Gigabyte's New Odin GT 800W Power Supply
by Christoph Katzer on July 24, 2007 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Conclusion
Gigabyte has made a clear statement with the Odin series and we hope that there will be more in the future. The idea of providing software to control and monitor the power supply is very good and the results are generally worthwhile. The software itself needs to get a little tweaking here or there but already operates well at this point. The results shown sometimes don't match reality, in some cases they're worse than in others, but for the most part they are not too far off. The fan speed is very accurate though and also the shown voltage comes close to actual numbers. If the power output and amperage readings can be corrected, and hopefully reduce CPU and memory requirements a bit, the software would be about perfect.
Related to the above is the voltage regulation provided by the software. We didn't see any chance for this PSU after recording the bad voltage drops with increasing loads, but we were surprised at the ability of the software and hardware to regulate the rails, and the results were very good. Every rail had a better distribution after tuning, even at higher loads. However, there are limits to what can be done and when we tried to adjust the voltages with the PSU running at maximum capacity we found the limits of what could be done.
The efficiency of the Odin 800 is very high - higher than what we've seen from any previous CWT-models. At 85% with 230VAC input the result is very good and comes close to the Silencer 750 from PCP&C. Even better is that the overall efficiency is very good as well, showing a constant result of over 80% at any load higher than 20%.
The OCP has worked just fine on the 12V rails and unfortunately we couldn't figure out why it didn't work on the lower rails of 3.3 and 5V. The 24-25 amps on the 12V rails are a normal amount and used by most of the manufacturers which are rating the rails around 20A.
A potential concern is that the fan is not particularly quiet and never runs at a speed that could be considered "silent". You can clearly hear it when the power supply is running beside you. When mounted in a case with all the covers in place, it becomes much more difficult to hear, and as that's the normal usage scenario it's not a bad PSU. If you're looking for a quiet, high-efficiency PSU, the Odin 800 will fit the bill. If you're willing to risk overheating, you can even modify the fan speed to help keep noise levels low at higher temperatures, though we would be careful if you go that route.
At present, this power supply goes for around $230 USD and it's not yet listed in any European shops. There are power supplies that are available for less money that can provide equal or better results than the Odin 800, but it does provide some extras that might tip the balance back in its favor. The software that comes with this PSU is clearly worth taking into consideration, and you do get extra thermal diodes and a controllable fan header that some might find desirable. With any new technology there is always the potential for a high failure rate, but our initial results are positive and we hope that the build quality from CWT holds what it promised.
Gigabyte has made a clear statement with the Odin series and we hope that there will be more in the future. The idea of providing software to control and monitor the power supply is very good and the results are generally worthwhile. The software itself needs to get a little tweaking here or there but already operates well at this point. The results shown sometimes don't match reality, in some cases they're worse than in others, but for the most part they are not too far off. The fan speed is very accurate though and also the shown voltage comes close to actual numbers. If the power output and amperage readings can be corrected, and hopefully reduce CPU and memory requirements a bit, the software would be about perfect.
Related to the above is the voltage regulation provided by the software. We didn't see any chance for this PSU after recording the bad voltage drops with increasing loads, but we were surprised at the ability of the software and hardware to regulate the rails, and the results were very good. Every rail had a better distribution after tuning, even at higher loads. However, there are limits to what can be done and when we tried to adjust the voltages with the PSU running at maximum capacity we found the limits of what could be done.
The efficiency of the Odin 800 is very high - higher than what we've seen from any previous CWT-models. At 85% with 230VAC input the result is very good and comes close to the Silencer 750 from PCP&C. Even better is that the overall efficiency is very good as well, showing a constant result of over 80% at any load higher than 20%.
The OCP has worked just fine on the 12V rails and unfortunately we couldn't figure out why it didn't work on the lower rails of 3.3 and 5V. The 24-25 amps on the 12V rails are a normal amount and used by most of the manufacturers which are rating the rails around 20A.
A potential concern is that the fan is not particularly quiet and never runs at a speed that could be considered "silent". You can clearly hear it when the power supply is running beside you. When mounted in a case with all the covers in place, it becomes much more difficult to hear, and as that's the normal usage scenario it's not a bad PSU. If you're looking for a quiet, high-efficiency PSU, the Odin 800 will fit the bill. If you're willing to risk overheating, you can even modify the fan speed to help keep noise levels low at higher temperatures, though we would be careful if you go that route.
At present, this power supply goes for around $230 USD and it's not yet listed in any European shops. There are power supplies that are available for less money that can provide equal or better results than the Odin 800, but it does provide some extras that might tip the balance back in its favor. The software that comes with this PSU is clearly worth taking into consideration, and you do get extra thermal diodes and a controllable fan header that some might find desirable. With any new technology there is always the potential for a high failure rate, but our initial results are positive and we hope that the build quality from CWT holds what it promised.
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23 Comments
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strikeback03 - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
Does the software need to be running for the voltage regulation to work? Or can you make changes then close the software and have the changes still work on the PSU?Also I'd guess if UV lighting is that useful for a case you could swap the blue LEDs for some UV ones - looks like enough wire is exposed to cut the blue ones and solder in UV ones.
Oberst - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
Hello,nice review (i wouldn't expect anything else of you). But I've got a question about the measuring-software: Was it reliable, when measuring voltages? You already mentioned, that the wattage was not reliable. So I'd like to know, if that was because of wrong measured amps or volts.
greets Oberst.
Christoph Katzer - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
Voltages have been quite accurate; amps have been wrong in almost every case.qpwoei - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
Once you've got the ripple measurements sorted out, it'd be nice to get some scope traces as the load changes. Poor transient response of the rails can cause all sorts of hard-to-diagnose problems in the real world.Christoph Katzer - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
We use a scope to follow response on the rails but until now we feel the data is not good enough to present. If there would be something to extraordinary to tell we surely would.bob4432 - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
what about that? a good quality unit, the Corsair 520HX seems to be a lot of people's favorite lately, how does it really stack up? or some of the FSP "Green" units - are they really that efficient? what about seasonic - really as good as everyone says?these reports are all fine and dandy, but you are catering to possibly 5% of your user base, yes even here 800W is extreme overkill.
and it is not a $$$ issue but rather a reality issue. i am surprised you guys testing these are continuing the thought process by only reviewing the upper wattage units and thus making everyone think they need one when they don't - people on review 750W psus, so i must need one...come on guys
Christoph Katzer - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
Will come. No worries about that. At the moment we are just starting as you can see and of course every company wants to have the best PSU tested first. We'll have lower ones very soon but need to work on that mountain of PSUs here first. With 380w you will see a Seasonic pretty soon for example.bob4432 - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
will definitely be looking forward to them :)ATWindsor - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
I disagree that an OCP per rail i s a good thing, it onyl makes using the PSU more of a hassle, since you can draw a lot less from the PSU on 12V than the specs would make possible, if you are unlucky and draw most of it from one rail. Several manufacturers have one big rail without any know safety-problems, having an OCP for the combined drav from the 12V-lines however is a good thing.AtW
dare2savefreedom - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
I would be interested in knowing how a psu runs with dual 8800gtxs in virginia in summertime in an old house with a window air conditioner.Not these theoretical white glove clean room lab environment tests.
triple sli 8800gtx?
come one stop playing with your iphone.