Why's the noise level so high in the crossload test?

Here in Italy the Platimax 500W costs some bucks more of the Kingwin Stryker (500W Platinum, 600W Gold) and Lazer Platinum (550W Platinum: to be fair, I'm referring to their SuperFlower equivalents, as Kingwin isn't available here), which are two PSUs even quieter and electrically more solidly performing: definitely I don't completely understand that SPCR "Editor's Choice" award, Mike (just my 2c, of course).

Just an error; corrected: should have been 18 dBA.
We've always given awards based on performance -- price be damned. The approach comes from the days when $$ was never relevant to noise, and a quiet component or computer was always something to be applauded. Anyway, it is just as quiet as the Kingwins, don't know why you say it isn't unless something in the review misled you.

Nice to see another Platinum but I hope Enermax have fixed their fans and reliability in the 5 years since the Modu82+.

When talking about cost, this got me thinking about the diminishing returns we're getting from PSUs improving efficiency and the higher and higher costs of the bleeding edge units.

Taking UK prices, this PSU is probably going to retail around £50 more than an equivalent Gold rated unit. Assuming the worst case scenario of the PSU running at 600W output (Gold 87% eff., Platinum 89% eff.), the Gold unit will consume 690W, the Platinum 674W. Taking my current electricity price of 12.66p/unit, this £50 will be paid off after 'only' 24484 hours of operation. That's at least a decade in a typical usage pattern even if you were to run the unit at 100% power. More likely the PSU would be running at less than 40% average load so it might take several decades to pay for itself.

There simply is no economic argument for paying the extra to go for a Platinum PSU as it is unlikely that systems will remain in use that long. Instead, the other benefits of higher efficiency like reduced cooling requirements and smaller packaging are the logical reasons to go for higher efficiency unlike the overcompensating mentality amongst mainstream enthusiasts which continues driving PSUs to higher and higher capacities, size and cost. The PSU is one of the few computer components which year on year is becoming more expensive.

Well, I'm often a tad too much critical, and probably some scanning & skimming reading of the other SPCR reviews (a thing that I often do when I see your magical bad apposed on some piece of equipment) may have biased me.

At any rate, the Kingwin Stryker proved to be actually a touch quieter (than the Enermax), and the Lazer Platinum looks like more efficient (than the Enermax), per the tables at

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1220-page6.html
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1203-page3.html
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1203-page4.html (and your note in the text)


As you always told us, 1 or 2dB are hardly discerned in a real life room.
However, if we take the LZP-550 as a reference, a noticeably overpriced unit (I mean the Platimax), with a lower efficiency (9% less at 20W, 4% at 40W, 7% at 60W, 7% at 80W, while 20-80W is probably the power range where Sandy Bridge and the likes will pass most of their life), and probably a bit (those 1 or 2dB quoted above) louder at least at full power, well, in my very humble opinion such a unit (again, the Platimax) should have a somewhat/someway different "ranking" than the quoted "benchmark" (the LZP-550).

Eventually, thanks for the review Mike!

Luca,

I appreciate your reasoning... but again, I'd point out the % efficiency numbers are quite misleading at low loads -- the actual wattage differences are trivial. As a long time reader, you know that noise is always the #1 parameter here. With the P600W's acoustic signature, it is simply not possible to bar it from the Editor's Choice roster. It's one of those rare PSUs that you have to get your ear right up against to really hear clearly. Audibly quieter than the recently reviewed Seasonic G360 (tho at 1/3 the price, it looks like an even better bargain than before!), btw, and all the way to 400W load. Also, w/o being able to give solid empirical reason, I suspect the Enermax to be technically superior to the Kingmax.

Enermax units have always been relatively expensive, I guess it's because they mostly manufacture their own units but in smaller numbers than Delta/FSP/CWT etc

http://www.enermax.co.uk/platimax.html


A few of their PDFs say 50C as well.


From the dBA numbers the Platimax 600W is quieter at full load than the Seasonic G-360 at 300W load.

Personally I like the approach where a unit is criticised based on it's performance, regardless of price because what happens when the price of a unit changes in the future? Or how does that apply in different markets?

I'm personally disappointed that the 500 Watt version is not sold in the U.S. It was on my radar when I was looking for a new PSU, but as it's not available, and I have no reason to overpay for the 600-Watt version (the watts I will not need), I looked elsewhere.

I agree about judging components based on performance, because prices do change and sales and various discounts exist. Once you find the products you like, you can keep an eye on them and wait for a good price, if staying within a certain budget is important. Looking at performance per dollar comparisons on certain sites is very misleading, because MSRP will have likely changed more than once on almost every product in a chart once enough time goes by.

My local hardware dealer here in the UK stocks both the 500w and 600w Platimax. The 500w costs £148 and the 600w £153, a difference of only £5 or about $8. If this is typical of pricing worldwide it would explain why the 500w is not sold in some markets.

Over here the 500 W and 600 W models are 190 and 202 euros, respectively, so I second lodestar's observation about stocking; it just makes no commercial sense to have both with a difference that small. I just wish retailers went with the 500 W, since it is more affordable and more than enough for most everyone (Platinum, baby!), but I guess they're stilll scared of the uninformed buying 2x their actual need.

Well, we're talking about the entire large country not being stocked - not just a retailer or two. I don't think the price difference is as important, as I noted above, as sales do exist. It is also not uncommon to see differences of $10-15 between PSU versions in increments of 100 Watts.

It may be that they have limited numbers of each unit produced so far and hence they have to ration where shipments go. They will have looked at such factors as exchange rates and customer demand in different markets and made available in terms . You'll see them turn up at US retailers in a month or 2 if this is the case.

In general, most brands don't distribute their lowest wattage PSUs (esp retail) in the US. The old bigger-is-better attitude is stronger in the US than anywhere else, so if there's limited quantities, they'll go to the EU first (and maybe Japan) where there is greater demand for high quality and lower power. (Another example: the Super Flower 350W gold ATX -- not distributed by Kingwin in the US, where Super Flower brand is absent.)

BTW, the review sample is up for grabs at $100.

Make that "was up for grabs", just sent you payment via Paypal