Today's power supply is XFX's "Black Edition", fully modular, "Pro" 1250W.

This will be the tenth XFX power supply we've reviewed and the seventh with marketing overload. Ah.. the good ol' days of the original Black Edition and XXX Edition. I admit that the jokes are getting a little old, so I plan to keep them to a minimum this time. Most of the marketing terms are the same this time around. I'll point out the newer ones and try to explain what they're trying to say.

If good enough is not good enough, aren't you stuck in an infinite loop? Hey.. at least it has a five year warranty. That's just as good as other power supplies that are just good enough. And if this power supply is never really good enough enough, you may never need that warranty.

On the remainder of the back of the box, we're introduced to "SolidLink" and "Hybrid Fan". These are two relatively new features in XFX power supplies. Only the 1000W Oklahoma Wolf reviewed last month also had these features. We're also reintroduced to our old friend "EasyRail". Ahh... EasyRail. Since you came into my life, I only knew of "HorriblyOvercomplicatedRail".

Since all of these features are broken down into greater detail on the side panels of the box, I'll wait until we get to them to explain them to you...

Real gamers choose EasyRail. Choosy moms choose Jif.

EasyRail simply means it has one +12V rail without OCP (over current protection) as opposed to a +12V, split into four or six "separate rails" each with OCP.

The "4X+ (Picture of Graphics Cards)" is telling us that this power supply is compatible with running four graphics cards. This is possible with the inclusion of 8 PCIe power connectors.

The first and third paragraph are essentially telling us the same thing. A few of the cheapo power supplies on the market slap a wattage rating on the box based on either it's peak power output (only can sustain the output for 1 minute) or by giving you the output capability of the power supply at room temperature. XFX rates their power supplies

The second paragraph seems to be misleading the uneducated user. Efficiency isn't the same across the board. For 80 Plus Gold, a power supply only needs to be 90% efficient at 50% load. That sentence should be phrased, "this XFX power supply has up to 90% efficiency."

The fourth paragraph is trying to communicate to us that this power supply has excellent voltage regulation and low ripple. This is something we can look for in our load tests.

I also feel XFX missed an opportunity to explain the advantage of 105°C capacitors in the fifth paragraph. The inside of your power supply is never going to hit 105°C, nor is it going to hit 85°C. But 105°C rated capacitors are better because they do last longer at any temperature up to 105°C.

The final paragraph is pretty straight forward. No buzz words here. It tells us that this power supply has a supervisor IC that features OPP, OVP, OCP, SCP and OTP. Surprisingly, a buzz term like "SafetySentry" or "PowerPolice" was not implemented to describe this feature.

Ah... good to see someone is still carrying the torch of FUD that PC Power first introduced us to. Why any power supply with multiple +12V rails would put the CPU and PCIe on the same +12V rail, or why they would have a +12V rail set to only 8 1/3A (100W / 12V = 8 1/3A), I dont know, but what's being illustrated here is that everything runs off the same +12V circuit with this power supply.

Quieter? Yes. Saves power? Mm... Marginally. The most this fan is going to use is 6W and that's if its spinning at it's full 2100 RPM. You'll save more power turning off your CCFL's. When the power supply's "Hybrid Mode" is on the fan doesn't turn on until the load hits 20% (250W with this particular unit) or the temperature of the PSU hits 25°C. At this point, the fan's RPM's ramp up with the power supply's internal temperature.

SolidLink isn't such a bad buzz word. I mean, it beats the pants off of the complete lack of buzz word Seasonic uses... or, doesn't use. And I just call them "bus bars", but you can't put a "TM" next to that. I think the 7W and 17W lost wattage is a pretty significant number. I believe the biggest advantage to the lack of DC output wires in this unit is the fact that your secondary side isn't completely blanketed by a rat's nest of wires.

These "other features" are actually quite significant. Much more significant than "EasyRail", in my opinion. It's too bad their on the bottom of the box.

DC to DC voltage regulator modules for +3.3V and +5V are not uncommon, but Seasonic puts the DC to DC VRM's on the modular interface so there is no loss in voltage going from a VRM mounted to the main PCB to the modular PCB and no additional wires covering up components on the secondary side.

Ball bearing fan? I'll have to double check this when I open this unit up, but I thought these had fluid dynamic bearing fans in them. This is significant because FDP fans are quieter than ball bearing and last six times longer!

Here we also have a run down of all of the included cables...

Wow! Those are some long cables! All but that SATA and Molex connector cables are a good 50mm longer than what we typically see on a power supply.

In addition to long cables, we see a long housing. 190mm is about 10mm longer than some other similar power supplies out there, but that's because of the plastic trim piece that covers the modular interface.

And finally, here is the DC output table...

Now let's open the box up and see what's inside!