Zippy-Emacs PSL-6850P(G1) 850 Watt Power Supply

 

So much for the trials and tribulations of obtaining the product! Please join me as we submit the Zippy PSL-6850P(G1) 850 Watt PSU to the our extremely thorough Bjorn3D scrutiny. The question remains will this be my new reference PSU for SLI and Crossfire testing or will it make a nice paper weight? Read on and ye shall be informed!

 

INTRODUCTION

Just over a year ago I first began hearing of Zippy power supplies. At first I didn’t associate them with the well Zippy-Emacs power supplies that have been quite well known in the Server arena for some time. This was mostly due to the fact that the reviews I was reading were listing their Zippy reference PSU as “Class A” Computer Enthusiast grade product. I even went as far as looking into purchasing one after being highly impressed by the literature that I had consumed. At the time New Egg was carrying the gaming models of this PSU as well as some of their server class products, but the price was a bit more than I was willing to pay. This was just before SLI and later Crossfire burst on to the scene.

A few months passed and just as quickly as this elusive power supply had made its debut it seemed to drop completely out of site in the Computer Enthusiast market and was circumvented by other manufacturer’s products. I found this out quite by accident when one day I was searching for a new quality high-output PSU for a rig that I was building and I went looking for a Zippy, only to find that New Egg has stopped carrying them entirely. Most would have said bon voyage and just moved on to another brand. Due to their unavailability I did just that, but never forgot the name Zippy.

For almost everyone I know the two paragraphs above would have told the entire story of their quest to find this product as it would for me until I read a series of great overclocking snippets on another Enthusiast forum. The author used various models of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor and several of the newest 975 motherboards. Again the name Zippy surfaced and my curiosity was again instantly peaked especially after seeing the incredible stability of the 850 watt PSU the author had used. I had to review this power supply for two reasons: 1) To see if it was as good as it appeared; and 2) If it’s performance was as mentioned, I would surely have a new reference power supply.

I could go on about the grueling search that ensued trying to find the Zippy 850 at some vendor in the US, but that would only serve to make this portion of my review much longer than it needs to be. Suffice it to say I finally wrote the corporate offices of Zippy in the US and after several emails to their marketing division I was referred to Zippy’s corporate marketing in Taiwan. Several more emails were exchanged and finally my wish to review this monster power supply was granted. Approximately a week after getting the company’s approval for the review a moderately sized package arrived at my doorstep. When I picked it up to bring it inside I realized right away this was on hefty hunk of metal.

So much for the trials and tribulations of obtaining the product! Please join me as we submit the Zippy PSL-6850P(G1) 850 Watt PSU to the our extremely thorough Bjorn3D scrutiny. The question remains will this be my new reference PSU for SLI and Crossfire testing or will it make a nice paper weight? Read on and ye shall be informed!

Zippy Emacs: The Company’s Overview

Founded in April 1983, ZIPPY Technology Corporation started out with the design and development of Switches, specializing in mold tooling and material engineering. The success of our Switches Division set the stepping-stone for a multitude of advancements in the upcoming years.

Riding amidst the wave towards rapidly developing e-business, our Power Division was established in 1993 and quickly set a strong foot-hold in the research and development in power supplies, particularly in Server Power Supply and Redundant Power Supply.

The development of IR and RF technologies in remote controlling gained momentum in early 1996. Our Keyboard Division was deployed in 1997 in response to a growing market for wireless input devices. We develop, design and manufacture an array of home and office keyboards as well as keyboard modules for notebook computers.

As our research and development into the founding principle of ceramic powder and related sintering and grinding technologies reach maturity, we proudly established our Fine Ceramic Division in 1998. The development of Multi-layer Piezoelectric Inverters, Fiber Optical Adapters and a collection of technologically advanced products are paving the roads for ZIPPY towards future developments

The corporation comprises of six departments, namely: General Managers’ Office, Planning Department and the four Production Divisions mentioned above. Our products are used World-Wide in Electronics Information Services, Telecommunications, Home Appliances, Consumer Electronics, Mechanical and Automobile Industries…etc and the list is rapidly growing as time progresses.

With more than twenty years of experience, we are more than confident to face the 21st century’s rapid advancement in electronics, biotechnologies and nanotechnologies. Working as a team, our staffs are ready to face any challenges heading our way.

FEATURES & SPECIFICATIONS

Features

• Support INTEL ATX12V INTEL EPS12V
• Support INTEL and AMD dual core or multiple CPU’s
• Support dual 6 pin for PCI-E
• NVIDIA SLITM-ready certified
• Support ATI CrossFire
• Smart fan control
• Metal clip for power cord retention
• Easy plug and unplug type of drive connectors
• Various protections implanted: OCP/ OVP/ OPP/Short circuit
• Exceptional stability for all outputs under various system loading
• Iron-gray coating case
• Active PFC
• Efficiency:   71%(200W), 76%(420W),71%(850W) at 110V 40°
• Humidity:   20 ~ 80 % RH
• 80mm dual ball bearing cooling fan
• Short Protection:  Shutdown and Latch
• RFI / EMI : FCC part 15. class B,CISPR 22 (EN 55022) class B

Specifications

A CLOSER LOOK

Packaging

Packaging, as I have stated countless times, is one of my pet peeves with the choice of product protection used by some vendors to ship computer products. They approach packaging parts with the assumption that they are being picked up at a storefront as opposed to traveling in some cases several thousand miles and being subjected to the rigors that various freight companies put the packages through. In this case the package actually traveled several thousand miles direct from the manufacturer to my doorstep. As you can see after removing the primary package containing the Zippy PSL-6850P(G1) 850 Watt PSU from it’s shipping container it appears as though I got it from a manufacturer in my home town. Not a dent or a blemish anywhere on the interior package and the shipping container was no worse for the wear either.

<

The rear and the sides of the box take up where the front leaves off, completely familiarizing the potential buyer with all the unit’s features, characteristics and statistics. Where you’re investing in a component of this magnitude that is the primary source of power for your new dream system, there’s no such thing as having to much information. After all the systems entire performance rests on the shoulders of this one component.

Exterior Views

We were also impressed with the iron gray coating used by Zippy on the PSL-6850P(G1) 850 Watt PSU. The coating implies a very rugged and powerful appearance to the outer case. The following images depict the Zippy PSL-6850P(G1) 850 Watt PSU from the top,front and rear views.

Although not modular by design the cabling is extremely impressive! Each cable has what I’ll call commercial grade sleeves which are the best I’ve ever seen and certainly aid when it comes to cable management. Also note the openness of the front and rear grills making for extremely good airflow and cooling.

The Zippy PSL-6850P(G1) 850 Watt power supply is huge and quite heavy at just over 8 pounds! It follows the standard dimensions for height and width, but is approximately 3.5 inches longer than any standard sized PSU. The images below compare it to the Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W power supply I recently reviewed.

A CLOSER LOOK cont.

Included Components

• 1 – Zippy PSL-6850P(G1) 850 Watt power supply
• 1 – User Manual
• 1 – AC power cord
• mounting screws
• 1 – metal clip for power cord retention
• Chroma ATE Function Test Report for included PSU
• 1 – Support bracket

Cabling:

• 1 – 600mm cable with 24 pin main power connector
• 1 – 600mm +12V 8 pin EPS cable
• 1 – 600mm +12V 4 pin cable
• 2 – 600mm 6 pin PCI Express cables
• 4 – 600mm 4 pin peripheral power connector cables (Molex) with 2 “quick release” style connector, one with 150mm extension
• 1 – 600mm 4 pin peripheral power connector cables (Molex) with 1 “quick release” style connector plus 1 4 pin floppy power connector with 150mm extension
• 3 – 600mm SATA connector cables with 1 SATA connectora plus 1 additional SATA connectors with 150 mm extensions

A CLOSER LOOK cont.

Internal Views

The next series of images is a brief overview depicting the internal components and construction used by Zippy in the PSL-6850P(G1) 850 Watt power supply. You will notice that all electronic components are high quality, commercial grade. Some of you might question the noise emitted by 40mm fan inside the case while those measurements will be covered in the “Testing Phase” of this review. I will go ahead and say that this fan coupled with the 80mm dual ball bearing fan make for the quietest power supply for its size that I’ve ever had the pleasure to test.

Also notice the massive heatsinks inside the case which provide excellent heat dissipation for this monster. At higher power demands these coupled with the aformentioned fans keep this product quite cool even with the efficiency rating in the lower 70% range reported by Zippy.

TESTING

Test System

• AMD X2 5000+
• ZALMAN CNPS9500AM2 HSF
• ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe nForce 590 motherboard
• 2GB of Mushkin Redline XP2-8000 DDR-2 (4-5-4-11-2T @ varying voltagess)
• LeadTek WinFast PX7950 GX2 TDH running ForceWare 91.47 drivers
• 3 – Seagate Barracuda NL-35 500 GB SATA drives
• 3 – Seagate Barracuda ES 750 GB SATA drives
• 2 – Evercool 120mm cooling fans for hard drives
• Test PSU 1:  Zippy PSL-6850P(G1) 850 Watt Power Supply
• Test PSU 1:  Zippy PSL-6850P(G1) 850 Watt Power Supply
• Test PSU 2:  Corsair® CMPSU-620HX 620W PSU
• Test PSU 3:  Antec® Neo HE 550 Watt PSU
• Test PSU 4:  SilverStone® ST56F 560 Watt PSU
• Test PSU 5:Seasonic® S12 600 Watt PSU
• Large HSPC Tech Station
• Windows XP Pro SP2
• Samsung Syncmaster 213T 21.3″ LCD Monitor

Test Methodology

Let’s face it, with a power supply this is the real meat of any review. Power supply pictures and verbose descriptions mean absolutely nothing without the ability to produce the desired results. Each of the power supplies we used to compare against the Zippy PSL-6850P(G1) has been previously reviewed by Bjorn3D. We are planning to really try and drive Zippy PSU to the limits our test rig will provide, for that reason none of the previous test results will be used. Each test unit will be completely retested using the same criteria we plan to use with the Zippy.

To act as a break-in period for the Zippy PSL-6850P (G1) 850 Watt power supply I ran it for several days in the above described test system case and allowed to run virtually undisturbed during normal everyday use ranging from surfing the Net to some hard-core gaming. To establish load conditions we ran a variety of different processes on my test system to create as much power demand on the Zippy PSL-6850P(G1) as the components of the test system will allow.

Because of the complexity of changing out a power supply 5 different times we decided to test the components using a newly acquired large HSPC Tech station. While this test environment doesn’t completely simulate the results in a case we feel that using it uniformly with all test components should make the results relative. All electrical measurements were measured using a new Velleman digital multimeter and a Seasonic Power Angel. Sound/noise measurements will be acquired using a new Omega HHSL-1 digital SPL meter.

As most of you are aware it is virtually impossible to drive an 850 Watt PSU to its maximum load capabilities using a standard test rig even with the number of components we have added to increase power draw. Unfortunately Bjorn3D doesn’t presently own an electronic load simulator to drive these devices to their maximum output. Hopefully we’ll have one of these devices in the not to distant future. While measurements taken using one of these devices show the true and ultimate capabilities of the power supply being tested, it’s not “real world”. By this I simply mean other than for bragging rights, why measure something you’ll never practically attain. The question then arises why buy a power supply that provides more than you need? Many Computer Enthusiasts subscribe to the premise that a power supply should never be driven in a real life environment to more than 75% – 80% of it’s capable output for obvious system performance reasons. I personally like a cooler quieter system so I feel the 60% – 70% range gives me more of a performance comfort zone.

Enough already, on to the testing! With our test system we established three points of reference which we’ll refer to as Idle which ranges between 210 – 215 Watts, Mid Level which ranges between 265 – 275 Watts, and Load which ranges between 315 – 325 Watts. We attained these levels by applying various levels of overclocking coupled with running various applications in the background to stress the test rig to these demand levels. The results are as follows.

TESTING cont.

Test Results

 

Power Supply

Idle(3.3v)

Mid(3.3v)

Load(3.3v)

Idle(5v)

Mid(5v)

Load(5v)

Idle(12v)

Mid(12v)

Load(12v)
Zippy® PSL-6850P(G1)
850 Watt PSU

Corsair® CMPSU-620HX
620W PSU

Antec® Neo HE
550 Watt PSU

SilverStone® ST56F
560 Watt PSU

Seasonic® S12
600 Watt PSU

 

 

 

 

Zippy® PSL-6850P(G1)
850 Watt PSU

Corsair® CMPSU-620HX
620W PSU

Antec® Neo HE
550 Watt PSU

SilverStone® ST56F
560 Watt PSU

Seasonic® S12
600 Watt PSU

 

 

Zippy® PSL-6850P(G1)
850 Watt PSU

Corsair® CMPSU-620HX
620W PSU

Antec® Neo HE
550 Watt PSU

SilverStone® ST56F
560 Watt PSU

Seasonic® S12
600 Watt PSU

 

CONCLUSION

I’ll begin our conclusion by saying that the Zippy® PSL-6850P(G1) 850 Watt PSU is to date the best I have ever tested. Were it not for it’s extreme length which might prove problematic to some and Zippy’s own claimed efficiency ratings which I feel are fairly conservative, this would have been my first review ever to attain a “10”. The test system utilized is by no means a slouch, we threw everything we had at this PSU and it was like it wasn’t even phased by the load. I can’t wait to try this PSU with some quad SLI test I hope to perform in the not to distant future. With performance of this type one would expect the interior 40mm cooling fan to be be screaming, that certainly was never the case. The PSL-6850P(G1) took the load in stride and easily proved as evidenced by the SPL chart to be the quietest PSU I’ve tested to date.

The Zippy® PSL-6850P(G1) 850 Watt PSU will certainly take the crown as my new reference power supply especially when running extremely demanding tests such as highly overclocked CPU’s and GPU’s as well as SLI and Crossfire tests. I now feel that I have the headroom power wise to perform any series of tests with any of the equipment currently available in today’s market. My only real regret is that I didn’t pursue Zippy over a year ago when I first heard the name.

Power and performance like this with rock solid construction does not come cheap! This power supply retails somewhere in the $375.00 USD range. The sad thing is that to the best of my knowledge it isn’t currently available in this format in the US. Several of the server power supply distributors have similar server style versions of this PSU but not the G1 which is the gamer’s model. I sincerely hope that this article will generate enough of an interest in Zippy-Emacs to convince them to bring more of their “Enthusiast Grade” products to the United States. It is my understanding that this PSU can be ordered directly from Zippy and shipped to the US as my review sample was.

One of the most impressive features of this product to me was how well the cables were sleeved helping considerably with cable management, remember each of the many cables is 600mm long and should facilitate your needs in almost any case currently available. I was also very impressed with “Iron Gray” case coating which certainly alludes to the truly rugged and virile this power supply exudes. I was taken back by the fan arrangement as it varies drastically from almost any other PSU that I’ve seen, but it works very well, it’s extremely quiet at all loads; so as the analogy goes “If it ain’t broken don’t fix it”.

Finally, it’s recommendation time. Do I really need to say that again this is without a doubt the best upper range PSUs I’ve ever had the pleasure to test? I feel that this is a dream come true for the Computer Enthusiast and should function flawlessly over the entire spectrum of their needs. The price and the size might be a deterrent to someone new to building computers, but I feel the power supply is where it all begins and in some cases ends. So yes this product comes highly recommended to anyone that wants one of the best out there and even at the price I feel it’s money well spent!

My sincere appreciation goes out to Tom Weng and Edward Cheng along with their superb team at Zippy-Emacs for allowing me the privilege of reviewing this wonderful product!

 

Pros:

+  Extremely quiet operation
+  Excellent performance
+  Active PFC
+  All cables fully sleeved
+  Incredible Power Output
+  Cooling design and results
+  Excellent power regulation
+  Industrial grade components

 

Cons:

–  Might be to long for some midtower cases
–  Efficiency rating isn’t as high as others in it’s class

Final Score: 9.5 out of 10 and the Bjorn3D Golden Bear award.