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If you are building a new rig with high power demands then our review today will be one you will not want to miss. The SuperFlower Leadex Titanium 1600W is designed with power sucking Crossfire and SLI rigs in mind. It is 80 Plus Titanium certified, fully modular and incorporates the highest grade Japanese capacitors. Be prepared to pay handsomely for the specification however – available at Overclockers UK for £299.99.
Super Flower designs we have tested recently have scored extremely well. We recently reviewed the eVGA SuperNOVA P2 1200W and P2 1600W units – these utilise the Super Flower Leadex platform and both are incredible power supplies. The Super Flower Leadex Titanium 1600W power supply is long, measuring 150 x 86 x 220mm (WxHxD), so large cases with a lot of physical space need to be considered.
For those who don't know, Titanium efficiency is 92% 94% 90% At 20% 50% 100% Rated Load. This is the highest efficiency level rating for the enthusiast audience.
SuperFlower Leadex Titanium 1600W Fully Modular “80 Plus Titanium”
- 100% Full Modular Cabling Design For Easy Cable Management.
- 80 PLUS Titanium Certified, 92% 94% 90% Efficiency At 20% 50% 100% Rated Load.
- Full Range Auto Voltage Detection Design 100V~240V (Active PFC).
- Comply With ATX 12V. V2.2, EPS 12V. V2.91 & SSI EPS 12V. V2.92 Specification.
- Comply With Energy Star Standard & EuP (Energy Using Products) Regulation.
- Over Voltage Protection / Over Current Protection / Over Power Protection / Short Circuit Protection / Under Voltage Protection.
- Support All Intel/AMD Multi-Core CPU & ATX/BTX Compatible Motherboards.
- Support NVIDIA SLI & ATI CrossFireX High Performance Graphic Card.
- Patented Easy To Use & Install Crystal Clear Cube Connectors with LED.
- More than 2,000 times On/Off test.
- Unleaded Green Materials with RoHS/WEEE Compliance.
- Perfect For Professional & High Performance Gaming System.
Super Flower artwork is simple, yet quite effective. I am personally not a big fan of the butterfly style logo, but its harmless enough. More importantly, the 80 Plus Titanium logo takes pride of place top right on the box.
The rear of the box highlights some of the units specifications and features, including mention of high grade Japanese Nippon Chemi Con capacitors.
The power supply is protected inside foam and all the cables and accessories are separated in another area of the box.
Between the foam blocks, the power supply ships protected inside a white felt bag.
Super Flower bundle a felt bag to store the left over cables. There is also a user manual supplied, alongside mounting screws.
Super Flower are one of the few OEM's who seem to exclusively use sleeved cabling.
Detachable Cables
- One cable > 20+4pins MB power connector.
- One cable > 8pins (4+4pins) EPS/ATX 12V connector.
- One cable > 8pins EPS 12V connector.
- One cable > 2 x SATA + 2 x 4pins Molex.
- One cable > 3 x 4pins Molex + 1 x FDD.
- Two cables > 4 x SATA.
- Five cables > 2 x 8pins (6+2pins) PCI express connector
- Four cables > 8pins (6+2pins) PCI express
The SuperFlower Leadex Titanium 1600W is big, measuring 150 x 86 x 220mm (WxHxD). Selecting a compatible case is very important. The matt paint work is nice and rough to the touch and doesn't attract fingerprints easily.
The finish of the chassis is superb. It passed our ‘screwdriver’ test without a problem. This involves running the head of a Philips head driver down the side of the chassis with light to medium force. After all, how many times have you accidentally connected with a power supply during a system build?
The large fan is hidden underneath the thick grill air flow system, which is cut into the chassis itself. The Super Flower logo takes pride of place in the middle of the fan section. We will take a closer look at the fan shortly.
One side of the power supply is vented to help airflow. There is a big power cable and switch at one side.
There are plenty of connectors on the modular bay panel on the other end of the chassis. Each section of the modular bay area is labelled to explain which cables to use. There is a AUTO/ECO button in the corner as well to reduce fan noise.
| SuperFlower Leadex Titanium PSU 1600W | |||||
|
DC Output
|
+3.3V
|
+5V
|
+12V |
-12V
|
+5Vsb
|
|
Max Output
|
24A
|
24A
|
133.3A |
0.5A
|
3.0A
|
| Total Power | 120W | 1599.6W | 6W | 15W | |
| 1600W | |||||
The single +12V rail can deliver 133.3A which is a crazy amount of power! With this kind of juice on tap there would be no problems powering even two overclocked AMD R9 295X2. Our previous review of the OverclockersUK Infinity Vesuvius system highlighted that two R9 295X2 cards could demand close to 1,200 watts under load.
The fan is a ‘Globe’ double ball bearing model, number RL4Z-B1402512EH. This is rated 12V, 0.6A with a maximum speed of 2,000 rpm, airflow 153.47cfm. Maximum noise rating is officially 39.5dBa. We will measure noise later in the review. This is the same fan and model that features in the EVGA P2 1200 and 1600 supplies which we reviewed a couple of months ago.
The Leadex Platform continues to impress us. The primary side is using a full bridge topology with a LLC converter to help improve efficiency. The secondary side of the design incorporates a synchronous design for the rectification of the +12V rail with DC-DC converters for minor rail generation. Soldering quality of the main PCB is good.
Transient filtering starts at the AC Receptacle. The main PCB houses the second stage and features CM chokes, two pairs of Y caps, two X caps and an MOV. Super Flower have built in a Transient Voltage Suppression diode to help protect against spiking.
The primary stage uses four high grade 105c rated Japanese Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors (KMW series). These are rated 400V 390uF – combining for a total of 1560uF. Secondary stage capacitors are all Japanese 105c rated Nippon Chemi Con. Top marks to Super Flower for not making any compromises with the design. The backpanel uses Nippon Chemi Con/Nichicon capacitors.On this page we present some high resolution images of the product taken with the Fuji XT1 camera. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.
Additional technical assistance: Peter McFarland and Jeremy Price.
Correctly testing power supplies is a complex procedure and KitGuru have configured a test bench which can deliver up to a 2,000 watt DC load. Due to public requests we have changed our temperature settings recently – previously we rated with ambient temperatures at 25C, we have increased ambient temperatures by 10c (to 35c) in our environment to greater reflect warmer internal chassis conditions.
We use combinations of the following hardware:
• SunMoon SM-268
• CSI3710A Programmable DC load (+3.3V and +5V outputs)
• CSI3711A Programmable DC load (+12V1, +12V2, +12V3, and +12V4)
• Extech Power Analyzer
• Extech MultiMaster MM570 digital multimeter
• Extech digital sound level meter
• Digital oscilloscope (20M S/s with 12 Bit ADC)
• Variable Autotransformer, 1.4 KVA
We test the SuperFlower Leadex Titanium 1600W with the fan in the ‘AUTO’ state.
|
DC Output Load Regulation
|
||||||||||
|
Combined DC Load |
+3.3V
|
+5V
|
+12V
|
+5VSB
|
-12V | |||||
|
A
|
V
|
A
|
V
|
A
|
V
|
A
|
V
|
A | V | |
|
500W
|
7.63
|
3.33
|
8.82
|
5.06
|
36.05
|
12.12
|
1.5
|
5.02
|
0.30 | -12.07 |
|
750W
|
12.63
|
3.33
|
14.12
|
5.05
|
52.06
|
12.09
|
2.0
|
5.02
|
0.30 | -12.07 |
|
1000W
|
17.75
|
3.33
|
20.00
|
5.05
|
72.25
|
12.06
|
2.5
|
5.01
|
0.50 | -12.08 |
| 1250W | 18.84 | 3.32 | 24.04 | 5.05 | 90.14 | 12.03 | 3.0 | 5.00 | 0.60 | -12.09 |
|
1500W
|
18.87
|
3.32
|
22.64
|
5.03
|
115.90
|
12.00
|
3.5
|
5.00
|
0.80 | -12.10 |
| 1600W | 10.00 | 3.31 | 10.00 | 5.03 | 125.00 | 11.97 | 3.5 | 5.00 | 0.80 | -12.12 |
Load regulation is stellar, even when delivering the full 1600 watts of power.
| SuperFlower Leadex Titanium 1600W PSU | Maximum Load |
| 1789W |
We managed to get the PSU to achieve 1789W before it would shut down, delivering around 189W more than the rated specifications.
Next we want to try Cross Loading. This basically means loads which are not balanced. If a PC for instance needs 500W on the +12V outputs but something like 30W via the combined 3.3V and +5V outputs then the voltage regulation can fluctuate badly.
| Cross Load Testing | +3.3V | +5V | +12V | -12V | +5VSB | |||||
| A | V | A | V | A | V | A | V | A | V | |
| 1150W | 3.0 | 3.33 | 2.0 | 5.05 | 92.0 | 12.05 | 0.2 | -12.04 | 0.50 | 5.01 |
| 250W | 20.0 | 3.30 | 24.0 | 5.02 | 5.0 | 12.09 | 0.2 | -12.04 | 0.50 | 5.01 |
The SuperFlower Leadex Titanium 1600W produced some killer results in the cross loading test. No discernible weaknesses.
We then used an oscilloscope to measure AC ripple and noise present on the DC outputs. We set the oscilloscope time base to check for AC ripple at both high and low ends of the spectrum.
ATX12V V2.2 specification for DC output ripple and noise is defined in the ATX 12V power supply design guide.
|
ATX12V Ver 2.2 Noise/Ripple Tolerance
|
|
|
Output
|
Ripple (mV p-p)
|
|
+3.3V
|
50
|
|
+5V
|
50
|
|
+12V1
|
120
|
|
+12V2
|
120
|
|
-12V
|
120
|
|
+5VSB
|
50
|
Obviously when measuring AC noise and ripple on the DC outputs the cleaner (less recorded) means we have a better end result. We measured this AC signal amplitude to see how closely the unit complied with the ATX standard.
| AC Ripple (mV p-p) | ||||
| DC Load | +3.3V | +5V | +12V | 5VSB |
| 500W | 10 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 750W | 10 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 1000W | 10 | 5 | 10 | 5 |
| 1250W | 10 | 5 | 15 | 5 |
| 1500W | 15 | 10 | 15 | 10 |
| 1600W | 15 | 10 | 15 | 10 |
Fantastic ripple suppression, and yet again figures that any manufacturer would be pleased to produce. As good as we have seen in a high power unit such as this.
|
Efficiency (%)
|
|
|
500W
|
93.67
|
|
750W
|
95.65
|
|
1000W
|
94.94
|
|
1250W
|
93.55
|
| 1500W | 93.12 |
| 1600W | 92.43 |
Overall efficiency is excellent, peaking at 95.65% when delivering between 750 and 850 watts.
We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.
Today to test the power supply we have taken it into our acoustics room environment and have set our Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2 one meter away from the unit. We have no other fans running so we can effectively measure just the noise from the unit itself.
As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 Player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
|
Noise (dBA)
|
|
|
500W
|
28.0
|
|
750W
|
28.4
|
|
1000W
|
33.2
|
|
1250W
|
33.6
|
| 1500W | 34.1 |
| 1600W | 35.7 |
Due to the extreme efficiency of the power supply, the fan is never tasked particularly hard. Noise levels at or below 1000 Watts are exceptionally good. At 1300 watts, the fan ramps up and it becomes audible, although never too intrusive.
|
Temperature (c)
|
||
|
Intake
|
Exhaust
|
|
|
500W
|
36
|
39
|
|
750W
|
37
|
41
|
|
1000W
|
42
|
48
|
|
1250W
|
46
|
52
|
|
1500W
|
48
|
55
|
| 1600W | 51 | 61 |
The large fan copes with the heat inside the chassis, spinning more actively as the load increases above 1,000 watts.
|
Maximum load
|
Efficiency
|
|
1789W
|
92.12
|
At 1789W, the efficiency level is still good, measuring 92.12%. Not a practical situation to be running 24/7, but worth noting.There is no doubt that the SuperFlower Leadex Titanium 1600W is a monster power supply, able to deliver close to 1,800 watts before shutting down safely.
The question remains, why on earth would you need 1,600 watts of power in the first place? Well for those people running ultra high end systems with multiple AMD graphics cards, the demand can be surprisingly high. We measured a demand of close to 1,200 watts when we reviewed a system featuring two AMD R9 295X2's, for instance. At 1,250 watts demand the Super Flower Leadex Titanium 1600W is still running with over 93 percent efficiency, which is impressive.
Build quality of the SuperFlower Leadex Titanium is high, paintwork is deep and the unit passed our ‘scratch test' with flying colours. Inside are high grade 105c Nippon Chemi Con capacitors and the KMW series used in the Leadex Titanium are about as good as you will get.
The unit passed the intensive cross loading test without a problem and load regulation is excellent as well.
You can buy the Super Flower Leadex Titanium 1600w from Overclockers UK for £299.99 inc vat. It is certainly a lot of cash for a power supply, but if you are running a power hungry Quad SLI / Crossfire system and want to ensure you have plenty of headroom for growth then it makes for a wise long term investment.
Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE.
Pros:
- quality cabling.
- tight load regulation.
- high grade Japanese capacitors.
- delivered close to 1,800 watts before shutting down.
- semi passive mode.
- high levels of efficiency.
Cons:
- A lot of cash for a power supply.
Kitguru says: Another very capable power supply from SuperFlower for those running ultra high end Quad SLI and Crossfire systems.
