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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Gothik - Monday, January 7, 2008 - link
hi everyone,a noob here. I was wondering whether to get this PSU for my upcoming rig. I'm gonna run a quad core q6600, 4 sticks of ddr2 RAM, and a gf 8800GT (maybe SLI later). I was wondering, if the PSU is rated at 800w like the one being reviewed, does that mean that it is powered constantly at 800w or will the mechanism in the PSU determine the actual power consumed? Also, the author mentioned that there are a few PSUs that peform equally to this unit but cost less, can I know which ones are they?
Thanx.
QueBert - Monday, July 30, 2007 - link
about to buy a new PSU, want something future proof and modular. This looks about perfect for my needs. I find it odd that my Ultra X, which is years old and was the first Modular PSU. Still has better looking cables than any other modular unit on the market. Gigabyte seemed to step up the modular appearance a bit though. Kudos to them for that.wrong - Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - link
I can think of an excellent reason to honeycomb the side wall and put a sheet of plastic in to block airflow.Weight.
Not necessarily what they had in mind, of course. But LAN boxes should be light, and this could be one way to cut weight without reducing heatsink size and compromising cooling performance or noise.
I wonder if it makes a difference to EM noise.
Bozo Galora - Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - link
I really really like the way you do these PSU reviews. Much more informative indeed than anything else on the web. I am a bit dismayed over the way AT reviewers sugarcoat conclusions on obviously poor performing equipment - tho I understand why you have to do it.Now heres a review I would like to see......
There is a just out new Coolermaster MODULAR 1000W PSU with humungous rails
http://www.rbmods.com/Bilder/Articles/Coolermaster...">http://www.rbmods.com/Bilder/Articles/Coolermaster...
Heres the first review.......
http://www.rbmods.com/Articles/Coolermaster/Rs-a00...">http://www.rbmods.com/Articles/Coolermaster/Rs-a00...
This is the new esba model, NOT the current emba
Note in the review are the usual stupid useless graphs showing "rock solid" unchanging rails. Since I am about to buy, I would love to see how your review compares. And this is modular so it might help in your investigation of this modality.
Keep on truckin'
erikpurne - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
Totally agree. It would be much easier to see where your system typically falls on the efficiency graph.
Also, on the 'Power Loss' graphs, the upper line should be input, and the lower one output. Oh, and watts are power, not energy!
Myrandex - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
You should pictures of the LEDs, but there should have been a lights out LEDs enabled pic :)Good article though, and the build quality looked fantastic
the goat - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
I assume that the software is only for windows? Of course the power supply will operate without the software but it would be nice to use the product to it's full potential with any operating system. In future articles please tell us if there is software for linux or not.Vidmar - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
While I think the Efficiency charts in load percentage are nice, if you included Efficiency charts in watts it would be more informative from a buying perspective.The reason? I know the sum of system load is 375watts normally. The way it is now, if power supply XYZ has a max load of 650watts, I have to calculate where my ~375watts falls into that load chart (~57% load). But if the next power supply has 1000 watts max, then I have to yet again calculate what load percentage that may be for *that* power supply. If the Efficiency charts were in watts, instead of load, no calculations would be necessary. If I could look at your charts and see that XYZ power supply provided those watts the most efficiently, that would be the power supply I would get.
Maybe you could just provide a second X axis on the chart that included the watts.
Thanks!
MadBoris - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
I really like the software component possibilities, looks like it needs some tweaking though like with 18a max per rail.As to memory and CPU usage, well that is .Net for you, that footprint problem is here to stay. Thx to MS.
I'm a little curious to the max 25a per rail.
Nvidia states 8800 GTX should have 30a http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/...">Link
Maybe someone can clarify the real draw of an 8800 GTX and is 25a completely sufficient.
What about next gen?
Good review, looking forward to more like it.
As cool as this PSU is, $200+ is a bit too much for a PSU.
Christoph Katzer - Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - link
Depends on how much your graphics card needs to work. When your display just has 1024pxl in width you can run the 8800 in a decent system with a 300w psu. If you are using a 30" screen with 2560pxl in width it is a total different story. But don't worry, we are working on an article to make things like that very clear.