operation for 10 seconds to extend the service life of components. The power supply uses an LLC resonant circuit and a DC-to-DC converter, and also uses an all-Japan capacitor with the main capacitor from Black Diamond. The low-voltage filter capacitor and DC-to-DC circuit capacitors use Black Diamond and Fujitsu capacitors, which are more stable in operation and more pure in filtering. In addition, it also supports NTC anti-overheating, relay automatic power off, MOV lightning protection triple protection, plus a 10-year warranty, so that users can use more assured.
Product size: 150mm (width) × 150mm (length) ×86mm (height) Fan specifications: 140mm×140mm Efficiency certification: 80PLUS Platinum Input voltage: 100V ~ 240V Input current: 8 ~ 14A Rated power: 1200W Warranty period: 10 years
Haiyun FOCUS GX1000
Reference price: 1359 yuan
The GX1000 is a high-end product of the Haiyun FOCUS series, which uses standard ATX sizes compared to other kilowatt-class power supplies, so it is shorter than its peers. Due to the small size of the power supply, the Haiyun FOCUS GX1000 uses a 120mm cooling fan. Its fans support start-stop functionality and are paired with third-generation intelligent temperature control technology, which is equipped with a start-stop switch that stops at low to medium loads and keeps the fan in low-speed mode at medium loads. At the same time, in order to reduce the noise of the fan, the fan adopts FDB fluid dynamic bearings, which can avoid the friction of the metal ball between the traditional ball bearings, so as to have better silent performance. The power supply uses a full-bridge LLC resonant scheme, supports fast power-on of M.2 SSDs, and uses all-Japanese solid capacitors and electrolytic capacitors. In addition, it uses a wireless connection technology to improve the reliability of the connection by reducing the internal wires of the power supply.
Product size: 150mm (width) × 140mm (length) ×86mm (high) Fan specifications: 120mm×120mm Efficiency certification: 80PLUS Gold Input voltage: 100V ~ 240V Input current: 6.5 ~ 13A Rated power: 1000W Warranty period: 10 years
Kyushu Fengshen PQ1000M
Reference price: 899 yuan
As we all know, Kyushu Fengshen has a high reputation in the field of radiators, and in recent years, it has also begun to exert its strength in the field of power supply, and PQ1000M is the flagship product launched this year, which has a high cost performance. This power supply is almost exactly the same as Haiyun FOCUS GX1000 in terms of appearance and parameters, in fact, these two power supplies are essentially the same product, which is a product of Haiyun OEM, so users do not have to worry about quality. The PQ1000M uses the same circuit scheme as the Haiyun FOCUS GX1000, active PFC+LLC full-bridge resonant +DC to DC synchronous rectification. The power supply also features a modular circuit board that uses copper posts to connect directly to achieve a wireless connection, increasing firmness and reducing internal wires. The main capacitor of the power supply is from the Japanese rubycon, which is 400V/820μF and can withstand high temperatures of 105°C. At the same time, the LLC full-bridge MOSFET of the power supply uses the famous semiconductor company Infineon 5R199P series. In addition, the power supply supports OPP (over-power protection), OVP (over-voltage protection), SCP (short-circuit protection), OTP (over-temperature protection), OCP (over-current protection), and UVP (low-voltage protection).
Product size: 150mm (width) × 140mm (length) ×86mm (high) Fan specifications: 120mm×120mm Efficiency certification: 80PLUS Gold Input voltage: 100V ~ 240V Input current: 6.5 ~ 13A Rated power: 1000W Warranty period: 10 years
AORUS Platinum Eagle AP1200PM
Reference price: 2999 yuan
From the price, it can be seen that AORUS Platinum Eagle AP1200PM is a high-end super kilowatt power supply, of course, there are reasons for the price, such as it is equipped with an LCD display, which can display text, pictures, dynamic pictures, MP4 videos, which can be set on the PC through dedicated software. The logo at the bottom of the screen also supports RGB lighting effects, which can be linked with other AORUS. At the same time, it has also passed the 80PLUS Platinum Gold certification, under the input of 115V, it reaches 90.69%, 92.27%, 90.94% of the load at 20%, 50%, and 100%, respectively, and its average conversion efficiency reaches 91.3%. The power supply is equipped with a 140mm double ball bearing fan, while supporting intelligent temperature control, it can dynamically adjust the speed of the fan according to the load of the power supply, when the load is less than 20% the fan will stop. The main capacitor of the power supply comes from Japan's Nippon Chemi-Con KMW series with a specification of 400V/820μF, in addition, it has two Guimigong KMW series capacitors designed for the secondary side output next to the DC to DC module, with a specification of 16V 3300μF. Whether it is materials or design, AORUS Platinum Eagle AP1200PM can meet the flagship title.
Product size: 160mm (W) × 150mm (L) ×86mm (high) Fan Specifications: 140mm×140mm Efficiency Certification: 80PLUS Platinum Gold Input Voltage: 100V~240V Input Current: 15~7.5A Rated Power: 1200W Product Warranty: 10 years