lodestar wrote:According to the eTeknix review the fan of the Corsair RM650i was turning on at around 40% load and by the 60% point was hitting around 600rpm, from there it increased to a maximum of around 1000rpm.
What you're saying is not correct at all, as clearly showed by eTeknix graph: the Corsair fan does not start at 40% of rated wattage, it is just off at 40% and, depending of the temperature, that fan starts around 50%, and then it tops around 850rpm, not around 1000rpm but just some hair less than how high the SF fan just starts spinning over the 60% of rated power in the eTeknix review.
As you were already told, eTeknix doesn't record the fan profile, they just log all data at 5 given power draw ("
Testing each power supply at 20/40/60/80/100% load... Measuring fan speed after a stabilisation period of five minutes at each load scenario"), so the "fan curve" in their graph actually does not exist, and you can't say anything between the five load points.
lodestar wrote:But their test of the Super Flower Leadex Platinum 750w... the fan did turn on it did not exceed 900 rpm.
More correctly, it starts some hair below 900rpm then stay flat (depending of the temperature: with higher temperature it starts at higher speed and then step up to much faster spinning if needed), while the the Golden King 1200rpm fan started around 650-750rpm.
I'm starting to think that you purposedly misinterprets their data, but in case that's just fool.
karkee wrote:Hmm yeah indeed, I don't really know that site very well could I trust it?
Well, I wouldn't simply trust their assessments, but at the same time I'd look at the data they show comparatively (I mean, with reference to other web sources, that's why I quoted you more than one review) as they may help to build your own feeling/impression about a PSU (given the absence of an SPCR review).
Just as an example, if you look at eTeknix recent Seasonic Platinum 660 review, according to their data in normal mode the fan starts running above 800rpm and they said "
this is pretty amazing, not only did the fan run at a little over 800RPM right up to 80% load, but even when it kicked up to 1200RPM it was still surprisingly quiet.". Then, talking about the hybrid (semi-fanless) operation mode they said "
In hybrid mode, the fan didn’t kick in at all which is pretty amazing, as this ran like a 660W fanless unit. To make things even more interesting, we had the PSU under full load and on a fairly warm day too. Of course, it won’t stay off forever or after a few hours of gaming at high load"
I own this particular PSU and I can share some recent experiences (july-august-semptember): with reference to normal cooling mode (fan always on) the PSU is clearly audible, and though not obtrusive it drowns out two Noctua 140mm fan running over 750rpm, so that personally I wouldn't call it as that quiet. When used in hybrid cooling the Seasonic Platinum 660 fan starts running around 310W AC (roughly 280W DC, way lower than their 660W DC) and it is quite more audible than in normal cooling mode, so I think the fan spins noticeably faster than >800rpm.
These first hand experiences show me how much I can trust their assessments (not that much, IMO): in my experience they may be useful, but they're not that trustworthy, particularly with reference to their subjective judgements (as that's SPCR, not the average enthusiast community).
About the Golden King/Leadex differences: the Leadex have sort of a stepped fan controller, the Golden King a more granular, "curvy" one; the Leadex fan starts higher (850-950rpm, depending of the temperature), the Golden King started lower (650-750rpm); the Leadex fan is faster (rated at 1800rpm IIRC), thus it has a different motor characteristics with reference to the slower (1200rpm) Golden King's one, with somehow different noise spectrum at a given speed.
So, if you're looking for a PSU capable of running fanless up to about 500W DC at low intake temp (as the Golden King did), I guess that you may either opt for a larger EVGA SuperNOVA P2 1000 (still a SF Leadex Platinum, if you mind), or opt for the already adviced Super Flower Golden Silent (still a SF Golden King, but without any fan).
Otherwise, with explicit reference to the 2011 SPCR review of the SF Golden King and the relevant hotbox data set, whether you want a semi-fanless PSU capable of running fanless up to about 350-400W DC with almost any ambient temperature, and with the fan starting above that mark at around 6-700rpm, something like the Corsair RM650i may be rather close to such performances (and it's not Seasonic based, if you mind). The larger SF Leadex 750 (either Platinum or Gold) may also offer a similar (at higher than 22°C ambient temp) or a tad larger (at 22°C) fanless range with the fan starting higher and noisier than 6-700rpm, in case.
Hope this helps.