Rosewill Fortress Platinum 450W
by Martin Kaffei on September 14, 2012 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- Rosewill
- 80Plus Platinum
- ATNG
- Fortress
- 450W
Rosewill Fortress Platinum 450W
We've recently had a ~40$ PSU roundup, so we felt it might be time for another "expensive" PSU review. The Rosewill Fortress Platinum 450W is an 80 Plus Platinum certified power supply with fixed cables. On the following pages we will see if Rosewill ranks among the best.
Those looking for maximum efficiency can now set their sights on 80 Plus Platinum PSUs, though they are very expensive. Especially the MOSFETs inside create high costs as a low drain-source resistance is difficult to realize. It's still questionable if there is a large market for these products, taking into account the many affordable 80 Plus Bronze/Silver/Gold solutions.
Going from 80 Plus Bronze (82-85% efficiency) to Silver (85-88%) to Gold (87-90%) to Platinum (89-92%) is a case of seriously diminishing returns when you look at pricing. You can find 80 Plus Bronze units for under $50 for 450W (give or take), but the jump to Silver kicks the starting prices north of $80 at Newegg while giving users 700W or more power—certainly not something most users need. Gold brings back some lower power ratings, but Rosewill and Seasonic are the two least expensive offerings at $60, with 450W and 360W respectively. Rounding out the options, Platinum power supplies like the Fortress series currently start at $90 for 450W.
In short, Bronze gets you 95% of the efficiency of Gold for about 2/3 the cost, and 92% of the efficiency of Platinum for about half the price. A typical system that draws around 75W at idle would save 8W going from Bronze to Platinum. At that rate and paying $0.10 per kWh, you save $7 per year when running the PC 24/7. For servers and other PCs that are on 24/7 already and consume a lot more power, efficiency can make a lot of sense (e.g. power savings of around $40 per year for a 500W server using the same $0.10 per kWh), but for home users there needs to be something more than just pure efficiency to make the increased cost worthwhile. Does the Fortress have that something extra, or is it simply a higher cost PSU with an incremental increase in efficiency? Let's find out.
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Jerman - Saturday, September 15, 2012 - link
Minor gramattical error on the final page:but the Rosewill Fortress 450W is currently one the most advanced consumer power supply available.
Forgot an "of" after one... Thanks for the great article though!
jigglywiggly - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
you guys are such fagetsi read this just fine
if you get pissed off over gramatical errors on the internet
you're going to have a bad time
pattycake0147 - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
That's because you're reading it after the editing. I'm reading it again now, and I agree that it does read fine now. Thanks for the improvements AT.KenRico - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
Was challenged to find a good PS under $100 and shopped for single 12v rail unit.More challenging than I anticipated, but much easier to wade through than the benenfits of bronze vs platinum vs gold ect. Customer loves Seasonic and usually buys their Platinum 850W .
Ended up with another Seasonic : SeaSonic M12II 650 SS-650AM 650W BRONZE Semi-modular . Good quaility and happy client.
Got lucky was on sale, and dropped pretty close to disty price without a min or freight .
In my tired Core i5 750 running a Rosewill 600W $40 special - with no big video to drive and no other PS below $70 really standing out has been a budget driven decision that has held up.
Kenny
hasseb64 - Tuesday, September 18, 2012 - link
"In short, Bronze gets you 95% of the efficiency of Gold for about 2/3 the cost, and 92% of the efficiency of Platinum for about half the price. A typical system that draws around 75W at idle would save 8W going from Bronze to Platinum. At that rate and paying $0.10 per kWh, you save $7 per year when running the PC 24/7. For servers and other PCs that are on 24/7 already and consume a lot more power, efficiency can make a lot of sense (e.g. power savings of around $40 per year for a 500W server using the same $0.10 per kWh), but for home users there needs to be something more than just pure efficiency to make the increased cost worthwhile"Why ON earth must a PSU treated from a economical viewpoint? Just because there is a saving dosent mean that that have to be compared to the investment? Are PRIVATEs now all bound to corporate investment rules? A PSU is one of few products you can buy were it is possible to save energy / money, still it is a PRODUCT and should be treated as a iPHONE or a any other product. Do you private buyer have any other source were you can do savings/investments at a higher rate / lower risk than a PSU? Therefor leave all discussions of pure savings OUT of the reviews of PSUs.