Specifications

The unit carries the highest efficiency rating, the Platinum one, with the manufacturer stating that it can deliver its full power continuously even up to 50°C. Protection features are restricted to the basic ones with OTP (Over Temperature Protection) missing. This is a shame since OTP is essential for a PSU, especially during fan-less operation. Finally, the cooling fan uses double ball-bearings for increased lifetime.

The unit is 18 cm long. All normal-sized cases will easily accommodate it. Its weight is on the high side because of the big heatsinks used to allow for fan-less operation at lower loads. The warranty is extra-long at seven years and the price looks kind of intimidating, putting the PSU into the same category as the top gun Corsair AX1200i. We expect a hell of a performance from the MK3S1200 in order to be able to keep up with the Corsair unit since the latter is, aside from an excellent performance, also backed up by DSP control along with the corresponding monitoring/controlling software.

There is only a single and powerful +12V rail able to deliver almost 100A. That is lots of power and few systems out there will be able to stress this PSU. The minor rails are kind of weak, at least compared to other PSUs of this category, but you don't have to worry since a contemporary system only draws few Amperes off minor rails. Finally, we expected a stronger 5VSB rail from a 1.2 kW unit, but, Super Flower (the unit's OEM) didn't do us this favor. It is high time for them to design a stronger 5VSB circuit to use with, at least, their higher capacity platforms.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

There are a lot of native cables for our taste. The second EPS cable could easily be modular since most mainboards only need one. There are only a few PCIe connectors for the capacity of the PSU. We expected it to have at least eight or nine, not only six. The same applies to the peripheral connectors; two or three more would be ideal. All cables are, thankfully, extra-long with the distance among all connectors being quite large. All modular cables are flat, something that will make cable management tasks easier. Finally, the ATX connector and the native PCIe ones utilize 16AWG wires, while all other connectors use the standard 18AWG gauges.

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail, we do not have anything to comment on about its power distribution.