14 DAY TRIAL // 80 Plus Gold may not be the highest efficiency rating that power supply units can earn, but it is hands down the most widespread on the high-end graphics market. SilentiumPC has just released one of them.
The reason 80 Plus Gold is the preferred high-end option is because the 80 Plus Platinum and Titanium efficiencies are hard to achieve, not to mention expensive.
That is why they are only applied to PSUs of truly great output, like 1200 -1500W or more. By comparison, 80 Plus Gold can relatively easily be implemented on units of much more reasonable 1,000W or less.
In this case, SilentiumPC has formally released a power supply unit of 550W. It is called Supremo M1 Gold 550W PSU.
The Supremo M1 Gold 550W PSU
With 550W of continuous power, it should be sufficient for any decent computer, even those with two graphics cards, provided said video boards are not particularly overpowered.
We say that because there are only two PCI Express 6+2 pin connectors available, so you can either have two decent video cards installed, or an overpowered dual-port one.
Since we're on the subject, the full cabling system is a mixture of soldered power wires (for the motherboard and CPU, the essentials as it were) and ones you install yourself (modular SATA, MOLEX, etc).
Intel Haswell C6/C7 low power states are, of course, supported, as is the ErP Lot 6 2013 specification.
Moreover, the Supremo M1 Gold 550W PSU employs advanced DC-DC Converters and a single +12V line, delivering up to 45.9A.
Other assets include High-Quality Japanese Main Capacitor & Taiwanese Solid-State Caps, extra-long modular flat cables and a quiet fan with a diameter of 125 mm and a speed of under 1,000 RPM (rotations per minute). That means it won't produce too much noise.
Availability and pricing
The 550W 80 Plus Gold Certified Supremo M1 Gold PSU from SilentiumPC should start shipping soon, if it hasn't already, with a warranty of 5 years (36 + 24 months). You have to buy the PSU then register it within 30 days in order to activate it though. The price is of $76.50 / €79.90.
