The Andyson Platinum R 1200W PSU Review
by E. Fylladitakis on April 24, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- 1200W
- 80Plus Platinum
- Andyson
When it comes to high performance >1 kW computer power supplies, almost every reputable OEM has released at least one design to serve as their flagship. This is not necessarily because the companies expect high revenue because they are well aware that this segment of the market is very small and overly saturated. They do this because the flagship serves as a symbol of the company's capabilities and competence, enhancing their profile on all fronts in order to produce that halo product, hoping the performance of the high end results in trickle-down sales. In this extremely competitive and saturated market, we have a new contender - Andyson.
Introduction
Andyson is a Taiwanese manufacturer, established in Taipei. Although they are not very well known as some of the other brands, they are neither small nor a new company. Andyson has been around for 18 years nowand they have sufficient production capabilities. Their reputation suffered because of Hiper, a company that shut down years ago, whose products were reported as having very high failure rates. The Platinum R 1200W PSU that we will be reviewing today represents their power supply engineering high end, at least as far as power is concerned, since the company also has four 80Plus Titanium units available.
Andyson currently has nine 80Plus Platinum units on their books, yet only three models (including this particular unit) have an official 80Plus certification. The same goes for their 80Plus Titanium series, where only one model has been officially certified. This tactic is somewhat common among manufacturers, getting only the most powerful unit of the series certified that is.
On paper, the Platinum R 1200W PSU has it all: modular design, very high efficiency, excellent reliability and top performance. Andyson boasts that it is very cost-effective as well, since it has an MSRP of just about $200. However, Andyson is going to have major opposition from brands like Seasonic, Flextronics and Super Flower in that segment of the market. We will see if the Platinum R 1200W has what it takes to meet such opposition head on.
| Power Specifications ( Rated @ Unknown °C ) | |||||
| AC INPUT | 100 - 240 VAC, 50 - 60 Hz | ||||
| RAIL | +3.3V | +5V | +12V | +5Vsb | -12V |
| MAX OUTPUT | 20A | 20A | 100A | 3A | 0.4A |
| 100W | 1200W | 15W | 4.8W | ||
| TOTAL | 1200W | ||||
Packaging and Bundle
Andyson supplies the Platinum R 1200W PSU in a relatively plain cardboard box. The artwork is very simple and formal, rather uninteresting and unlikely to draw attention if showcased on a store shelf. However, it is very sturdy and the PSU is well protected with polyethylene foam pieces, offering effective protection during shipping.
The Platinum R 1200W comes with a broad and very effective bundle. Thumbscrews, regular screws, small and large cable ties, cable straps, an anti-vibration silicon frame, a typical AC cable and a manual are supplied alongside the PSU itself.
The Platinum R 1200W is a fully modular PSU, including the main ATX 24-pin cable. All of the cables are made using only black wires and are covered with black sleeving. They are supplied inside a tall nylon bag. The following table lists the total number of connectors:
| Connector type | Hardwired | Modular |
| ATX 24 Pin | - | 1 |
| EPS 4+4 Pin | - | 2 |
| PCI-E 6+2 Pin | - | 10 |
| PCI-E 8 Pin | - | - |
| SATA | - | 9 |
| Molex | - | 6 |
| Floppy | - | 2 |
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TurboTastic - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
80 Plus isn't marketing if you're paying the electric bill!DanNeely - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
At the 10-15 cent per kWh electric rates common in most of the US the price premium for a platinum PSU only pays off over a gold one if you're running 24/7 at full load; and even that takes several years. If you only game a few hours/day and leave your PC at idle/off the rest of the time you might as well go with a sanely sized cheaper one. If you're unfortunate enough to be paying several times that then even casual gaming will push the payback period to a reasonablish timeframe.Laststop311 - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link
Unless you want your PSU operating in its fanless mode as the high end semi fanless psu's dont kick then fan on till around 30% load. 30% of 1500 is 450 watts of fanless operation while a 500 watt supply only has 150 watts of fanless operation. Some people care about noise.CrazyElf - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link
80 PLUS actually means very little for real world efficiency. They usually send their best units to ECOS. It's real world efficiency that counts under load and often the ones with the stickers are overrated.As far as the costs - it's only a few dollars per year because we're talking single digits. The purchase price vastly overshadows that. I'd go with voltage, ripple, and reliability any day over advertised efficiency.
meacupla - Sunday, April 26, 2015 - link
I haven't really seen any 80+ Bronze or higher PSU suffer from voltage, ripple or reliability issues.Usually the makers skimp on the fan first.
I prefer 80+ Gold/Platinum, because I can count on makers to stuff the very best they have into those units, which means happy ears and reliability.
TurboTastic - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
Also, the efficiency is directly correlated to the heat produced by the PSU, and that is inversely related to both the quietness and the speed of your computer, which are qualities everyone cares about.der - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
A Wise man once said: "A Great gaming computer comes with a great Power Supply/PSU".etamin - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
I only click on these PSU reviews to read the comments about irrelevantly powerful PSUs. Maybe AT will listen eventually. But the sponsors are to blame as well...I would think a review on lower wattage units would have greater impact on sales.Mickatroid - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link
LOL, I am here for the comments too. The claws are out, loving it.Laststop311 - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link
I've been waiting for a nice 600-800 watt 80+ titanium unit to come out.There are some good reasons to get larger power supplies now that they have semi fanless mode. Now most psu's have no fan mode that works up to about 30% of the PSU's output. So if you have a 1000 watt unit you can draw up to 300 watts before the fans need to kick on. Almost all single GPU systems nowadays stay under 300 watts at most normal loads. Sure you could just get a 500 watt PSU but the fans come on at 150 watts or more so you end up with more fan noise. Surely an i7-7960x 8 core skylake overclocked to the maximum efficient overclock of 4.2ghz (if the oc power response curve is the same as haswell after 4.2ghz on the 8 core power use rises sharply 14nm could possibly make it 4.3 or 4.4ghz before power use risies sharply) and a nice EVGA classified GTX 980ti will only draw 250-280 watts on most normal workloads and gaming and someone that is an absolute freak about having the quietest powerful pc possible will want a 80+ plat or even titanium 1kw unit to make sure their psu rarely spins up a fan.
I will be sparing no expense on my skylake-e build and will be picking every component with noise as a top priority as my pc is in my bedroom and I am looking for a 1kw or higher 80+ titanium unit. Currently I think 1500 watt is the lowest titanium available which gives you 450 watts of fanless operation. I will be going all air cooled as I prefer the dead silence of noctua fans over the hum of water pumps. I go the route of maximizing case fans in every available spot usually like 12 fans which allows you to use the ULNA adapters to keep the max PWM speed below audible levels and the sheer huge quantity of them makes up for the loss of airflow from reduced rpm's. It's less efficient money wise but with all the right parts picked the only time the pc can be remotely heard is when gaming and the graphics card kick on tho even this noise can be drastically reduced with a triple slot artic accelro extreme IV with the front and back heatspreaders and 3 front fans and 2 rear fans and the best performing liquid metal ultra tim applied to it.
Since it will have been 6.5 years since I built a PC I am able to spend way more money than usual when I'm building a PC as I got a nice little egg saved. And I think a lot of people will be in similar situations because of how slow CPU performance upgrades have been. And for people like us going to these extreme lengths for top performing quiet PC's we need the huge unites so we can stay in fanless mode.