It's more than enough for almost any single-gpu gaming system (and many multi-gpu systems), so I think it's alright to use the term "high-wattage" since it's in the context of gaming machines (add stated in the sentence before the "high-wattage" sentence).
If you open up the use case, then obviously that's no long terribly high wattage.
I guess the bottom line is that it's not egregiously wrong enough to correct.
I'm not questioning the amount of PC system variations where a 600W PSU is "more than enough".
I'm questioning the fact that a 600W is being considered "high-wattage". If 600W is high-wattage, then what is 850W? Extremely high-wattage? And 1000W? Super-Extreme Wattage? And 1200W? Ultra Super Duper Wattage?
If we look at the PC market in general, then 500-600W is "mid-wattage" at best.
700W SFX-L is available from Silverstone (shipping to distributors now), 750 from Lian Li (shipping to consumers now in the US) and Silversont have just announced an 800W SFX-L PSU.
Not to nitpick, but SFX and SFX-L are two different beasts. When your ITX case only supports SFX, those SFX-L bricks are as useless as a full ATX power supply.
I suppose I limited my scope to gaming machines because gaming machines were particularly called out early in the article and a name like Dagger lends itself to that sort of thing.
But if we're opening up our scope to other use cases, then I could see that terminology as being more reasonable.
For any system that requires a SFX power supply, 600W is certainly high wattage. Mini-ITX cases that can't fit SFX-L or larger are quite cramped. Even if you managed to fit a healthily overclocked i7 6700K, GTX 980TI, 4 DIMMS of RAM, a pair of 7200 RPM hard drives, 4 SSDs, and a half dozen fans all crammed into a case that can only accomodate a SFX PSU, your 600 watts would still have 75-100 watts of overhead at full load on all components.
There are 4-pin + Molex to 8-pin adapters. There are Molex to 6-pin adapters, and then fed through a dual 6-pin to 8-pin adapter.
If adapters are fair game for "compatibility" purposes, then so are any other adapter besides a dual 6-pin to 8-pin adapter. As long as the PSU's wattage suffices and there's enough amperage on the +12V rail, then it'll run it, even if out of the box it doesn't have the connector types you need; you'd just need to spend an extra amount to get adapters for PSU connections you aren't using.
Either way, it's pretty weird that it doesn't have a single 6+2 pin connector and that seems to be the "norm" for most high-ish performance gaming cards in 2016.
Especially at the 600W level. The only way you're going to get that high in an SFF system is with a big hot (and probably OCed for more power consumption) GPU that's burning through more than the 225W of power notionally available from a 2x6 pin cable.
At the 500W level I could see them just having been caught flatfooted by the change (which could've happened a as many as a few years ago); although even then 1x6 and 1x8 would seem to be needed to handle the total power load.
OTOH aren't most current generation PSUs now initially pure 12V and then using DC-DC conversion to make the 3.3/5V rails? That these models are talking about cross load protection makes me wonder if they're an early generation gold design stuffed into a small box; which would explain the 2x6 power outputs and potentially make worry about cabling for more 12V a moot point because their 12V max power is significantly lower than their total paper output (even though a modern system will rarely use more than a few amps of the low voltage power at all).
Wow. 92mm in an sfx? I think I found my next psu. May even replace the stock fan with a Noctua NF‑A9x14 PWM fan for uber quiet running when the fan does kick on.
Silverstone standard that Silverstone hopes catches on. It's not a terrible idea, though. But they're really the only ones that have done anything with SFX-L.
A bit misleading. FSP produced the first 450w consumer SFX PSU under Silverstone's label, the ST45SF, long before Corsair even entered the space. To cast the company off as the "new kid on the block" is astounding to say the least.
I always wondered why with everything shrinking why power supplies had such little innovation. It's so great to see these power supplies. I hope they can squeeze an extra 200w out in future.
Now I want to see some innovation with the cables and connectors. The 24 Pin has to have a better solution, it's probably one of the most annoying cables/connectors.
Probably the best we can hope for is to make most of the 3.3/5V wires (and a few corresponding ground wires) optional to give the cable an ~50% diet in one spec update; and then a year or three later follow it up with a new more compact connector that removes all the previously optional wires. Adding 1 or 2 extra 12V wires to the shrunken version (enough to remove the need for the separate 12v CPU cable in low power GPUless mITX builds) would be a nice bonus; but is probably too much to hope for.
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ToTTenTranz - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
"High-Wattage"(...)
"500-600W"
Well.. I know SFX PSUs have typically lower wattage, but at least on ATX terms that's "mid-wattage" at best.
ImSpartacus - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
It's more than enough for almost any single-gpu gaming system (and many multi-gpu systems), so I think it's alright to use the term "high-wattage" since it's in the context of gaming machines (add stated in the sentence before the "high-wattage" sentence).If you open up the use case, then obviously that's no long terribly high wattage.
I guess the bottom line is that it's not egregiously wrong enough to correct.
ToTTenTranz - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
I'm not questioning the amount of PC system variations where a 600W PSU is "more than enough".I'm questioning the fact that a 600W is being considered "high-wattage".
If 600W is high-wattage, then what is 850W? Extremely high-wattage?
And 1000W? Super-Extreme Wattage?
And 1200W? Ultra Super Duper Wattage?
If we look at the PC market in general, then 500-600W is "mid-wattage" at best.
Flunk - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
I think 600W is the highest available value for an SFX PSU.edzieba - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
700W SFX-L is available from Silverstone (shipping to distributors now), 750 from Lian Li (shipping to consumers now in the US) and Silversont have just announced an 800W SFX-L PSU.Smudgeous - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Not to nitpick, but SFX and SFX-L are two different beasts. When your ITX case only supports SFX, those SFX-L bricks are as useless as a full ATX power supply.Samus - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
For SFX, this is Ultra Super Duper Wattage.I don't believe beyond 600w if even available. You are talking something < half the size of an ATX PSU.
ImSpartacus - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
I see where you're coming from.I suppose I limited my scope to gaming machines because gaming machines were particularly called out early in the article and a name like Dagger lends itself to that sort of thing.
But if we're opening up our scope to other use cases, then I could see that terminology as being more reasonable.
Smudgeous - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
For any system that requires a SFX power supply, 600W is certainly high wattage. Mini-ITX cases that can't fit SFX-L or larger are quite cramped. Even if you managed to fit a healthily overclocked i7 6700K, GTX 980TI, 4 DIMMS of RAM, a pair of 7200 RPM hard drives, 4 SSDs, and a half dozen fans all crammed into a case that can only accomodate a SFX PSU, your 600 watts would still have 75-100 watts of overhead at full load on all components.Spunjji - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
The article always says "high-wattage SFX", though, which is pretty clear.JoeyJoJo123 - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
There are 4-pin + Molex to 8-pin adapters.There are Molex to 6-pin adapters, and then fed through a dual 6-pin to 8-pin adapter.
If adapters are fair game for "compatibility" purposes, then so are any other adapter besides a dual 6-pin to 8-pin adapter. As long as the PSU's wattage suffices and there's enough amperage on the +12V rail, then it'll run it, even if out of the box it doesn't have the connector types you need; you'd just need to spend an extra amount to get adapters for PSU connections you aren't using.
ImSpartacus - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
Either way, it's pretty weird that it doesn't have a single 6+2 pin connector and that seems to be the "norm" for most high-ish performance gaming cards in 2016.DanNeely - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
Especially at the 600W level. The only way you're going to get that high in an SFF system is with a big hot (and probably OCed for more power consumption) GPU that's burning through more than the 225W of power notionally available from a 2x6 pin cable.At the 500W level I could see them just having been caught flatfooted by the change (which could've happened a as many as a few years ago); although even then 1x6 and 1x8 would seem to be needed to handle the total power load.
OTOH aren't most current generation PSUs now initially pure 12V and then using DC-DC conversion to make the 3.3/5V rails? That these models are talking about cross load protection makes me wonder if they're an early generation gold design stuffed into a small box; which would explain the 2x6 power outputs and potentially make worry about cabling for more 12V a moot point because their 12V max power is significantly lower than their total paper output (even though a modern system will rarely use more than a few amps of the low voltage power at all).
piroroadkill - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
Aw, I was hoping to see an SFX-L PSU. 120mm fans!CoreDuo - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
Corsair has SFX PSUs in 450W and 600W models that have a 92mm fan. Used it in a build I did a few months ago.http://www.corsair.com/en-us/sf-series-sf450-450-w...
ToTTenTranz - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
Silverstone has a 700W SFX-L PSU.Ej24 - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
Wow. 92mm in an sfx? I think I found my next psu. May even replace the stock fan with a Noctua NF‑A9x14 PWM fan for uber quiet running when the fan does kick on.DanNeely - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
Is SFX-L an actual standard or just something Silverstone hacked together on its own?JoeyJoJo123 - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Silverstone standard that Silverstone hopes catches on. It's not a terrible idea, though. But they're really the only ones that have done anything with SFX-L.leonlee - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
A bit misleading. FSP produced the first 450w consumer SFX PSU under Silverstone's label, the ST45SF, long before Corsair even entered the space. To cast the company off as the "new kid on the block" is astounding to say the least.HomeworldFound - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
I always wondered why with everything shrinking why power supplies had such little innovation. It's so great to see these power supplies. I hope they can squeeze an extra 200w out in future.Now I want to see some innovation with the cables and connectors. The 24 Pin has to have a better solution, it's probably one of the most annoying cables/connectors.
Spunjji - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Agreed. It really is shockingly outdated now! Unlikely to change as long as E-ATX and ITX motherboards are using the same PSU connector, though.DanNeely - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Probably the best we can hope for is to make most of the 3.3/5V wires (and a few corresponding ground wires) optional to give the cable an ~50% diet in one spec update; and then a year or three later follow it up with a new more compact connector that removes all the previously optional wires. Adding 1 or 2 extra 12V wires to the shrunken version (enough to remove the need for the separate 12v CPU cable in low power GPUless mITX builds) would be a nice bonus; but is probably too much to hope for.