INTRODUCTION

   The arrival of the new and much less mining-oriented GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards by NVIDIA and partners has many people "scrambling" for a new power supply unit and even though availability is nowhere near as bad as it is with graphics cards still selection might be somewhat limited right now. Regardless of that however having pointed out the many benefits of having a good power supply unit in any system time and again means I’m very surprised to see that even today many people place this specific hardware component last in their lists. This of course is due to the fact that good PSUs often cost a lot and so today I’m going to check a model which combines good build quality and performance at a very tempting price tag. I am of course referring to the latest PowerUp GPX-750FC 750W power supply unit by Chieftronic.

   Chieftronic will build on the legacy of our Chieftec heritage of quality and experience in the PC chassis industry, while bringing in fresh and innovative design features, thus meeting the high demands of gamers and modern power-users. Chieftronic products are conceptualized, designed and supported in Germany to ensure the products we bring to market closely match the needs of our customers. To complement the new product planning and design, we will be relying on the trusted manufacturing quality the market has come to associate with Chieftec products. We are very excited to bring you the newest products and latest trends with tried and tested quality that you know you can trust. For more information, please visit https://www.chieftronic.com/.

   The brand new PowerUp line of power supply units by Chieftronic consists of 4 models (550/650/750/850W outputs) all of which are 80 Plus Gold certified (electrical efficiency up to 92%). All 4 models are fully-modular and as for the 750W variant which I’ll be testing today it sports a maximum output of 870W (max load) and features a single +12V rail (62A with a maximum supported power of up to 744W), support for multiple graphics cards (4x6+2 pin PCIe connectors), active PFC, full-bridge LLC and DC-to-DC technology and a plethora of electrical protections including AFC (automatic fan speed control), OCP (over current protection), OVP (over voltage protection), UVP (under voltage protection), SCP (short circuit protection), OPP (over power protection), OTP (over temperature protection), SIP (surge & inrush protection) and no load operation protection. Chieftec/Chieftronic have just upped their warranty plans so the latest PowerUp line of PSUs is covered with no less than a 5 year limited warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

A product picture is printed at the front of the box right over the main product features and the efficiency certification.

Another product is located on the left side of the box just over the product output selection.

The electrical tables of all 4 models are printed at the rear of the box right next to the available modular cables.

Typically, the unit is wrapped inside a plastic bag and placed between two thick foam spacers.

Along with the GPX-750FC and its power cord you're also getting its modular cables (inside a synthetic bag), 4 mounting screws and the user manual.

THE GPX-750FC EXTERIOR

Chieftronic opted for thin (low-profile) modular cables for their latest PowerUp line.

The GPX-750FC follows the standard ATX design and measures 150mm in length, 140mm in width and 86mm in height/thickness.

At the top (or bottom) we find an 120mm fan right beneath a special looking grill.

Both the serial and part numbers and barcodes are printed on stickers located on the left side.

At the base of the PSU, we find the electrical table and several certifications.

All of the modular connectors/ports are tagged and different in size.

At the rear we find the usual honeycomb design, the on/off power switch and the power port.

THE GPX-750FC INTERIOR

The 120mm used with the GPX-750FC is made by Yate Loon and can spin up to 2300RPM to produce up to 89CFM of airflow and 41dBA of noise.

According to CWT (Channel Well Technologies) the entire PowerUp line is based on a new layout.

Both the primary and secondary capacitors are manufactured by the Chinese Chengxing Electronic and are certified for use up to 85 degrees Celsius.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

     Using a dedicated measurement instrument such as a Chroma or a SunMoon to test power supply units is without doubt the most ideal and accurate way (not to mention the fastest) to do that currently. However, it's certainly not the only way there is and so pretty much anyone can test a power supply unit just by using a test rig. Certainly, limitations do apply and so you can't really push a 1000W power supply to its limits if your system only uses 500W at peak loads and that's why over the years we saved certain hardware components for the purpose of building a dedicated PSU test rig. True it may not be as accurate as the above mentioned solutions but it comes really close and is in fact much closer to real world usage. So as always, we ran several games with maximum graphic options enabled at a resolution of 2560x1600 in order to stress every hardware component and increase the overall power demands of the system. The Passmark BurnIn Test was also used to overstress the components in an effort to provide the most accurate results possible. As a final test we also used the latest OCCT 4.4 software and its dedicated PSU testing suite since it can really bring a power supply to its knees after inside a few minutes.

   Rail stability was checked/measured with the CPUID Hardware monitor and a Metex multimeter which also recorded the system load in idle and in load. As always try to remember that the power consumption numbers listed in the graph are the highest (Peak) ones recorded during the entire duration of the tests and not the average ones. Noise levels coming from the fan were recorded using the high precision HD600 ExTech Sound dBA Meter from the rear of the unit and at a range of no more than 5-10cm. Readings under load are recorded the exact moment we manually switch the fans of all graphics cards from full speed to almost zero, that way the fan of the power supply does not have enough time to slow its RPM and so by doing this we get very accurate noise level readings. Needless to say, in order to get 100% accurate readings, you need to have a noise isolated room for that exact purpose, something which is quite impossible unless you are working inside a real lab (some people use very small noise insulated boxes but due to their size both heat and noise exceed normal levels and so the results can't really be considered to be 100% accurate, nor realistic for that matter). Also do take into account that since all noise measurements take place from just 5-10cm away the final noise levels to reach your ears will be considerably less.

* After well over 10 years of testing PSUs the Intel Core i7-920 CPU of this rig failed and so we replaced it with a Xeon X5660 (we also swapped the GA-X58A-UD7 for the G1. Assassin).

TEST RESULTS

CONCLUSION

   Two things standout from today’s review, first that the GPX-750FC has very stable rails (especially for its price range) and second that Chieftronic (or more accurately CWT) has used a lesser “popular” capacitor manufacturer so i can’t really speak about the quality of these capacitors (besides i think this is the 1st model I’ve seen featuring this brand name). Still the 5-year limited warranty should be plenty to cover anyone just in case something goes wrong. Also worth mentioning is that even though the Yate Loon 120mm fan does get lout when over 600W it’s actually whisper quiet up until that point.

   With a price tag currently set at around 130Euros inside the EU the PowerUp GPX-750FC power supply unit by Chieftronic certainly costs just a tad more than what it should. Unfortunately, the same applies for every other PSU in the market today so it’s not something that has to do with Chieftronic but with the market in general. That being said however the new PowerUp GPX-750FC performs very good, is priced well (or at least it was at launch) and is covered by a 5-year limited warranty and that’s why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Rail Stability
- Fully Modular Design
- 80 Plus Gold Certified
- Electrical Protections (AFC/OVP/OPP/OCP/OTP/SIP/SCP/UVP)
- Peak Output (870W)
- Whisper Quiet 120mm Fan (Up To 600W)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty

CONS

- Current Price (For Some)
- Chinese Capacitors (Quality/Endurance?)