Sparkle Computer Corp 80Plus 1250 Watt ATX Power Supply GW?EPS1250DA Review

Sparkle 1250 Watt Power Supply GW?EPS1250DA Review

 

The power supply might be considered
the heart of your computer, and like any heart it needs to be strong
and powerful enough to keep up with what the rest of the body of
system needs to do. The needs of today’s computers require quite a
bit of power, but power costs money so when looking for a power
supply you might want one that’s certified as efficient like the one
I have today. I have run computer from about 6am until anywhere from
11Pm until 2am at times, that’s a lot of power I’m using and any way
I can cut down on my bill makes me happy.

Today for review I’ve got a new power
supply from a company called Sparkle, and it’s big, not in size but
in terms of power. This power supply is 1250 watts, with an 80 plus
certification. This PSU has six 12v rails with 120amps across them to
make sure you’ve got enough power for everything.

 

 

 


Product
Name:
Sparkle Computer Corp Gold Class 80Plus
1250 Watt Power Supply GW?EPS1250DA

Author: Kristofer Brozio

Sponsor: Sparkle


 

Tech
Specs,Features or the Basic Info:


SPARKLE Computer Corp
GW?EPS1250DA (90+) GOLD CLASS 80PLUS 1250W ATX POWER SUPPLY


Model No: [ GW?EPS1250DA ]


Overview:

-1250W Modular Power Supply

-80 Plus Gold Certified

-Double Ball Bearing Fan

-All connector AU coating to
keep Ultra high efficiency

-Full Thermal Control with
super silent fan

-12V peak at 120A

-Temperature control design
mode

-Active PFC design

-Keep PSU fan running for 5-10
seconds after shut down to dissipate the remaining system heat and
prolonging system lifetime.

-Ultra-quiet 13.9cm Fan with
intelligent RPM control guarantees cool performance and silent
operation.

-99.9% 12V Power

-EPS12V PSU with 99.9% 12V
output capability

-SYNC TRANSFORMER ARRAY

-Double main electrolytic
capacitors

-DC to DC circuitry design with
solid capacitors

-Forward Safe Guard Circuitry
design

-Dual Layer main PCB 2.0mm
thickness

– Sextuple 12V Rails

-100A Mosfet 12V Rectifiers

-30k µF low ESR secondary 105?
electrolytic capacitors

-Triple AC EMC Filtering stage

-Dual capacitors design to
protect system safety when sudden shut down


Specs:

UPC No.:843636003607

Series: Gold Class

Intel Specification: ATX12V /
EPS12V

Energy Efficiency: 80Plus Gold

Modular Cabling: Yes

Fan: 139mm Fan

Fan Type: Double Ball Bearing

+12V Rail: 6

AC Input Range: Full Range:
90~264Vac

Frequency: 50/60Hz

Input Current: 15-8A

+5V: 30A

+3.3V: 30A

+12V1: 20A

+12V2: 20A

+12V3: 20A

+12V4: 20A

+12V5: 20A

+12V6: 20A

-12V: 0.6A

+5VSB: 3.0A

Total Power: 1250W

24P Mainboard Connector: X 1

4+4P CPU +12V Connector: X 1

6+2P PCI-E Connector: X 6

SATA Connector: X 12 (Max.)

4P Molex Connector: X 9 (Max.)

4P FDD Connector: X 3 (Max.)

Dimension: 175mm X 155mm X 86mm


 

 

{mospagebreak title=Unboxing and Still Pictures}

Unboxing
Video and Stills:


Ok, so how about we start off with
the video unboxing and then we’ll check out the still pictures:



This Sparkle PSU is packaged very
nicely. We’ve got the PSU itself inside of a cloth bag, and another
nylon bag with all of the cables inside of it. They’ve even included
several velcro ties to help you with cable management. Sparkle has
spared no expenses when it comes to the PSU and the accessories.


 


You’ll note one thing though that
this PSU isn’t fully modular, both of the motherboard connections are
fully attached to the PSU.




{mospagebreak title=Installation and Testing}

Installation and Testing:


So let’s get to the installation
part of this.


I installed the Sparkle 1250Watt
PSU in my main system which consists of a few things:


Asus P7P55D LE Motherboard

Intel
Corei5 750 (
w/
Noctua NH-U12P SE2
)

XFX
ATI 4890 (1gig)

Sapphire ATI 4870 (512MB)

Kingston
128gb SSDNow V SSD Drive

Seagate
Barracuda XT 2TB

Western
Digital 500Gb Caviar Blue

Gigabyte USB 3.0 PCIE Card

LG
Super Multi Blue Blu-Ray/DVD/RW

2 x Noctua 120mm fans

2x 200mm fans

All
inside of the
Cooler
Master Sniper
Case.


I spent quite a lot of time
getting this PSU installed in my system along with a bit of wire
management as well.


One note is that these pictures
were taken when I had two 4870 video cards in my systems, the day
after I took the pictures the 4890 arrived, so that’s what has been
in the system for the last two weeks.



One small complaint I could have
is that cables, specifically the Molex and SATA are spaced a bit too
close together for my needs. The main issue is that most everything I
have run SATA, the hard drives and the DVD/RW drive as well. So
getting the PSU installed required me to dedicate one entire cable to
just the DVD/RW drive as I couldn’t get it attached to anything else.
This an issue in my system, and my might not be the same in others of
course. The suggestion would be to stagger the distances between the
connectors, or maybe include one or two cables that are staggered
distances.


Something else I noticed is that
all of the Molex cables have a floppy power connection on them and I
have to ask why? Who uses floppies anymore really? I think one would
have been fine, or maybe two at the most but not all of them.


For my testing I install a PSU in
my system and use it for everything, everyday. I trust my main system
to it essentially.


The fist thing I noticed is that
even under load this PSU is silent, it added no extra noise to my
system. This PSU also is the type that when you turn the system off
the fan will still run to continue cooling things off.


To test it I do it old school
style, with my trusty multimeter. This testing style might not be the
best, but it has never failed me, I’ve never had a PSU fail or any
issues with one that I’ve reviewed or tested in this way.


Looking at the specs of my system
I most likely don’t come near 1250Watt, but I can say I use quite a
bit more power than the average system out there.


I put load on my computer and
video cards then attached the multimeter to the 12v and 5v lines for
testing and monitoring over the course of the two weeks.


Idle:

12v = 12.20v

5v = 5.08v


Load:

12v = 12.18v

5v = 5.07v


Tolerances are +/- 5% for both
lines and we’re well within that range.


As expected under load the
voltages did drop, but they did not fluctuate at all, no matter what
I did they held firm. This is a good thing of course.




Summary
and Comments:


The Sparkle 1250Watt PSU is one
that I’m happy with, I can easily trust my system with it. The build
quality is very good, and there’s more than enough connections for
pretty much any sized system out there today. With this PSU in your
system you’ll be future proof I’m sure, it will be able to handle
most anything you throw at it.


The PSU seems stable under load, I
saw no issues with any fluctuations at all.


The fan is big but it’s very
quiet, I could not hear it at all over the rest of my system. I like
my system to be quiet, and this PSU is nice and quiet.


If I can trust my main system with
this PSU then I think you can too. I’ve had no issues at all with it
in the time it’s been installed in my system.



DragonSteelMods gives the Sparkle
1250 Watt Power Supply a 5 out of 5 score and our Recommended Awards
as well.



Pros:

+Lots of connections

+Nice long cables

+Very well made

+Quiet under load

+Stable 5 and 12 volts lines

+Looks nice



Cons:

-Not fully modular

-Cables could be longer







review# 646








Disclosure: This product was given to DragonSteelMods for review by the company
for review purposes only, and is not considered by us as payment for
the review, we do not, never have, and never will, accept payment
from companies to review their products.


To
learn more about our review policy, testing methods and ratings
please see this
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