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- Date:
- Tuesday , August 19, 2008
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Kingwin ABT-1220MA1S Mach 1 Power Supply
Kingwin has come to us with its power supplies before, and while that 800w unit did OK, it was not exactly anything we would consider an award winner. Today we have another Kingwin weighing in at a huge ~1200 watts. Can you say "Torture Test at 45C and 960 watts?” Fire extinguisher. Check! Let's get it on.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the Kingwin ABT-1220MA1S is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While normally none of these items is a make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there are cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing, and use more efficient.
The Kingwin ABT-1220MA1S comes in a rather colorfully decorated box complete with carrying handle that turns out to be the exact same one as the ABT-800MA1S we reviewed some time ago. Like that previous unit, the packaging has a good bit of information on it including the number of connectors, types of connectors, SLI certification sticker, and a lot of marketing points. While the packaging does lack the power table, the one reproduced below comes from the manual and unit itself. It does make a number of claims that we will test and render opinions on today such as being highly efficient, quiet, and the like. The unit doesn’t define its noise level in solid terms as some brands have but it does define the efficiency value in solid terms as 75% or better at typical loads. This makes it painfully obvious that this is simply a one size fits all packaging as the SuperFlower unit this is based on is much more efficient than 75% at typical loads. Then again we could always look at is the possibility that Kingwin is looking to under-promise and over-deliver instead of over-promising and under-delivering. A quick check of the 80Plus website doesn’t find the 1220 Mach 1 listed (though it does turn up the 1000w model as 80Plus Bronze or Climate Saver 2) however the SuperFlower unit it is based on is listed as being 80Plus Bronze (or Climate Saver 2) when rated at 1200 watts. Now while the unit carries the SLI logo it is not currently listed as SLI Certified. However, the 1000w Mach 1 power supply, which this unit shares packaging with, is SLI Certified for up to 9800GTX SLI. This seems to indicate that either the SLI logo is an array over from other models in the family or the 1220w is just very new. Either way, if the 1220w Mach 1 power supply carries on in the fashion that the 1000w Mach 1 did for NVIDIA it would seem likely that it would be certified eventually for at least this same level of SLI. Once more however we see the strange marketing bullet point that reads “Compliance with nVIDIA/ATI SLI specification.” This meant a quick check of the ATI CrossFire page was in order but the Kingwin was nowhere to be found on the list at the time of writing. This could simply mean that the unit has the request power connectors though and not that it has been certified by ATI/AMD for CrossFire since it is not currently on the CrossFire page.
The packaging nor the manual references the length of warranty on the Kingwin ABT-1220MA1S, but after checking the Kingwin website we find that the warranty terms are this:
All of our products carry a ONE YEAR WARRANTY. However, the retailors are responsible for the first month. The manufacture warranty will take effect one month after your purchasing date.
In the last review we knocked the Kingwin Mach 1 for this poor length of review and certainly this is not better a second time around. Only a one year warranty is on the very short (to almost unacceptable) side for higher end power supplies and is more commonly found on budget oriented offerings like we recently saw in our $50 Roundup.
The paper specifications for the Kingwin ABT-1220MA1S are interesting and a bit contradictory. The name would imply that this unit is a 1220w product which the Kingwin website even indicates. However, when we actually look at the documentation and do the math we find that the there is actually a 1170w cap on the combined 12v/3.3v/5v rails with the remaining 50w supposedly coming from the +5vsb and -12v rail which in reality are capped at 31w (not 50w) making the 1200w continuous figure more viable than the 1220w. The 1220w figure however, comes from the nebulous "Max Peak" figure (which is never defined) while the "Total Power" of 1200w is well defined and as such will be the number tested today. Two other items about those numbers stand out immediately as we see that the 12v rails have a total of 90A or 1080w nominal available to them (or ~90% of total DC output capacity) while a further subdivision of theta 12v capacity gives us a total of 70A available on the PCI-Express connectors via 12v4 and 12v5. The interesting thing about this arrangement, beyond the 70 amps being available to the PCI-Express connectors, is that 12v4 and 12v5 are each run to every PCI-Express connector thereby splitting the load across the two 12v rails at all times so that users will not have to figure out which rail runs to which connector. This certainly is one approach to the multiple 12v rail arrangement that can eliminate issues with users possibly overloading a single smaller (although 35A is not exactly small) 12v rail.
Once we open the Kingwin ABT-1220MA1S we are once more struck with a sense of déjà vu as the contents mirror those of the ABT-800MA1S packaging we find the usual assortment of power supply items including the power supply itself, the power cord, mounting screws, manual, and since the unit is modular a plastic tray containing all the cables. The manual with this unit is typical of what SuperFlower provides with their branded power supplies and is one of the most thorough on the market, with two exceptions this time (one of which is a carryover from last time). The last time the manual spelled out which 12v rail went to which connector on the pinout page, however this time this information seems to have been excluded (though the 12v’s are labeled they are not identified as 12v1,12v2,12v3,12v4,12v4,12v6) in the revision of the manual that shipped with our review unit. Additionally, the warranty information is once more MIA as discussed previously. Other than that, there really is no doubt about exactly what your power supply is, or is supposed to do, when you open the manual as it spells out everything a user could want in regards to the unit. The manual has increased from the previous 4 pages in length to 6 pages in English but it includes the pinouts, the housing end modular connector information, all the electrical specifications needed, safety certifications, features, and power tables for all units in this product line. Since all of this can easily be done in plain English in a 6 page manual it makes it all that much more curious as to why other companies do not do the same.