Rosewill Tachyon 1000W @ TechPowerUp

[-The_Mask-]

Rosewill is not new to the Platinum-efficiency club since they already have a high efficiency series with their Fortress line-up; however, that series only includes PSUs of low to medium capacity without a modular cabling design in an attempt to keep it affordable and to attract the budget-oriented user without a vested interest in such features. Nevertheless, most users nowadays highly prefer modular PSUs to non-modular ones, which gave Rosewill additional incentive to include a high-end PSU in their offerings. So they co-operated with Super Flower to present the Tachyon series which does, in essence, consist of rebadged Super Flower Golden King PSUs. We have already reviewed many Platinum Super Flower PSUs in the past, so we are aware of their top performance, but this will be the first time that their high-end platform confronts our Chroma loaders.

The test subject of today's review will be a Tachyon with 1000 W capacity, which is the flagship model of not only the homonymous series, but of Rosewill's entire PSU portfolio. This unit features a powerful single +12V rail, goes fanless at lower loads, and is equipped with modular cables that, amongst others, include six PCIe and two EPS connectors, so it can handle up to three high-end VGAs and a server mainboard with two installed CPUs. The big Tachyon does, according to Rosewill, utilize a silent fan which, thanks to its auto fan speed control, operates with the lowest possible noise-output once engaged. Well, we will see about that given we already started taking noise measurements through the fan-speed data we gather in every other review. We should note that taking noise measurements during PSU testing is not that easy while the ultra-noisy Chromas is operating, and we had to devise a rather simple, but at the same time ingenious, method to be able to accurately evaluate the output noise of the PSU under testing conditions.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/R...on-1000/1.html

[Stefan Payne]

Too bad this is a real Single Rail PSU and not a Multi Rail as the design was intended...

€dit:
And, as always, someone has to save a buck or two on the fan...

[bobnova]

I got one too, the review is said to be scheduled to go live on OCF early next week.
No SCP I could find on that single rail, despite managing to sustain a nice violet arc with my decidedly low tech SCP test equipment.

Mine had the same goofy fan profile, no fan at all till right around full load (cold ambient), low fan until higher ambient and then switched directly to 100%.

[bobnova]

Shameless link to my review: http://www.overclockers.com/rosewill...-supply-review

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Mine's somewhere in the pile, waiting for me to get to it...

[ssshjp]

Originally Posted by bobnova

Shameless link to my review: http://www.overclockers.com/rosewill...-supply-review

Very nice test actually. Lacking of SCP is a long time disadvantage of Superflower units. It relies on only the OPP for high current protection. It is better to let a reviewer find out the case rather than the end customers.


---EDIT---
What's your load tester by the way?

[Philipus II]

SCP should be realized, perhaps via UVP.

[bobnova]

There's a teaser as to the tester in the "Load Testing" block of text. It's not like anybody reads that though. I don't, certainly.

so I built my own with juicy power resistors and a Toyota cylinder head.

To elaborate, it's quite a few 3ohm (for 12v) and 0.5ohm (for 5v and 3.3v) 50w wire wound load resistors bolted to the flat side of 1.5 toyota 22RE cylinder heads (with Arctic Alumina Ceramique for TIM), wired up to connectors desoldered/cut from dead GPUs, PSUs and motherboards. Switching is done on a per-resistor basis with 15a mechanical rocker switches.
The specific part number filter caps from the most recent ATX psu design guideline as present on the ATX24P connector, which is also where voltage and ripple measurements are taken from.
For units under 400w I can run it air cooled. Over that it needs heftier cooling so it goes into my kid's Red Flyer wagon, filled with water. For >800w units water is run into one end of the wagon via a garden hose, it spills out the other end. Otherwise it slowly starts to heat up, an issue when doing hotbox testing with a platinum unit that takes forever to heat up.

Not nearly as snazzy as the ATE bits most use, but quite durable and hard to kill. At the moment it tops out right around 1500w, I might be able to pack another couple resistors on to bump that up a bit if needed. Alternatively, I have two more 22RE heads.

[Stefan Payne]

Originally Posted by bobnova

Shameless link to my review: http://www.overclockers.com/rosewill...-supply-review

I really like that 'no SCP Protection present' Picture. But I'd like it more if you'd made a video of it, for illuistration

[ssshjp]

Originally Posted by bobnova

There's a teaser as to the tester in the "Load Testing" block of text. It's not like anybody reads that though. I don't, certainly.


To elaborate, it's quite a few 3ohm (for 12v) and 0.5ohm (for 5v and 3.3v) 50w wire wound load resistors bolted to the flat side of 1.5 toyota 22RE cylinder heads (with Arctic Alumina Ceramique for TIM), wired up to connectors desoldered/cut from dead GPUs, PSUs and motherboards. Switching is done on a per-resistor basis with 15a mechanical rocker switches.
The specific part number filter caps from the most recent ATX psu design guideline as present on the ATX24P connector, which is also where voltage and ripple measurements are taken from.
For units under 400w I can run it air cooled. Over that it needs heftier cooling so it goes into my kid's Red Flyer wagon, filled with water. For >800w units water is run into one end of the wagon via a garden hose, it spills out the other end. Otherwise it slowly starts to heat up, an issue when doing hotbox testing with a platinum unit that takes forever to heat up.

Not nearly as snazzy as the ATE bits most use, but quite durable and hard to kill. At the moment it tops out right around 1500w, I might be able to pack another couple resistors on to bump that up a bit if needed. Alternatively, I have two more 22RE heads.

My bad. I skipped the light color part.