INTRODUCTION

   With the recent introduction of the Z490 motherboards and 10th generation CPUs by Intel (and a of course the new B550 motherboards and 3000XT processors by AMD - not to mention the upcoming NVIDIA RTX30XX and AMD RDNA2 graphics cards) demand for high-quality power supply units is certain to rise. Now the benefits of owning a good PSU is something that I’ve covered a lot over the years but in short, the most important thing is stable and clean power for your system and more specifically for your mainboard/CPU and graphics card(s). Still there are many out there who are looking for models with the best price/performance ratio and for those Chieftec somewhat recently introduced their Chieftronic brand which aims to bring exactly that to the market and with me today i have their PowerPLAY 750W model (GPU-750FC).

   Chieftronic will build on the legacy of our Chieftec heritage of quality and experience in the PC chassis industry, while bringing in fresh and innovative design features, thus meeting the high demands of gamers and modern power-users. Chieftronic products are conceptualized, designed and supported in Germany to ensure the products we bring to market closely match the needs of our customers. To complement the new product planning and design, we will be relying on the trusted manufacturing quality the market has come to associate with Chieftec products. We are very excited to bring you the newest products and latest trends with tried and tested quality that you know you can trust. For more information, please visit https://www.chieftronic.com/.

   The PowerPLAY line of PSUs by Chieftronic includes two sub-lines the 80 Plus Gold certified one which includes 3 wattage models (550/650/750W) and the 80 Plus Platinum one which currently consists by just 2 models (850/1050W - review soon). Aside the obvious 80 Plus certifications and output wattages these two sub-lines are pretty much identical and of course fully modular. As for the PowerPLAY 750W model which I’ll be testing today (888W max) aside its 80 Plus Gold certification (electrical efficiency up to 87%) it also sports a single +12V rail (62.5A with a maximum supported power of up to 750W), support for multiple graphics cards (four 6+2 pin PCIe connectors), Japanese capacitors, active PFC, zero-RPM mode (fan only starts spinning after 30% load is reached) and a plethora of electrical protections including OCP (over charge protection), OVP (over voltage protection), UVP (under voltage protection), SCP (short circuit protection), OPP (over power protection), OTP (over temperature protection), SIP (surge & inrush protection) and no load protection. Last but not least Chieftronic also covers both PowerPLAY lines with a 3 year limited warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

As usual the box has a partial product picture at the front along with the company logo.

The output selection is located at the base of the box.

At the rear of the box we see the electrical tables of all 3 models in the 80 Plus Gold line.

The PSU is wrapped inside a plastic bag and placed between two foam spacers whereas the modular cables are placed inside a storage pouch.

Along with the PowerPLAY 750W PSU and its modular cables you'll also get the power cord, storage pouch, user manual and 4 mounting screws.

THE POWERPLAY GPU-750FC EXTERIOR

Chieftronic has chosen to use flat modular cables with the entire PowerPLAY line.

The PowerPLAY 750W model measures 160mm in length, 150mm in width and 86mm in height and features a scratch resistant black matte color.

This spider web like grille located just over an 140mm intake fan certainly stands out.

Both the company logo and product name are printed on a sticker placed on the left side.

The units electrical table is printed on a sticker located on the base of the enclosure.

All 9 modular connectors are different in shape, tagged and color coded.

Moving at the rear of the PSU we find the on/off power switch, on/off zero-RPM switch and the power port.

THE POWERPLAY GPU-750FC INTERIOR

The 140mm fan is manufactured by Yate Loon Electronics and can reach speeds of up to 1400RPM to produce up to 62CFM of airflow with 29dB of noise.

Just like with the platinum model i am also testing these days this gold model is also based on a CWT design (OEM manufacturer).

Chieftronic states that they are using Japanese capacitors and this is true since the primary ones are manufactured by nichicon (rated for use up to 105 degrees Celsius).

Secondary capacitors are manufactured by both nichicon and united Chemi-Con (also rated for use up to 105 degrees Celsius).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

     Using a dedicated measurement instrument such as a Chroma or a SunMoon to test power supply units is without doubt the most ideal and accurate way (not to mention the fastest) to do that currently. However, it's certainly not the only way there is and so pretty much anyone can test a power supply unit just by using a test rig. Certainly, limitations do apply and so you can't really push a 1000W power supply to its limits if your system only uses 500W at peak loads and that's why over the years we saved certain hardware components for the purpose of building a dedicated PSU test rig. True it may not be as accurate as the above mentioned solutions but it comes really close and is in fact much closer to real world usage. So as always, we ran several games with maximum graphic options enabled at a resolution of 2560x1600 in order to stress every hardware component and increase the overall power demands of the system. The Passmark BurnIn Test was also used to overstress the components in an effort to provide the most accurate results possible. As a final test we also used the latest OCCT 4.4 software and its dedicated PSU testing suite since it can really bring a power supply to its knees after inside a few minutes.

   Rail stability was checked/measured with the CPUID Hardware monitor and a Metex multimeter which also recorded the system load in idle and in load. As always try to remember that the power consumption numbers listed in the graph are the highest (Peak) ones recorded during the entire duration of the tests and not the average ones. Noise levels coming from the fan were recorded using the high precision HD600 ExTech Sound dBA Meter from the rear of the unit and at a range of no more than 5-10cm. Readings under load are recorded the exact moment we manually switch the fans of all graphics cards from full speed to almost zero, that way the fan of the power supply does not have enough time to slow its RPM and so by doing this we get very accurate noise level readings. Needless to say in order to get 100% accurate readings you need to have a noise isolated room for that exact purpose, something which is quite impossible unless you are working inside a real lab (some people use very small noise insulated boxes but due to their size both heat and noise exceed normal levels and so the results can't really be considered to be 100% accurate, nor realistic for that matter). Also do take into account that since all noise measurements take place from just 5-10cm away the final noise levels to reach your ears will be considerably less.

* After well over 10 years of testing PSUs the Intel Core i7-920 CPU of this rig failed and so we replaced it with a Xeon X5660 (we also swapped the GA-X58A-UD7 for the G1. Assassin).

TEST RESULTS

CONCLUSION

   Chieftec has never been among the most popular PSU companies in the market but judging by the performance of the PowerPLAY GPU-750FC model their Chieftronic sub-brand may actually have a shot at this. Rail stability is very good, the 80 Plus Gold electrical certification is the 3rd best available currently, noise levels are more than acceptable, the list of electrical protections is endless and on top of that design is not what we usually see in the market (spiderman anyone?). Actually, the only “negative” thing i can see with the GPU-750FC (and the entire PowerPLAY line for that matter) is its 3-year limited warranty which is significantly less compared to what we see by the leading companies in this segment of the market (most offer at least 5 years now).

   The PowerPLAY GPU-750FC model currently retails at around 120Euros inside the EU, a price tag which puts it right between several similar output models (just a tad less however wouldn’t be a bad thing). At the end of the day the Chieftronic PowerPLAY GPU-750FC is a very good power supply unit and so if you’re out in the market for a new one and you can actually find it where you’re at you should really give it a chance since it does come highly recommended by us.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Very Good Rail Stability
- Fully Modular Design
- 80 Plus Gold Certified
- Electrical Protections (AFC/OVP/OPP/OCP/OTP/SIP/SCP/UVP/No load operation)
- Peak Output (888W)
- Zero RPM Feature

CONS

- Warranty (Always Compared To The Competition)
- Current Price (Slightly Higher Than Expected)
- Current Availability