Gigabyte Sumo Power Silver 900W @ TechPowerUp

[-The_Mask-]

Gigabyte is one of the largest companies in the IT hardware field, with a very rich product range including motherboards, graphics cards, notebooks, desktops, various PC components, cellular phones and of course Power Supply Units. Although the company is most well known for their motherboards, from time to time they release a new PSU series, however they do not go after the latest technology in this field.
Gigabyte's latest PSU series is named Sumo Power, probably because its only two members enjoy relative high capacity. The stronger of the two can deliver up to 1200W while the smaller one is rated at 900W. Today we will review the Sumo Power Silver 900W in order to find out how it stands against the fierce competition.

Briefly, the Sumo Power Silver 900W, according to Gigabyte, features an entirely new circuit design and on top of that it is 80 Plus Silver certified so it will save you some bucks on the electricity bill. The holdup capacitor is Japan made, in its secondary side solid capacitors are used for prolonged lifespan and the +12V rail is split into five virtual rails. Finally the PSU utilizes a modular cabling design and the 120mm sleeve-bearing cooling fan features blue LED lighting, which can be deactivated by a switch in the front of the unit.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/G...mo_Power_900W/

[Tator Tot]

A lot of cost cutting on this guy given the price. Results were as expected though, since we've seen both Cooler Master & AcBel's units hit test beds before.

[rafal_iB_PL]

Seriously meh. Not awful enough to be enterntaining, but not even close to high-end, as price would suggest otherwise.

[ssshjp]

It would be sad if someone happens to have no choice other than this guy for $200.

We were amazed to see such high quality, which can be compared to Delta and Seasonic's implementations, from an OEM that is not so widely known.

Acbel isn't that bad. In retail market, it focuses mostly on the very entry level. Thus enthusiast doesn't like Acbel so much.

[crmaris]

Exactly, for a company not known to enthusiasts and mostly enrolled in the entry market such high soldering quality is note worthy.

[ssshjp]

Looking at old server PSUs from acbel, they may have been capable of good soldering quality for a long time. They just don't always do it for cost-cutting reason. But for a $200 unit, they need to change a little bit.

[Spectre]

AcBel used to make the UCP for Cooler Master as well http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...Story&reid=141 which were good units in that regard.

[jonnyGURU]

Right, but when Acbel wouldn't give CM an exclusive on the platform, CM dropped it.

[dlb]

As said above . . . . meh.

The soldering is very good, but I'd rather have meh soldering and kick-ass performance than the other way around as the reviewed unit showed us. Honestly, I can't remember ANY Gigabyte units that weren't "meh". They never truly sucked, but never achieved anything spectacular or "enthusiast". Yeah, everything was spec, but so what..... also, the overall size of the unit seemed a bit strange for any PSU these days. Even 1000w+ modern units are what I'd call "normal" in size w/o that extra inch or two in length.