ocaholic - PSUs > In Win Classic Series C 900W Review

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Preview

Page 2 - Preview

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Delivery and Specifications

Delivery
Cable	Length
1 x ATX 20+4 pin	65 cm (16AWG)
2 x EPS/ATX 12V 8 & 4+4 pin	65 cm (18AWG)
4 x PCI-E 6+2 pin	60 cm (18AWG)
3 x 3 SATA	60, 70, 80 cm (18AWG)
2 x 3 Molex	60, 70, 80 cm (18AWG)
1 x Floppy	10 cm (18AWG)

A quick look at the delivery shows a maximum of two graphics cards with two 8-pin connectors each can be powered. For a 900 Watt power supply this is a conservative setup. When it comes to SATA connectors there are three cables and each of them feature three connectors, for powering a total of nine devices. Furthermore there are two additional cables with three Molex connectors each.

With this power supply In Win is offering a multi rail design regarding 12V. In total you get 4 x 25A, which can be turned into heat by the graphics cards for instance.

Specifications (according to In Win)
Voltage	Current	Power
+ 3.3 V	20 A	100 Watt	900 Watt (Total)
+ 5.0 V	20 A	100 Watt
+ 12 V1	25 A	900 Watt
+ 12 V2	25 A
+ 12 V3	25 A
+ 12 V4	25 A
- 12 V	0.3 A	3.6 Watt
+ 5 Vsb	3.0 A	15 Watt

The C 900W has been 80Plus Platinum certified. This means, that the efficiency of this PSU should be above 90% at 20% load, above 92% at 50% load and above 89% at 100% load.

At this point the feature list:

80Plus Platinum
OVP, UVP, OCP, SCP, OPP, OTP
Dimensions (W x H x D): 150 mm x 86 mm x 165 mm
120 millimeter fan
Warranty: 7 Years
Price: ~189 US-Dollar

Page 3 - Delivery / Specs

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A Look Inside

Next to CWT, Delta, Seasonic and Super Flower, In Win is one of the very few vendors with its own production line for power supplies. Therefore the vendor has all the freedom in the world designing their own PSU platforms. Nevertheless In Win doesn’t yet have as large as an engineering team as the big players in the business, but this doesn’t stop them from coming up with their own 80Plus Platinum platform.

In case of topology the C 900W is making use of a half-bridge build on the primary side and synchronous design on the secondary side. Right behind the AC receptable there is the first part of the EMI filtering stage, which consists of two Y and one X capacitor as well as an MOV and ferrite ring. Following the current we find two very high-quality LL15XB60 bridge rectifiers, which have been attached to an aluminum heatsink. After those there is the APFC converter, where two Infineon IPP60R125P6 FETs and a CREE C3D10060A diode are doing their job. The two bulk capacitors with 390 micro Farrad of capacitance come from Nippon Chemi-Con. Their total of 780 micro Farrad of capacitance is rather low considering this is almost a 1kW PSU. Therefore it’s not surprising, there is an additional NTC Thermistor helping to take care of inrush current. The APFC stage is being controlled by a NCP1654 controller from On Semiconductor. Also on the primary side there are two IPW60R160P6 FETs from Infineon mounted in half-bridge topology and apart from that there is an LLC resonance converter, which helps in boosting efficiency to 80Plus Platinum levels. Going further we find a Champion CM6901 resonance converter, which has been soldered to a perpendicularly mounted daughter board. On the back side at this point there are four Alpha & Omega AON6590 FETs, which are regulating the four +12V rails. Their heat is being dissipated to the C 900Ws aluminum enclosure. The entire unit has only been equipped with one thermistor and it has been attached to the heatsink, which helps removing heat from the +12V rails. Soldered to yet another two daughter boards there is a total of eight D528 FETs, which are being controlled by an Anpec APW7160A PWM controller in order to help regulate the VRMs. Additional filtering is handled by a mix of polymer and electrolyte capacitors, which all come from Nippon Chemi-Con.

Looking for the modular connector panel, there is another, rahter large daughter board, which as been boltend and soldered to the main PCB. Also here we find capacitors from Nippon Chemi-Con, which add theirs to this units good ripple values. The supervisor IC in this case comes from Weltrend and goes by the name WT5759.

As we already mentioned the overall quality of this PSU is on a good and solid level, which is also something you see on the backside of the main PCB. Soldering quality at this point is clean and therefore blends in with the units overall quality.

Page 4 - A Look Inside

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Result Analysis and Discussion

Efficiency
Load	Pin(W)	Pout(W)	Efficiency
10 %	105.57	92.58	87.70 %
20 %	202.13	185.04	91.54 %
50 %	496.10	459.15	92.55 %
100 %	1008.50	908.75	90.11 %

The 80Plus Platinum certification requirements (90% - 92% - 89%) are surpassed especially at 20% Load. The full Load efficiency is a bit higher at 230V AC. This is the case with most of todays PSU's an it mainly originates from the reason of lower losses in the AC filtering stage and the PFC at 230V AC.

Output Stability
Load	Rail	Loading(A)	Output(V)
10 %	3.3V	1.06	3.36
	5V	1.06	5.13
	12V	6.62	12.37

20 %	3.3V	2.13	3.36
	5V	2.12	5.12
	12V	13.3	12.31

50 %	3.3V	5.32	3.34
	5V	5.28	5.09
	12V	33.19	12.24

100 %	3.3V	10.63	3.31
	5V	10.57	5.05
	12V	66.12	12.16

The Voltage Regulation of this PSU is good. It makes use of a DC-DC topology. This means, that the C 900W is mainly a 12V PSU and then generates its 5 and 3.3V from 12V. This is a modern approach, and since the Load is mainly on 12V it makes a lot of sense. For almost any PSU which makes use of this topology crossload tests do not present a problem.

Noise
Load
20 %	Noiseless
50 %	well audible

If we listen closer with the power supply, we don't here anything at 20 percent load. The C 900W is a semi passive power supply and the fan kicks in, when 35 percent load is reached. It keeps spinning until the load goes below 25 percent. This ensures adequate internal temperatures under all circumstances. When demanding 50 percent load from this unit, the noise level can be described as silent and when there is 100 percent load, the unit is well audible.

Noise/Ripple @ 100% Load
Voltage	Noise/Ripple Vpp
3.3V	0.027
5V	0.028
12V	0.025

The noise values are good. At 100% load we see that the ripple values range from 25mV to 28mV no matter which voltages we're looking at.

Page 5 - Result Analysis and Discussion

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Conclusion

With this unit In Win has launched a rather solid product. At a first glance we liked the looks of this unit. The manufacturer wraps the internals using a sleek cover made from solid aluminum. Once taken off we see overall clean internals and what is a solid platform, coming from one of the smaller power supply manufacturers. Nevertheless the unit is not perfect through and through. While the ripple values can be rated good to very good the hold-up-time could be improved. Apart from that, on the connectivity side, we would have liked to find PCIe power cables with two connectors and not only one. Especially when using both EPS plugs on a motherboard that would add flexibility, since this way there are only three 8-pin-plugs left and therefore only one GPU with 8-pin and 6-pin or 8-pin and 8-pin connector could be plugged in.

Looking at the price we finde a recommendation from In Win which is about 190 US-Dollar. That makes this anything but a cheap unit although it meets 80Plus Platinum criteria. At this point it needs to be taken into account that In Win has to compete with manufacturers such as CWT, Seasonic and Super Flower which have much larger development teams and also more experience in the field, while overall competing on the same price level, yet offering almost flawless platforms. Nevertheless we’re pretty confident that thanks its distinct design, this unit will find its niche in the market.

The In Win Classic Series C 900W receives good 4 out of 5 stars.