INTRODUCTION

   We may be just days away from NVIDIAs announcement of their latest desktop graphics line (GTX 980/970 models probably) so if that does happen on the 18th of this month i expect that many of you will want to also upgrade their power supply units quite soon (i expect some have already done so in anticipation of this). We have already tested quite a few of the latest PSU models to hit the market by a wide range of manufacturers but the good thing with this industry is that you always get many more to choose from and so currently there's an abundance of models with outputs surpassing the 1KW line. This is certainly not needed if you plan on using a single high-end card but if you decide on using at least two then you'd better be ready. DeepCool has left quite the mark in the industry with their very good air and liquid cooling solutions but it seems that's not enough for them since their latest Quanta line of PSUs seems to have nothing to be jealous from other similar competing solutions and the flagship DQ1250 1250W 80 Plus Platinum Certified model should be quite the beast.

     Deepcool was founded with the mission of providing the best performance & humanized thermal solutions for worldwide customers. Deepcool design and manufacture a comprehensive range of high quality products, covering desktop cooling solutions, laptop cooling solutions, server cooling solutions, embedded cooling solutions, and other thermal components. Our goal is to maintain customer satisfaction by serving our customer’s ever-changing thermal needs and providing the quickest and most comprehensive service available. As our slogan goes, we wish you all “Enjoy your cool life”!

   Judging by its specifications sheet the DQ1250 seems to be a solid semi-modular (only the mainboard and two ATX12V cables are attached) 80 Plus Platinum certified power supply with a continuous power output of 1250W and two strong 12V rails capable of delivering 45A and 65A peak output each. As expected from the flagship model of the Quanta PSU line DeepCool has no only used high-quality components like Japanese made capacitors but they have also installed a separate circuit which keeps the fan at zero rpm either until the power supply surpasses 30% load or the ambient temperature crosses the 25 degrees Celsius mark. We also see that DeepCool has also included the rather standard electrical protections including over voltage protection (OVP), under voltage protection (UVP), over current protection (OCP), short circuit protection (SCP) and over power protection (OPP) so the DQ1250 should have no problem providing clean and stable power to your system around the clock 24/7. Leaving out the specifications sheet however it's up to us to see how well it performs so let's check it out.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The DQ1250 arrived inside a long box with the model name, company logo and main product features placed at the front.

You can see all the available power connectors on the left side and the electrical table on the right.

All of the features of the DQ1250 are placed at the rear along with company contact information.

One feature was removed via a sticker and as you can see this was the fan delay one. We've seen this feature many times in the past but according to DeepCool it never made it to mass production due to the extra cost (however the box still had it on).

I've never encountered an issue when it comes to the packaging of all the products we've received by DeepCool to date but this time over things are really bad since the PSU was secured in place via 4 foam pieces which as you can see are not really up for the task (I’m surprised the unit arrived in one piece). I did however check several other reviews and it seems that this is an isolated case.

Inside the box you will find the DQ1250 PSU, modular cables, power cord, warranty paper and 4 mounting screws.

THE DQ1250 EXTERIOR

Much like all PSUs we've seen to date with power outputs over 1KW the semi-modular DQ1250 is longer than your everyday model and features a nice looking scratch resistant coating.

DeepCool has used a 140mm fan to keep the temperature of interior components in check.

A large sticker on the left side has the model name on it while another on the right side has the electrical table.

The modular connectors are both tagged and color coded.

Cable sleeving is quite good although we've seen better with flagship models (and even lower wattage ones).

At the rear we see the usual honeycomb perforation along with the power port and a large on/off power switch.

THE DQ1250 INTERIOR

Yate Loon is the manufacturer behind the 140mm (actually 135mm) ball bearing fan which can spin up to 1400RPM to produce 62CFM of airflow with just 29dBA of noise.

Channel Well Technologies is an old favorite of mine so although i did recognize the exterior design (CWT however uses a nicer looking red LED on/off switch) i had to see the PUO board to be certain.

For the primary capacitors we see that CWT uses Nippon Chemi-Con ones certified for use up to 105 degrees Celsius.

United Chemi-Con is responsible for the secondary capacitors which are also certified for use up to 105 degrees.

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 computer. Certainly limitations do apply and so you can't really test a 1000W power supply if your system only uses 500W at peak loads and that's why during the past 5 years i have 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 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). 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.

TEST RESULTS

RAIL STABILITY

I was a bit worried that something could have gotten damaged during transport but we did record solid rails during testing.

POWER CONSUMPTION

We were able to use up to 1047W from the DQ1250 without hitch.

NOISE LEVELS (SPL)

47.9dBA at load is not bad at all but do take into account that if you use more than 1047W like we did chances are that the fan will spin higher something that will increase the noise levels (although not by much).

CONCLUSION

   This is the first power supply unit we have gotten our hands on by DeepCool and although they have quite a few more in their product line i have to say that i didn't really know what to expect at first something that changed as soon as i saw that CWT was the manufacturer behind it (one of their first 1200W models is still running a friends server 24/7 for 6 years now). Now although our test rig was unable to max out the DQ1250 we did record solid rail stability and relatively low noise levels at 1047W so it's safe to assume that nothing will change if you manage to surpass that number. With so many fully modular 80 Plus Platinum models emerging in the market it would be nice if the DQ1250 was also one of those but leaving out the "future-proof" feature which may or may not come in handy for most consumers having the mainboard power connectors hardwired into the chassis is not a bad thing (quite the opposite in terms of performance). My only issue with the device is not its performance (which was very good to excellent) but with the packaging and although i didn't see the same thing with other reviews still it did happen and if it happened to us it may happen again so we will ask DeepCool to be on the lookout for such issues. We also need to point out that according to some other reviews the bundled power cord is not suitable for such a high-output unit and although for safety reasons it's always better to provide the thickest power cord possible we didn't find anything wrong with it. In the end however although we do trust CWT if you can swap it for a thicker one do so, it doesn't really cost much and it will be for your own peace of mind.

   As with everything else in the electronics industry price is one of the most decisive factors when choosing the right product to cover your needs and with a current recommended price tag set at USD249.99/249.99Euros the Quanta DQ1250 1250W PSU by DeepCool is amongst the cheapest 80 Plus Platinum Certified ones available in the market. It's certainly not the best high-wattage PSU in the market but it offers near excellent performance with relatively low noise levels and at a tempting price tag so what's more to ask? On top of that add the 5 years warranty offered by DeepCool and you've got yourself a PSU that should appeal to a large segment of the market (at least when it becomes widely available) and that's why it gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design
- Near Excellent Performance (Rail Stability)
- 5 Years Warranty
- 80Plus Platinum Certified
- Electrical Protections (OCP/OVP/UVP/OPP/SCP/OTP)
- Price (For Some) 

CONS

- Current Availability
- Package Safety (?)