7-way 600 Watt PSU roundup in Venlo

Cases & PSU/Power Supplies by geoffrey @ 2010-03-17

Looking for a 600~700W PC power supply but haven´t decided yet what to get? In addition to our 2009 summer article we at Madshrimps have tested another four popular products from major brands like Nexus, Enermax, Scythe and Sharkoon. We compared features, performance and efficiency. Which one to get? Read on to find out!

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Sharkoon Silent Storm 660W pics & results

Sharkoon Silent Storm 660W box unpacked

Madshrimps (c)


Box unpacked, inside we found:
  • Sharkoon Silent Storm 660W power supply
  • Sleeved cables
  • AC power cord
  • Manual
  • 4 x PSU Installation Screws
  • Cable bag
  • Plastic cable ties
  • Velcro cable wraps
  • Sharkoon case badge

    Sharkoon has certainly made work of supplying their users with everything they might need, not only did we find different kinds of cable ties/wraps, there's also a handy cable big inside the box, one with enough space to also carry few extra tools like a screwdriver and screws of course. It's roughly twice as big as the bag found with the OCZ power supply, have a look:

    Madshrimps (c)


    Cables explored

    Madshrimps (c)


    The PSU comes with the 20+4-Pin ATX power cable and the 4+4-Pin P4 cable already connected, aside of that we also found following modular power cables:
  • 2 x PCI-E 6+2pin Cable
  • 3 x ODD/HDD/FDD Cables
  • 3 x S-ATA Cables
  • 1 X Molex to Floppy converter

    Again a very complete assortment, instead of adding 3/4 connectors per modular cable Sharkoon kept the maximum at 2 connectors per cable though by adding more modular cables they still score average in connectivity. Cable length is rather short though, this might make it harder to hide the cables in large full tower housings.

    Madshrimps (c)


    More pictures

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    Madshrimps (c)


    Its shiny black finish makes this PSU a pain to keep fingerprint free. The higher amount of modular cables was no problem to implement and hasn't affected the PSU housing size. It certainly isn't the smallest PSU in this roundup, not the largest either but certainly big enough to fit a large 135mm fan. The D14BM-12 model produced by Yate Loon actually is a 140x140x25 12V ball bearing type of fan which moves 62CFM at 1400rpm and 29dBA. The considerable low air flow level means less rpm and thus lower noise levels, at least when the fan speed scales nicely with the power supply internal heat level.

    Madshrimps (c)


    Internal power supply PCB design is OEM made, Sharkoon has chosen a quad-rail design for 12V power, rated at 18 amps per rail they offer roughly 600W combined 12V power which is 20W more than the Nexus NX-8060 which comes with the same pcb design though rated at 600W total output power only.

    Madshrimps (c)


    Sharkoon Silent Storm 660W results

    How to read the table underneath? Well, we tried 3 different load settings: 100%, 50% and 20% of the total power rating. In the left green field on the right side of the table you can read the output power of the PSU, i.e. the load we set, it's calculated by measuring the live voltage per rail, and by measuring the flowing current per volt rail. You can also see what numbers we've measured inside the CM labs, and how many power is consumed by multiplying U (Volts) with I (Ampéres). In the red field on the left side represents the input power of the PSU, i.e. how many in total is being drawn from the wall plug. The second green value on the right side is the efficiency of the power supply, or output power divided by input power, in percent that is.

    Madshrimps (c)


    With numbers all well above eighty the 80plus certificate is certainly well deserved, overall the volts remain quite stable, at heavy load the 3.3 and 5V do fall slightly underneath their target value. Some more test results we would like to share:

  • Inrush current: 78,5 Ampére
  • Power Factor: 0,94~0,99
  • Standby power consumption: 1,2 Watt
  • 12V shortcut protection: OK
  • 5V shortcut protection: OK

    We also tried overpowering the PSU, in this case we started increasing the 12V line load until the PSU shut down, these numbers are experimental and should not be analyzed too much as long as you plan on using the PSU within its specs. In case of the Sharkoon SilentStorm 660W we got combined output power up to roughly 850 Watts. Due to slightly higher 3,3V/5V and -12V/5Vstb the Sharkoon unit thus scores higher than Nexus sample, though at 15 Amps per 12V rail we noticed the psu became quite unstable plus 12 rail measured 11,4V which is far from favorable. I'd say 14 Amps per rail is as far as you should push it when combining all four, likewise to the results which we obtained with the Nexus sample.
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    Comment from EsaT @ 2010/03/19
    Overall good job but as you "crack" them open in any case you should also either check and write about capacitor selections or take such photos which allow recognizing capacitors.
    For most global brand PSUs used capacitors can be found from numerous other reviews but for European PSU brands thorough reviews aren't so common.

    While looking all good now PSU with crap capacitors can easily go bad after only couple years (or faster) so use of known high quality capacitors isn't just PR stunt. Instead of el Cheapo products even PSU with more average performance, say in voltage regulation, but high quality capacitors, is lot better investment and can keep going lot longer.
    Comment from geoffrey @ 2010/03/23
    You're correct and I must confess that I don't have enough knowledge about quality capacitors and such stuff. I'd love to tell you about what components to look out for and which you would rather want to avoid. In order to do that one must have lots of experience in electronics, for myself I would pay a visit to some of these capacitors producers and see how they do it. I would ask repair departments in order to know their thoughts about certain weak components instead of reading and quoting other man's words. But frankly, knowing that it took a very long time to get this review done, and knowing that writing reviews is just one of the many hobby's I have, I can tell you that getting more in detail would take only more time which I can't make available at the moment.

    "Then why bother the review?" Well why would you? I'm telling you from the start that internals is not what we're going to focus on, instead we'll be testing the product 'as it comes' and judge by that those facts what it is worth for us. On the longer scale there're lots of influences which can degrade the product life, and yes quality components will most certainly extend the joy you'll have from it, but than again you're judging by name and not by real world facts like you would get when testing hundreds of units for multiple years. I say it's a nice extra thing to mention but sometimes I get the thought that some reviewers are just quoting stuff and that's why I rather not spend time researching and reading other man's work. But I hope that what you got in this article was good enough to get you going
    Comment from EsaT @ 2010/03/24
    Sometimes some smaller caps have only minimal markings on them but most have manufacturer's name or logo so simply listing identifiable capacitors and leaving arguing/deductions to readers wouldn't increase workload more than minute or two per PSU.
    Cap makers often sticking to certain colour theme can give fast first hint of manufacturer but still gettings markings to show in photos would actually take more effort.


    Quote:
    judging by name and not by real world facts like you would get when testing hundreds of units for multiple years
    Even longer testing of big sample isn't reliable if quality is inconsistent. Like those Fuhjyyus making Antec SmartPowers and old TruePower I/IIs random timebombs. Some of them have obviously worked well while lot of them have been ready to pop at any time.
    And even if lower quality caps work long in one product lowering cooling (as silence is now major advertising point in PSUs) below some level can kill those caps fast in other product.

    So there simply aren't any valid reasons to keep cheap dozenware equal to known long time manufacturers.
    It's rather sure bet that quality PSU manufacturers do some tough testing to capacitors (also they have to stay sharp because of huge counterfeit production in China) they keep using in their high end models so that should be good hint as to what is reliable because in capitalistic world use of more expensive parts than necessary is rare.


    Personally I have one 13 years old high end Nokia CRT still working but despite of good looking design and good sized heatsinks for critical components Samsung 959NF started going haywire after 6½ years simply because of lot of capacitors failing. (don't remember their brands except that they weren't known high quality brands)
    And now in TFT monitors cheap capacitors of their power supplies are common cause of their premature deaths before reasonable operating life.
    So with 1½ year of use behind I have to start really considering when I open my LG IPS monitor for checking is it better to replace caps for making sure it lasts because real step forward OLED and FED/SED monitors are still years away and current monitor markets are falling towards vertically cripled cheap crap. (Millions of flies can't be wrong: Crap is good.)

     

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