ocaholic - PSUs > Super Flower Leadex Gold 850W Review

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Preview

Page 2 - Preview

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Delivery and Specifications

With the Super Flower Leadex Gold 850W Watt you get a fully modular power supply.

Cables
Cable	Length
1 x ATX 20+4 pin	54 cm
2 x EPS/ATX 12V (8 & 4+4) pin	65 cm
2 x PCI-E 6+2 pin	54 cm, 67 cm
2 x PCI-E 6+2 pin	55 cm
2 x 4x SATA	50, 63, 76, 89 cm
2 x 2x SATA + 2x Molex	50, 63, 76, 89 cm
1 x 3x Molex + 1 x Floppy	55, 68, 81, 94 cm

With its four PCIe connectors this PSU hasn't been equipped with too many of them. It would have been nice if SuperFlower added another pair for six pin connectors to the delivery. Nevertheless overall connectivity is good for a 850W PSU. We like seeing universal plugs on this PSU. In our opinion this is an important step towards more versatile PSUs. Apart from that the fact that the plugs received a backlight makes them look really nice especially in the dark.

Specifications
Voltage	Current	Power
+ 3.3 V	24 A	120 Watt	850 Watt (Total)
+ 5.0 V	24 A	120 Watt
+ 12 V	70.8 A	849.6 Watt
- 12 V	0.5 A	6 Watt
+ 5 Vsb	3.0 A	15 Watt

The SF-850F14MG has been 80Plus Gold certified. This means, that the efficiency of this PSU should be above 87% at 20% load, above 90% at 50% load and above 87% at 100% load.

At this point the feature list:

80Plus Gold
OVP, UVP, OCP, SCP, OPP, OTP
Dimensions (W x H x D): 150 mm x 86 mm x 200 mm
140 millimeter fan
Warranty: 5 Years
Price: is estimated to be around 117 Euro / 147 CHF

Remarkable is the depth of this PSU as well as the long lasting warranty.

Page 3 - Delivery / Specs

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A Look Inside

The first hint for a high Quality PSU we can see already when we take a first look at it. At this point we get a nice design and high quality case.

Right at the input there are two X capacitor. On the main PCB the transient filtering stage continues with two X and four Y caps and there is also one CM choke and one MOV (Metal-Oxid-Varistor). Additionally there is an NTC thermistor for inrush current limitation. A mechanical relay shorts the NTC thermistor for normal operation. The transient filtering stage is well done.

Rectification is being handled by two bridge rectifiers in the case of this PSU. The PFC booster consists of two IPP50R199P mosfets and two C3D06060A SiC shottky diodes. The APFC is controlled by an NCP1653A from ON Semiconductor. This PSU features two APFC capacitors from Nippon Chemi-Con (KMR series; 300uF and 400V at 105°C). The total capacitance of 600uF is competitive for a 850W PSU. The LLC resonance converter, is controlled by an ASIC with the name AA9013.

Either the overall build quality as well as the quality of the components used make this an excellent product, which will provied power reliably over years.

On the secondary side there are 4 IPP041N04N (40V, 4.1mOhm, 80A) mosfets to take care of 12V rectification. These mosfets are directly cooled via 2 heatsinks. The design of the secondary side is solid. 3.3 and 5V are generated from 12V using DC-DC conversion. Those are located on two Daughter PCBs. The DC filtering is done using Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors. Those are extremely high end. The connection of the main PCB to the connector PCB is well done. The connector PCB has some additional capacitors from Capxon which are non Japanese.

Page 4 - A Look Inside

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Input/Output Power and Efficiency

Page 5 - Input/Output Power and Efficiency

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Result Analysis and Discussion

Efficiency 115V
Load	Pin(W)	Pout(W)	Efficiency
10 %	100.98	86.10	85.26 %
20 %	192.23	172.33	89.65 %
50 %	474.10	428.92	90.47 %
100 %	976.30	850.52	87.12 %

The 80Plus Gold certification requirements (87% - 90% - 87%) 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. The 230V AC 100% Load efficiency is 90.47%.

Output Stability
Load	Rail	Loading(A)	Output(V)
10 %	5V	1.20	5.00
	3.3V	1.20	3.30
	12V	6.10	12.10

20 %	5V	2.50	5.00
	3.3V	2.50	3.30
	12V	12.20	12.10

50 %	5V	6.20	5.00
	3.3V	6.20	3.30
	12V	30.50	12.10

100 %	5V	12.30	5.00
	3.3V	12.40	3.30
	12V	60.60	12.00

Noise
Load
20 %	Noiseless
50 %	Silent
100 %	Audible

Voltage regulation of this PSU is very good. It makes use of a DC-DC approach, which means, that the 12 Volt rail is being used to generate 5 and 3.3V. This is a very modern approach, and since the Load is mainly on 12V it makes a lot of sense. Like most PSU, which use this topology, the voltage regulation and crossload testing does not present a problem.

Noise/Ripple
Voltage	Noise/Ripple Vpp
5V	0.009
12V	0.010
3.3V	0.008

The noise/ripple values you can see here come from a Chroma test report, which we got from the manufacturer. The noise values are excellent. However these values are probably measured in a different way, which means, that they're not comparable to other PSU reviews. However the DC output quality is excellent, and in comparison with many other PSUs outstanding.

Page 6 - Result Analysis and Discussion

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Conclusion

With the Leadex Gold 850W, Super Flower offers a PSU, which is available for 117 Euro. Connectivity options are good although we would have appreciated another pair of PCIe cables. For a 850W PSU the efficiency surpasses 80Plus Gold standards with huge margin especially at 20% load.
This unit is very well manufactured and the DC output quality is simply excellent. Another neat feature, especially for modding, is the lighting you get with the connectors. Another great sign of quality is, that the efficiency does not drop much between 50 and 100% Load. Additionally, because of it's very low ripple/noise, this PSU is very well suitable for high-end PC audio, where low ripple and noise values are what you're looking for.

Overall you get an excellent power supply with the Super Flower Leadex Gold 850W. Thank you very much for the good work Super Flower!

We rate the Super Flower Leadex 850W with 5 out of 5 possible stars.