INTRODUCTION

   Up until a couple of months ago owning an 80 Plus Platinum power supply was not the easiest for many people thing mainly due to their high price tags but now things have begun to settle and so there are quite a few wallet-friendly 80 Plus Platinum certified power supplies out there for every enthusiast/gamer ranging from 500W and up to 1000W. Super Flower may not be the world’s most well-known brand but they’ve been an OEM manufacturer for many of the leading companies in the field (NZXT and Kingwin are just two of those) for quite some time and now they are pointing the right way (in terms of pricing) with their latest Golden King 1000W 80 Plus Platinum certified PSU.

   Super Flower Computer Inc. is a professional switching power supply/computer cases manufacturer in mainland China with headquarters in the Taiwan area. Super Flower Computer Inc. was established in 1991, we specialize in manufacturing and developing of power supply, computer cases, and related products. With our adherence to giving the best quality, we strive to make customers' needs the top priority and to expand our market. Our well-developed products include switching power supplies, PC cases, server cases and other accessories. Jing Hua Co., Ltd. our power supply plant was established in 2006. With more than 10 years of design and manufacturing experience in the power supply industry, we offer a total solution and would like the opportunity to become your long-term power partner. If you can't find a suitable model from our catalogue, our talented R&D team can design a custom-made power supply to meet your requirements. Our consistent efforts in higher density product development and new advances in technology promise to bring you products of the best quality at all times.

   This is not the first PSU by Super Flower I’ve had the chance to test and since I’ve also tested several OEM units manufactured by them (and then rebranded) I am quite curious to see just what level of quality they have used with the GOLDEN KING 1000W (SF-1000P14PE) which as the name suggests offers 1000W of power capable of feeding even the even the most power hungry Tri-SLI/CF systems and also comes with an 80 Plus Platinum certification (highest one until the new Titanium certification gets unveiled). So the time has come to test it and see just how good it really is.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The unit arrived inside a medium sized box with its strong points and the power output listed at the front.

At the bottom of the box we see two lists one with the features of the unit and one with its interior components.

Both the unit’s features and specifications are present at the rear along with four pictures showcasing all the available models in the line.

3 small pieces of foam and a plastic bag are basically what keeps the unit safe during transport.

Although quite small the box contains the GOLDEN KING 1000W unit, AC power cable, modular cables, modular cable storage pouch, 4 thumbscrews, a warning paper with information about the two different fan modes (ECO/Thermal Controlled) and the user’s guide.

THE GOLDEN KING 1000W

The GOLDEN KING 1000W features the nice black matte color (just like most units in the market) and has almost 20% of its cables hardwired into the chassis.

Super Flower is using a 7-bladed all-white 140mm fan with their GOLDEN KING 1000W unit.

The model name, 80Plus Platinum Certification and the two company URLs are all listed on a large sticker found on the left side.

A large sticker on the right side contains the unit’s electrical table.

The 8 modular cable connectors also feature little rubber covers.

Cable sleeving is once again excellent.

Moving at the rear we see the usual honeycomb perforation, the AC power port, on/off button and a sticker informing us that this is an ActivePFC unit.

The small red switch at the rear allows you to choose between one of the two available fan modes (ECO meaning it spins all the time according to load and Thermal Controlled meaning it spins according to the interior temperature).

The dual ball bearing 140mm fan is made by Hong Hua and can reach speeds of up to 1900RPM (although it’s set to work only up to 1500RPM at 100% load).

The interior layout is very clean and there are two large golden/orange heatsinks dividing it into 3 different sections.

Both primary and secondary capacitors are manufactured by my all-time favorite Nippon Chemi-Con and are rated for use of up to 105 degrees Celsius.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

     Using a dedicated measurement instrument such as a Chroma or a SunMoon for power supply testing is without doubt the most ideal and accurate way (not to mention 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 just by using his own computer. Certainly limitations do apply and so you can't really test a 1000W power supply if your system only uses 500W at extreme loads and that's why during the past 5 years i have saved certain hardware components for the purpose of building a 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. 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 4.0 software and its dedicated PSU testing suite since it can really bring a power supply to its knees after even just 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 (Idle) 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 5cm. Readings under load are recorded the exact moment we manually switch all graphics cards from full speed to idle, 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. 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 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 far less.

TEST RESULTS

RAILS

Rail stability is almost excellent especially since we pushed the unit almost 100W over its rated power capacity.

CONSUMPTION

Most power supplies have a 100W over their rated specification but not many can achieve that for long periods of time like in our tests.

NOISE LEVELS

Less than 39dBA while using almost 1100W (and from a distance of no more than 10cm) is nothing short of impressive.

CONCLUSION

   For an 80 Plus Platinum certified PSU the GOLDEN KING 1000W (SF-1000P14PE) could have a better name (gold is gold) but regardless of the name we are talking about an high quality 80 Plus Platinum certified power supply unit with near excellent rail stability, almost inaudible (even at extreme load), peak power headroom (up to 1100W) and plenty of connectors to power even the most demanding of systems. Although somewhat weird the choice between ECO and Thermal Controlled fan modes is something we rarely see and could come in handy if you want to have a really silent system (and you don’t care about extra temps). Of course I would like to see tags on both the fan mode switch and the modular connectors but that’s a personal preference thing.

   At this moment the GOLDEN KING 1000W power supply by Super Flower retails for around 200Euros inside the EU which is roughly USD250 for all our friends living in the USA since it's currently not being sold there. Now considering that similar wattage (1000W) 80 Plus Platinum certified units available currently cost around 30% more than the GOLDEN KING i really think that Super Flower is doing a great job when it comes to pricing. The only problem as mentioned above is availability since even in the EU the GOLDEN KING series are not very easy to find so i really hope that Super Flower can improve that and resolve the issue of people not being able to purchase their units on the other side of the Atlantic. Long story short for near excellent performance, impressive build quality and very reasonable price tag we are awarding the GOLDEN KING 1000W Power Supply by Super Flower with our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality
- 80Plus Platinum Efficiency
- Near-Rock Solid Rails
- 140mm Fan
- Almost Inaudible
- 2 Fan Modes (ECO/Thermal Controlled)
- 1000W
- Modular Covers
- Price Tag 

CONS

- Availability (Mainly In the USA)