The GAMDIAS Kratos M1-750W PSU Review: For Style Over Substance
by E. Fylladitakis on November 16, 2023 9:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- 80Plus Bronze
- Andyson
- GAMDIAS
Hot Test Results (~45°C Ambient)
The overall performance of all PC PSUs typically degrades once the ambient temperature rises, with various aspects affecting the magnitude of the drop. The average performance drop of the Kratos M1-750W is, for the most part, not bad for an 80Plus Bronze certified platform but the drop does become severe when the unit is heavily loaded, suggesting very high thermal stress. With an ambient temperature of about 45°C, the energy conversion efficiency drops to 85.5% for an input voltage of 230 VAC or to 84.3% for an input voltage of 115 VAC. The level of the drop is nearly tripled for loads greater than 90%.
As expected, the high ambient temperature means that the fan of the Kratos M1-750W will spin at high speeds even if the unit is lightly loaded. This is both due to the higher energy losses and the simplicity of this unit’s thermal control circuitry. The speed of the fan keeps increasing alongside with the load, trying to maintain operational temperatures within the unit. It reaches its maximum speed when the load is at about 600 Watts, beyond which point there is nothing more the fan itself can do. We should note that the design of the chassis allows hot air to escape within our hotbox (or a PC case, under normal working circumstances), limiting the efficiency of the cooling design because it forces the fan to intake the hot air it was just expelled from the numerous holes of the unit.
As we mentioned above, the high ambient temperature forces a high fan speed even if the unit is lightly loaded. The fan will generate more than 40 dB(A) even at minimum load, with that figure constantly increasing until the load is at about 600 Watts, at which point the fan reaches its maximum speed. At loads higher than 600 Watts, the internal temperatures of the Kratos M1-750W rise at a higher rate, reaching highly uncomfortable figures and explaining the extreme thermal stress that the unit’s components are exhibiting during these tests.
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Techie2 - Thursday, November 16, 2023 - link
Skip this unit and buy something reliable or you'll likely be buying better PSU soon.ballsystemlord - Thursday, November 16, 2023 - link
As an owner of an off brand PSU, I can assure you that it's not necessarily the bad experience you make it out to be.I owned a Raidmax RX-850AE. It faithfully served my needs for 7 years. I replaced it about 2 years ago. Unlike the unit above, it wasn't ever loud. And I should know what loud is, given that I used the AMD box cooler from my pre-zen CPU.
TheinsanegamerN - Friday, November 17, 2023 - link
As the owner of a brain, I can assure you that it isnt worth wasting money on off brand garbage when one failure can take out your entire system.ballsystemlord - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
As the owner of eyes, I can point out the quoted sentence below."This unit is based on a modernization of a platform that has been around for quite some time, which may be very simple by today’s standards but it also is a ****proven design with zero potential for surprises.***"
flyingpants265 - Friday, November 17, 2023 - link
Yeah, nobody said they had a 100% failure rate.ballsystemlord - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
Nor did I...flyingpants265 - Wednesday, November 29, 2023 - link
Yeah, you did. You said it's "not necessarily a negative experience" because yours worked. It's like saying Russian roulette is not necessarily a bad experience because some people survive it... Ok.Flunk - Saturday, November 18, 2023 - link
$60 is too much to spend on a questionable quality PSU. There are plenty of reasonable quality PSUs available in that price range.flyingpants265 - Sunday, November 19, 2023 - link
I actually bought my Seasonic 850W for $60 but it was used.. they have a 10 year warranty, not sure if it's transferable but then quality is fairly good. Wish more stuff had 10-year warranties, and I don't care what anyone says about it. I miss EVGA.PeachNCream - Friday, November 17, 2023 - link
Those first two fluff paragraphs read like a copy-paste out of someone's company brochure that landed there due to an agreement to add meaningless market-speak as a contingency holding Anandtech hostage to receive future products to review. While that many not really be the case, they are off-putting to say the least an add not a lot of value. They also don't really lay much contextual groundwork for the rest of the article.