Super Flower Golden King 550W Power Supply Review

Introduction

Most of the time we focus on enthusiast and gaming power supplies here at TweakTown. Occasionally, when a product warrants it, we will cover other power supplies as well. The unit we are taking a look at from Super Flower today is one of those units that warrants taking a good look at. It is the Super Flower Golden King SF-550P14PE 550W power supply. After taking a look at the Super Flower Golden Green 800W PSU last month, we were quite interested in seeing what else they had to offer, so we had them send one over.

At this point you're probably wondering just what is so special about a 550W power supply. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is one of the first 80Plus Platinum power supplies to come to market. You heard that right, Platinum efficiency. Up until now, the 80Plus Platinum logo has just been a myth that nobody has really seen it. For those unfamiliar with the certification, 80Plus Platinum certification requires that the power supply be able to achieve 90%, 92%, and 89% efficiency at 20%, 50%, and 100% loads respectively.

At the time of writing this article, there are only 18 power supplies listed with Platinum certification on the 80Plus.org website. Super Flower has designed six of these. Let's check this thing out and see what Platinum is all about.

Specifications, Availability and Pricing

The Golden King 550W power supply certainly doesn't have the high amperage rails that we are used to seeing, but it still has some respectable outputs. The 45.5A single 12V rail has enough power to run a moderately powered graphics card or even a pair of low end CrossFireX/SLI cards. Both of the 3.3V and 5V rails are capable of 20A each and have a combined output of 100W. This should be plenty of power, but probably won't allow for much, if any, overclocking.

Even though the Golden King 550W power supply isn't capable of powering a fully featured enthusiast rig, it is still packed full of features. All of the protections are here for current, power, and voltage as well as Short Circuit Protection. The four natively wired cables are sleeved while the modular cables that come with the Golden King 550W are all of the ribbon type and do not need to be sleeved. Super Flower even rates the Golden King 550W for 100% continuous output at 50C.

Availability in the U.S. is very poor because Super Flower doesn't directly sell power supplies in the United States. Super Flower lists the Golden King 550W for $159.99, making it one of the most expensive power supplies in the 500W-600W bracket. About the only power supply in this range that is more expensive is the Kingwin LZP-550 which is listed for $169.99 on Newegg. This unit is identical to the Golden King, inside and out, as it is manufactured by Super Flower as well. Doing some searching will yield the Golden King 550W available overseas for €149.