At the conclusion of CES 2009, we were left with a promising picture of a more competitive enthusiast power supply market landscape with one more player in the game. Months went by since we spoke with EVGA, and no one in the industry had heard a single word from management in regards to a release date. Twelve months went by, and we visited EVGA's product booth yet again for CES 2010. Unfortunately, there was still no official response on the company's entrance into the power supply market.
On Tuesday, the company finally made an announcement that caught the majority of its enthusiast customers by surprise. In a pursuit to deliver precision engineered efficiency and performance, EVGA officially enters the power supply market with the Classified SR-2 1200W Power Supply (100-PS-1200-GR). The unit is engineered to deliver a continuous 1200W of power while maintaining an 80 PLUS Silver certification, or an 85 percent efficiency rating at maximum load. EVGA places heavy marketing emphasis on the idea that its enthusiast power supply can deliver 1200W of continuous power, whereas competing units can only deliver 1200W at peak potential with much lower efficiency ratings.
The unit is based on an OEM design of the Antec TruePower Quattro 1200W released in November 2009 and features all of the same underlying hardware specifications. Both units feature six +12V rails capable of delivering 38A each and are cooled by 80mm fans with Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) for whisper-quiet operation. Antec specially implemented fine-tuning knobs to allow extreme voltage tuning on the +12V rails and fan speed adjustment for an optimal power-to-noise ratio.
Just like its mother design, the EVGA Classified SR-2 1200W Power Supply features PowerCache, a high performance 2200µf capacitor that delivers an extra power reserve when it is needed most. In its technology explanation, Antec cites an example of a 23A increase in demand from the CPU or GPU causing a voltage drop of 1.0V, resulting in a system crash and reboot. With PowerCache, the voltage would only drop by 0.2V, keeping the system running and stable. Like the Antec TruePower Quattro 1200W, EVGA's design also comes standard with industrial grade protection ratings, including Over Voltage Protection (OVP), Under Current Protection (UCP), Short Circuit Protection (SCP), and Over Current Protection (OCP).
EVGA Classified SR-2 1200W tuning knobs for voltage and fan adjustment
Several members of the EVGA community have confirmed that the unit has already been used for overclocking dual 32nm Gulftown six-core CPUs with four Geforce GTX 480s in 4-way SLI and can deliver continuous power with a very stable and consistent +12V reading. Although unadvertised by EVGA, the Classified SR-2 1200W Power Supply is also capable of running four Radeon HD 5870s in 4-way CrossFireX as the cards consume noticeably less power than a Geforce GTX 480 4-way SLI configuration.
Antec TruePower Quattro 1200W / EVGA Classified SR-2 1200W rail specifications
In order to appease both types of users who prefer modular and non-modular power supplies, EVGA (or should we say Antec) fuses both designs into a technology it labels Advanced Hybrid Cable Management. This engineering combination achieves the lowest possible wire transmission loss while providing modular cable management for improved airflow. Although we are unsure how Antec quantifies the signal loss comparison with other competing designs, it would be an interesting case study to test during an industry overclocking competition or championship event.
After close inspection of the product specifications, the EVGA Classified SR-2 1200W Power Supply is nothing more than a rebranded Antec TruePower Quattro 1200W. We were almost certain EVGA had included an extra enthusiast-oriented feature somewhere, but unfortunately this is not the case. After a year and a half of waiting for its entrance into the power supply market, the company has delivered its original design plans on promise but under the wing of a close partnership. If anything, Antec deserves a tremendous amount of credit for making this rebrand possible and expanding its renown precision PSU engineering to a new base of customers in the EVGA community.
The EVGA Classified SR-2 1200W Power Supply (100-PS-1200-GR) comes with a 5 year limited warranty and can be had for $359.99 on EVGA’s site. In comparison, the Antec TruePower Quattro 1200W (TPQ-1200 OC) can be had for $309.99 on Newegg.