Introduction

We would like to thank Kingwin for supplying the review sample.

Kingwin's product range includes chassis, SATA enclosures, docking stations, cooling solutions and other accessories and finally Power Supply Units (PSUs). Unfortunately they are only active in the US market, at least for the time being, so you might not be aware of them. Today we have on our testbench the Kingwin Absolute Platinum 550W, which is produced by Super Flower, one of the most promising OEMs in today's market. Apparently Kingwin PSUs are exactly the same as Super Flower's retail units with only cosmetic differences. So far all PSUs under the Kingwin or Super Flower brand left our labs with a rare TPU Editor's Choice and this clearly shows their quality and top performance. Let's see if this will happen again, with the freshly released Kingwin Absolute Platinum 550W (AP-550).

Even nowadays, Platinum units still cost their weight not in Gold but in Platinum, so most of the users out there simply cannot afford them. Nevertheless, some companies are starting to realize this and taking into account the tough economic times we are facing, they try to turn the tide by stripping some unnecessary features to lower the final price. The Antec EarthWatts Platinum 650W was the first budget Platinum unit to hit the market. Antec even avoided the use of a modular cabling design, to restrict cost. Apparently modular cables significantly increase the production cost so Kingwin decided to follow the same road and released two affordable, non modular, Platinum units. The Absolute Platinum units come in two versions, with 550W and 750W capacities. In this review we will test the smaller of the two and see if it manages to score a high price/performance ratio.

Briefly, the Kingwin AP-550 has a single +12V rail which can deliver almost the total capacity of the unit, it is equipped with a 140mm fan with intelligent Auto Fan Speed Control and finally it is backed by a three year warranty. The most important of all, you can get all of the above plus the highly desired Platinum efficiency for $99.99.

Specifications

For starters, efficiency is Platinum and the max operating temperature reaches 50°C. Only the basic protections are available, except for the rare Under Power Protection. We wanted to clarify on the features of this protection, to know all the details, but we haven't receive a response from the OEM Super Flower, yet. The cooling fan is very quiet since its max RPM is kept low and the unit's dimensions are not so compact, considering its small capacity.
Finally the warranty is set at three years, the usual period for this price range. Speaking of price, at 100 bucks the AP-550 is currently the most affordable Platinum unit. In comparison the Antec EarthWatts Platinum 650W costs $20 more but also offers 100W more power. Nevertheless our Performance per Dollar Graph will clearly indicate the winner between these two.

There is only a single +12V rail which can deliver the unit's max power on its own. This is very convenient of course, especially nowadays where all systems draw power mainly from this rail. The minor rails are restricted to 100W but you don't have to worry about this, since no modern system will need more. Finally 5VSB has the usual 12.5W capacity, which unofficially is the minimum power for this rail at least for a modern, decent quality, PSU.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

Despite its small capacity the unit comes with four PCIe connectors and enough peripheral ones, so it will easily power a medium class system with two (not high-end) VGAs installed. Also the length of all cables is sufficient and the single EPS cable is really long at 70cm. It will provide compatibility even with large full tower cases, although we seriously doubt that a mainstream system will be ever installed in such a big case. Normally high-end systems are installed in full tower cases and 550W are not enough for the power hungry components of these systems. The distance among all connectors is the recommended one, by ATX spec of course and finally all cables use 18AWG gauges.

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail we do not have anything to comment about its power distribution.

Packaging

The packaging has a medium to large size, considering that it houses a small capacity unit. On the front, we find Kingwin's logo in the top right corner and right underneath it resides the Platinum logo. This is the most desired badge for today's PSUs! In the middle and a little on the right the "550W" indicates of course the max capacity of the unit and finally on the bottom we discover the series name, Absolute Platinum. Usually the rear side of the PSU box has interesting info on details, characteristics etc. Well not in this case, if you want to take a peek at these details you should look at the top and the bottom sides of the box.