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- Date:
- Tuesday , July 28, 2009
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
BFG EX-1000 1000 Watt Power Supply
BFG Tech has done a very good job at commanding respect in the computer power supply market in the last year. It has stepped up its game and along with that it is now entering the tremendously demanding 1 kilowatt PSU market. 1000 watts of power is not easy to deliver while doing a good job of it.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the BFG EX-1000 is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While none of these items is a real make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing and use more efficient.
The BFG EX-1000 packaging is trimmed out in the same subdued black finish that debuted on the ES-800. The packaging once more contains all of the basic information such as the power label (reproduced below), contents, connector count, pictures of the various connectors, efficiency curve, fan speed graph, some very basic instructions on installing the unit, and various safety certifications. Currently, we find that the unit is not SLI certified after a quick check of the SLIZone website. However, BFG is a close NVIDIA partner, the ES-800 before it was SLI certified, and the higher powered and related EX-1200 is SLI certified so I see no reason for this unit to not be certified at some point in the future for some level of SLI. We also see that the unit is advertised as being 80-85% efficient at typical loads but unique to the BFG units based on Andyson’s "Frequency Conversion Technology" the unit also remains 80% efficient down to loads as low as 10%. This is very unusual for most power supplies, but very beneficial once you start getting into the 1000W range as you will be idling a large portion of the time below 20% load. A quick check of the 80Plus website doesn't currently find this unit listed but once again the ES-800 before it is and so is the higher powered EX-1200 so it would seem to be only a matter of time before it is as well. Finally, we see once more on the front of the packaging that the unit is covered by BFG's Lifetime Warranty which requires registration in order to activate, so register your product! Additionally, the warranty is defined as only applying to the original purchaser "for as long as the original purchaser owns the product, when given normal wear and proper usage."
As we first saw with the BFG ES-800 specifications, the BFG EX-1000 specifications are rather extraordinary in a couple of ways. First, the unit has 984W out of 1000W available on the 12v rails without a minimum load requirement of ~0.5A-1A on the 5v and 3.3v rails like most units have. While this feature has since been duplicated by some other brands and units we have seen, the ES-800 from BFG was the first major brand we saw with this ability in North America and it is good to see BFG carrying this feature forward with the new EX units. Coupled with this we find that the EX-1000, like the ES-800 before it, is configured such that it really would be almost impossible to overdraw any one 12v rails given the connector restrictions in place. This is especially apparent on what otherwise could be the most problematic rails (12v3 and 12v4) as they can support the most power hungry components in a modern system; the graphics cards. With 36A available on each 12v rail that supports one modified 8-pin PCI-Express connector and one 6-pin PCI-Express connector, the problems of the past with video cards overdrawing one 12v rail on a multi-12v rail design should be near impossible given the EX-1000 configuration. Finally, we see that on 12v1 rail, along with the ATX connector, there are six Molex and six SATA connectors to fill out the rest of the components for the vast majority of PC's.
The EX-1000 packaging contains the power supply, power cord, mounting screws, and installation instructions. Previously I have mentioned the absolute horrible nature of the documentation provided with the newer BFG power supplies and today we find that there is absolutely no change on that front. Indeed, there is not even a manual on the BFGPower website or BFG main site. All that is provided there is the same installation instructions that come with the unit, and are printed on the box. Why BFG has chosen to replicate these very basic instructions three times and provide no real documentation, especially in light of how good the ES-800 documentation was, is unclear; but make no mistake about it what is provided here today represents possibly the biggest waste of paper we have seen to date from a unit that actually ships with some sort of documentation. This is simply unacceptable from a high end brand, period.