Super Flower Leadex Gold 650W Supply Review

Introduction & Packaging Super Flower have turned a lot of heads since they have started selling their power supplies branded under their own name. Previously Super Flower had been an OEM producer for brands like EVGA but they made the decision this year to go all-in for establishing themselves as a retail power supply brand. The first power supply we took a look at from them was the beastly Leadex Platinum 1000W power supply which offered class-leading performance for a ground-breaking price. We followed that by looking at their passive Golden Silent 500W power supply which offered incredible performance in a totally silent package - a very innovative product. Today we are looking at something which sits just below the Leadex Platinum series; a Leadex Gold power supply. Super Flower provided us their 650W model which is a sweet spot wattage for anyone building a fairly high-end system. The Leadex Gold brings with it all the high-end features we saw on the Leadex Platinum series but with a slightly lower efficiency. This means buyers will find a fully modular design, a silent semi-passive fan mode, universal modular connectors and high quality internal components. Packaging and Contents The packaging reiterates the gold theme: that's the main selling point from Super Flower's perspective. Moving around the back and we find the other already mentioned key features are detailed. The accessories are simple: four thumbscrews for securing the PSU into your case, a user's manual and a power cable. A Closer Look - Exterior Power Supply Unit The Leadex Gold comes with very clean aesthetics. Super Flower's branding is subtle and the fan grille used is fairly unique and instantly recognisable as Super Flower's own. Should you mount the PSU fan down you'd be greeted with this label facing the window side of the case. Mounting the fan facing upwards gives you this much nicer view. The base is totally plain which is good for keeping your system build clean and tidy. Around the back we find significant ventilation, a power switch, kettle lead input and a switch to control the fan mode between Auto and the default Eco setting. At the connector end we find 9 universal modular connections and the motherboard connector. This means you can plug any modular cable into any port. The only one that has to go in a specified place is the motherboard one. Cabling The included cables are very high quality. They are all black with some sleeving on the PCIe, CPU and motherboard cables. You get ten cables in total giving you you the following connections: 6 x SATA 5 x Molex 1 x FDD 1 x 24 pin 2 x 8 Pin EPS 4 x PCIe 6+2 pins With that selection of cables you're good to go on multi-GPU setups and even multi-CPU setups if you're running a LGA 2011 Xeon workstation board for example. A Closer Look - Interior Internally this unit is manufactured in-house by Super Flower. This platform is a slightly dampened down version of their Leadex Platinum series. The highest quality 105 degrees celsius rated Japanese capacitors are used, the primary hold-up capacitor is rated for 470uF at 400V. On the secondary side we find more Japanese capacitors meaning we should expect strong regulation and ripple suppression on all-rails. A large heatsink spans across the unit to keep the internals cool with a low fan speed. The input filtering lacks shielding but given how much space there is inside this chassis it doesn't really need it. Globe Fan make this unit's fan and it uses an FDP bearing. The maximum rated RPM is 1500. Test Procedure At eTeknix we take the power supply testing procedure very seriously and have invested a lot of resources into acquiring the appropriate testing equipment. For all power supply reviews we test the power supplies with dedicated power supply testing equipment. This means we are able to get the most accurate results from our testing as opposed to using software benchmarks (such as OCCT) or multi-meter readouts which are broadly inaccurate. Our test machinery is as follows: Sunmoon SM-5500ATE Active Load Tester (1200W rated) Stingray DS1M12 USB Oscilloscope Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer The eTeknix test procedure involves: Testing each power supply at 20/40/60/80/100% load (with balanced load across all rails) and measuring PFC (power factor correction), efficiency (actual power divided by power "pulled at the wall") and voltage regulation (deviance from expected voltages of 3.3/5/12 on the main rails). Measuring ripple with an oscilloscope at 20/40/60/80/100% load. Measuring fan speed after a stabilisation period of five minutes at each load scenario using the Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer and a reflective strip on the fan. Testing each power supply's OPP (Over Power Protection) mechanism and seeing how many watts each power supply can deliver before shutting down Other things to consider are that We recognise that a single yellow 12 volt cable can provide only 6 Amps before overheating (which corrupts voltage regulation and efficiency) and so we used an adequate number of cables for each power supply to ensure there is not efficiency loss from poor cables selection Our Sunmoon SM-5500ATE power supply tester is not capable of testing more than 300W on each of the 12 volt rails so where a power supply provides more than 300W on a 12 volt rail that power is distributed over multiple 12 volt rails on the load tester. For example a power supply with one 12 volt rail supplying 750 watts would be spread equally over three 12 volt rails on the load tester, a power supply with two 450W 12v rails would be spread over four 12v rails on the load tester, two 225W 12v rails for each of the 12v rails on the unit. We use the same time scale and horizontal millivolt scale on our oscilloscope for all ripple tests, that is a 20ms T/DIV (horizontal) and a 0.02 V/DIV (vertical) meaning the scale is from -80mV to +80mV, ATX spec dictates that the 12v rail must fall within 150mv of ripple and the 3.3/5 within 50mv so that scale allows us to include both 150 and 50mV peaks. (Some older PSU reviews use different scales which were later ditched as the visual representation they give is inadequate, in these reviews written measurements are provided only). Deviance is the terminology used to represent the way voltages diverge from the expected values Efficiency, PFC and Voltage Regulation Voltage Regulation To test voltage regulation we load the power supply to five different load scenarios that give an equal spread of load across every single rail. So that means 20% on all rails, 40% on all rails and so on. We then calculate the average deviance of each rail from its expected voltage. As expected Super Flower nail the voltage regulation: at this price point you wonder how Super Flower can manage to do it. Power Efficiency Power efficiency is measured by calculating actual supplied wattage divided by the wattage drawn at the wall/plug, multiplied by 100 to give a percentage. We then compare that to the particular 80 Plus certification the company claims to see if it meets that. You can see the 80 Plus certifications below, we always test 230v power supplies. Gold rated it is and gold rated it delivers within margin of error. We don't take a direct reading at 50% but we can infer the efficiency would be around 91-92%. Remember efficiency varies due to random error and production variances between units. Power Factor Correction Power Factor Correction is the ratio of the real power flowing to the load, to the apparent power in the circuit. The aim of PFC is to make the load circuitry that is power factor corrected appear purely resistive (apparent power equal to real power). In this case, the voltage and current are in phase and the reactive power consumption is zero. The closer the number to one the better as this allows the most efficient delivery of electrical power (Source - Wikipedia). High PFC is also achieved, the active PFC implementation is up to the job. Ripple Noise and Ripple can easily be measured by an oscilloscope. These show how much voltage fluctuation there is on a particular rail. We tested the rail stability of the 3.3 volt, 5 volt and 12 volt rails using an identical time and millivolt scale for all graphs. millivolt ripple is measured by the peak to peak size of the voltage curve. The latest ATX 12 volt version 2.3 specifications state that ripple from peak to peak must be no higher than 50 millivolts for the 3.3 volt and 5 volt rails, while the 12 volt rail is allowed up to 120 millivolts peak to peak to stay within specifications. Millivolt figures are stated to the closest increment of 5 given their variability. Load (%) 3.3V Ripple 5V Ripple 12V Ripple 20 4.2 4.1 7.2 40 6.4 5 9 60 8.4 6.4 11.2 80 10.4 7.1 12.6 100 12 8.3 13.8 Well I'll be rippled......there's pretty much no ripple on this Super Flower Leadex Gold unit: impressive performance. If I remember correctly these results aren't far off from what we've seen on Digital power supplies like the Corsair AX1200i. 3.3 volt @ 100% 5 volt @ 100% 12 volt @ 100% Over Power Protection and Max Wattage Power supplies often quote as having various protection mechanisms such and the most important of these is Over Power Protection. In our testing we crank up the power draw until the power supply either shuts down (meaning the OPP mechanism is present and working) or blows up (meaning it is either not present or not working). We then note the maximum power consumption before the power supply shut down (or blew up). 1300 Watts!!! This unit is only rated for 650W but it just kept on going. Not that we'd encourage you to do so, but if you were to regularly use more than 650W of power you'd easily be able to sustain it with this unit. Fan Speed When testing in a power supply laboratory it is difficult to take fan noise readings as the noise from the Sunmoon test equipment and air conditioning corrupts everything. The next best thing in our circumstances was reading off the fan speed with a tachometer to get an idea for the noise. The ambient temperature during testing held constant at 22 degrees, with 1 degree of variation. Each power supply had a consistent time period of 5 minutes to stabilise between each load scenario. In my experience the following general relationships apply between noise levels and fan speeds, though it can vary greatly between the type of fan used. Below 800 RPM - Inaudible/Silent 800 to 1000 RPM - Barely audible 1000 - 1200 RPM - Audible but still quiet 1200 - 1400 RPM - Moderately noisy 1400 - 1800 RPM - Noisy 1800 RPM or higher - Intolerable The fan is so low it makes you even wonder why it is there! If you're looking for a silent power supply without the "passive premium" then this definitely has what you're looking for. Final Thoughts Pricing The Super Flower Leadex Gold 650W power supply retails for £79.99 here in the UK at Overclockers. A 5 year warranty is provided. Conclusion For the price point within which the Leadex Gold 650W is situated you'd be very lucky to find a good quality 80 Plus Gold power supply, let alone one that boasts such exceptional performance and features. Super Flower themselves are makers of another 80 Plus Gold 650W power supply which is cheaper than this, that model is the Golden Green HX 650W. That power supply aside no one else can match Super Flower's value proposition. A fully modular design, silent operation, class leading PFC, efficiency, ripple suppression and voltage regulation topped off by great aesthetics, a great selection of cables finished to a high quality and a 5 year warranty. Normally my conclusions end up being quite extensive as I have to take time to discuss negative and positive aspects of power supplies. In this instance it is all positive so my opinion is fairly simple: Super Flower are awesome, if this suits your needs you should consider buying it. Pros Class leading PFC, efficiency, ripple suppression and voltage regulation Silent operation Fully modular Great looks and high quality cables 5 year warranty High quality components Cons Nothing to see here.... "Super Flower have hit it out of the park with the Leadex Gold 650W power supply. It has everything you want and a price that will leave other power supply brands worried." Thank you to Overclockers UK for providing this review sample.