Overview of the Chieftec Core 600W PSU. Gold is inexpensive / Overclockers.ua

For a long time, the market for energy-efficient power supplies was dominated by high-level solutions, the price of which was three to four times higher than the cost of conventional or even “bronze” models. Over time, circuitry that meets the 80 Plus Gold requirement has become simpler and more affordable, and cheap representatives with a “gold” certificate have appeared. For example, the models of the new Core series presented by Chieftec this spring, one of the representatives of which we will meet.

Chieftec Core 600W (BBS-600S)

We got a 600 W power supply for testing, while the line still contains solutions for 500 and 700 watts. All of them are presented in a compact case, equipped with a 120mm fan and have a single 12V line. Modular design is not yet provided in the Core series.

The power supply comes in a black box with yellow elements, on the front side of which the device itself is depicted, and on the back – the characteristics of the devices in the series. This is the second Chieftec power supply that we have been testing, the packaging of which is very informative compared to solutions from previous series. Apparently, after so many years, the company finally realized that the retail market is slightly different from the corporate one.

In the kit, the user will find instructions, a set of mounting bolts and a power cord – the minimum necessary to install the device in the system.

All cables in the Core 600W are fixed and cannot be unfastened, their number is as follows:

• one with a 24-pin motherboard power connector (65 cm);
• one with 8-pin (4+4) CPU power connector (66.5 cm)
• one with two 8-pin (6+2) PCI-E video card power connectors (51 cm);
• one with four power connectors for SATA devices (51+16+16+16 cm);
• one with three power connectors for IDE devices and one for FDD (51+14.5+14.5+14 cm).

As you can see, the set is not large, but it should be enough to build an average gaming system with one card and a couple of drives. Pleased with a decent length of the main cables, which will allow you to easily install the unit from below in a large and spacious case, without resorting to extension cords, as is usually the case with short wires. Unfortunately, only the cable for powering the motherboard turned out to be in the nylon braid, the rest without it.

In appearance, the unit in question is no different from modern devices for the retail market. The black body is complemented by a grille painted in the same color above the fan. There is a switch on the outer wall. It is also worth noting the shallow depth of the BBS-600S – only 140 mm.

In terms of its capabilities, the unit meets modern standards, when all power is concentrated on the 12-volt line. According to it, the Core 600W is capable of delivering almost the entire rated power – 588 W, which will be enough to power a powerful processor with a voracious video card. Low-voltage lines are allocated only 110 watts of total power, but this is more than enough for a modern PC.

For the standby voltage, 12.5 W is provided, and the -12V voltage is content with 0.3A.

The unit complies with the 80 Plus Gold energy efficiency standard and has an active PFC, while the input voltage range is within 100-240 volts. Of the available protections, the following are declared: from increased voltage in the network, from overload and short circuit. There is an automatic fan speed control.

Inside, the “golden” CWT platform seemed to be, but this was not a surprise, since the developer and even the model on the basis of which our ward is made are indicated on the device label. Its circuitry uses a resonant converter in the high voltage circuit and a synchronous rectifier with DC/DC converters in the low voltage circuit. At the dawn of the appearance of “golden” solutions, such developments were used exclusively in expensive devices, but now, as we see, they are also available in budget products.

The block is assembled soundly, no savings on components have been noticed. Of course, the element base is inexpensive, but everything is in its place.

The input filter is fully assembled, there is even a varistor and a relay that turns off the thermistor, which limits the charge current of the input capacitance.

The power elements are cooled by a common oblong thick plate-radiator with petal fins in the upper part. Given the efficiency of the device, this should be enough. For a synchronous rectifier, two thin plates are provided, also with petals at the ends, which take heat from the back of the printed circuit board, where the transistors are soldered.

The power supply is controlled by the CM6901 (resonant converter and synchronous rectifier) ​​and CM6502 (active PFC) controllers. The standby voltage is implemented on the TNY177PN chip, and monitoring is implemented using the ST9S13-DAG chip.

DC/DC converters of low-voltage lines are located on a separate common board and are controlled by the APW7159 PWM controller.

The input circuit is equipped with a 330 uF capacitor with an operating voltage of 400 V and a temperature of 85 ° C manufactured by CapXon. The rest of the chains also contain the capacities of this company and even JunFu with Su’scon. Let’s just say budget. Polymer capacitors are used in the output circuit.

The soldering quality of the printed circuit board is good, neither “snot” nor flux residues were noticed, but there are small scratches in some places.

For active cooling of the device, a 120 mm HongHua HA1225L12S-Z fan on a sleeve with a two-pin connection and a maximum declared rotation speed of 1500 rpm is responsible.

After starting the system, it rotates at a speed of 695-705 rpm during PC idle or gaming load, raising it to 730 rpm at 90% of the nominal load. In this mode, the fan runs quietly with a slight crackle. With a slight overload of the unit, the fan speed increases to 1020–1250 rpm, but the user is unlikely to encounter such a situation during gaming battles.

Test Methodology

The power supply was checked using a conventional system assembled from the following components:

• processor: Intel Core i5-8600K (4.3 GHz);
• motherboard: ASUS Maximus X Apex (Intel Z370);
• Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems;
• RAM: HyperX HX429C15PB3AK2/16 (2×8 GB, DDR4-2933@3200, 16-18-18-36-2T);
• video cards: GeForce GTX 1080;
• drive: Kingston SSDNow UV400 240GB (480GB, SATA 6Gb/s).

Testing was carried out in the Windows 10 x64 environment on an open stand. To create a gaming load on the system, the Valley benchmark was used with maximum graphics quality, and for additional load, LinX 0.6.7 was launched in parallel.

Also, for maximum load, the following system was assembled:

• processor: Intel Core i7-975 (3.33@4.02 GHz, Bclk 175 MHz);
• motherboard: ASUS P6T7 WS SuperComputer (Intel X58);
• cooler: Noctua NH-D14;
• RAM: Kingston KHX2000C8D3T1K3/6GX (3×2 GB, DDR3-2000@1750, 8-8-8-24);
• video cards: ASUS ENGTX295/2DI/1792MD3/A and Inno3D GeForce GTX 295 Platinum Edition (GeForce GTX 295);
• hard disk: Samsung HD502HJ (500 GB, 7200 rpm, SATA-II).

Here testing was carried out in the Windows 7 x64 HP environment on an open stand. The Tropics benchmark was used to load the system with 4x anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic filtering enabled in single card and SLI mode. For additional workload, a LinX program was used with a 1024 MB task. We also used the OCCT program in full screen mode with Hyper-Threading enabled. The second card was connected through a homemade adapter to power cords for peripherals.

To measure the total power consumption of the system, the Seasonic Power Angel was used, which can also measure the power factor, voltage and frequency in the network, the consumed current and the amount of energy spent per unit of time. Net power consumption calculated based on 80 Plus certification – i.e. possible efficiency of the device. Errors in such calculations can be 5%. The voltages were checked with a UNI-T UT70D digital multimeter.

The temperature was measured using the Scythe Kaze Master Pro panel, the sensors of which were located on the radiators inside the block and at a distance of 1 cm in front of the fan (#1) and behind the outer wall (#2).

For fan speed results, a UNI-T UT372 non-contact tachometer was used. The maximum speed was fixed for each of the power supply testing modes.

It should be borne in mind that such a technique at this stage is far from ideal and will be supplemented and changed as it is used.

Test results

The obtained data are entered in the table. In brackets for voltage are percent deviations from the norm, for power consumption – the approximate net load on the power supply.

The BBS-650S has good performance in terms of voltage stability, the nominal value is exceeded by no more than 2.1%, there are drawdowns only along the +5 V line. In general, the “gold” CWT platform will be more interesting than the “bronze”, where you can easily observe 11.65 V or even lower. Temperatures of some components are surprising – as a rule, Chieftec tends to play it safe, setting the fan speed to 1000 rpm or more to keep temperatures at an acceptable level. Here we see 70 degrees on some components and heatsinks.

conclusions

Solutions of the new Core series are positioned by Chieftec as the best in their class in terms of features and cost relative to competitors. Indeed, new items have the most affordable price with high energy efficiency. But this coin also has a downside – Core power supplies are moderately ascetic, assembled on a budget element base and devoid of any additional functions.

Tested by Chieftec BBS-600S, it turned out to be surprisingly not very loud and is suitable for assembling a gaming system for which the budget for the power supply is laid at the very last turn. A video card above the average level, a couple of drives and a processor with a slight overclocking are quite capable of the considered novelty. For undemanding users, this is one of the best options on the domestic market, given that competing solutions only have an 80 Plus Bronze certificate, or a higher cost.