Introduction

We would like to thank Super Flower for supplying the review sample.

Super Flower according to their "About us" page is a professional switching power supply and computer case manufacturer in mainland China, with their headquarters located in the Taiwan area. The company was established in 1991, so it has spent quite a few years in this business. They also state that they can even design custom-made PSUs to meet any customer's requirements, if the existing products do not cover their needs. This sounds pretty interesting!

We have reviewed already three of Super Flower's products in the past, here at TPU, the Golden Silent 500W and the Kingwin LZP-550 Lazer Platinum 550W and Stryker Fanless 500W which are made by Super Flower. All of the above PSUs left with an Editor's Choice award from our labs and this clearly shows that Super Flower units are among the best in today's market. We also shouldn't forget that the same company was the first to release a Platinum unit, the Golden King 550W.

The Golden King series, despite the word "Golden" in its name, consists exclusively of Platinum efficiency units with capacities ranging from 500W to 1000W. Today we have the chance to test the strongest of them all, the Golden King 1000W or SF-1000P14PE which is its model number. This PSU features a semi-fanless operation so it is totally inaudible at low loads and on top of that, by reducing the fan's rotation, its lifespan is significantly increased. Also it utilizes a semi-modular cabling design, is ErP Lot 6 2010 compliant and it has a single +12V rail.

Specifications

Strangely enough only the basic protections are present in this PSU, at least according to Super Flower. Thankfully the fan uses ball bearings so it will have a longer lifespan, compared to a sleeved bearings one. The unit's dimensions are normal for the 1000W capacity but its weight is above average, indicating that large heatsinks are used in its internals to assist the fanless operation mode at lower loads. From the "Compliance" row you will notice that the PSU meets the older ATX spec, v2.2 and not the newer 2.31. The reason behind this is that 2.31 requires at least two +12V rails while this unit has only one.
Finally the warranty period is long enough at five years and the most important of all, its price is very good for a 1000W Platinum unit.


Let's start this time from the minor rails. These look kind of weak but for a modern system 100W from the minors is more than sufficienct. What really counts is the power that the +12V rail can deliver and in this case it can output almost the full power of the unit, even at 50°C. The 5VSB rail ideally should deliver 1A more power (3.5A in total) and not mere 2.5A, which is usually the power that 400-600W PSUs deliver at this rail.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

The number of connectors is satisfactory with the six PCIe and the two EPS being available at the same time. Regarding their length we would like additional 50mm at the 24pin cable and all PCIe cables to have at least 600mm distance up to the first connector. Also the distance among the connectors ideally should be 20mm more, to match the ATX spec recommendation. Finally all native cables are sleeved all the way back into the casing and use thicker AWG16 wires, while the modular ones consist of flat ribbon wires with AWG18 size.

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

Packaging

The packaging features a nice blue background and on its face we find the illustration of a butterfly. The series name is highlighted in large white fonts and right beneath it there are several badges describing the various features of the unit and the Platinum efficiency. The unit's capacity is also written on the front side. On the rear side we find more information about the PSU's technical specifications and there is also a graph showing the fan's operational profile once we select the semi-fanless mode, via a small red switch that resides on the front side of the PSU. Finally, on the top side of the box a pretty interesting table informs us about the components used in this PSU. So before we open the unit we already know that Nippon Chemi-Con electrolytic and polymer caps, Infineon fets and a CREE diode are used among others.