Gigabyte Odin Plus 700 W Power Supply Review

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

Gigabyte has quietly entered the power supply market, and the other model from this brand we reviewed – Superb 550P – proved to be an inferior product. Let’s see if things got better with Odin Plus 700 W.

Like Superb 550P, Odin Plus 700 W is manufactured by AcBel Polytech.

Figure 1: Gigabyte Odin Plus 700 W power supply.

Figure 2: Gigabyte Odin Plus 700 W power supply.

Gigabyte Odin Plus 700 W is 5 7/8” (15 cm) deep, using a 120 mm fan on its bottom. It features active PFC circuit, feature not available on Superb series.

The reviewed model doesn’t have a modular cabling system, but all cables have nylon protections. All wires are 18 AWG, which is the correct gauge to be used. The cables included are:

• Main motherboard cable with a 24-pin connector, 18 7/8” (48 cm) long.
• One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form one EPS12V connector, 18 7/8” (53 cm) long.
• Two cable with one six/eight-pin connector for video cards each, 18 7/8” (53 cm) long.
• One cable with four SATA power connectors, 18 1/8” (46 cm) to the first connector, 4” (10 cm) between connectors.
• One cable with two SATA power connectors and one standard peripheral power connector, 18 1/8” (46 cm) to the first connector, 4” (10 cm) between connectors.
• One cable with three standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector, 18 1/8” (46 cm) to the first connector, 4” (10 cm) between connectors.

The cable configuration can be seen as satisfactory for a 700 W product, but since this unit uses high-end capacitors and a DC-DC project inside (more on this later), we were expecting a more generous cable and connector configuration. For example, the distance between SATA and peripheral connectors is shorter compared to the standard  5 7/8” (15 cm) normally used.

Figure 3: Cables.

Now let’s take an in-depth look inside this power supply.

[nextpage title=”A Look Inside The Gigabyte Odin Plus 700 W”]

We decided to disassemble this power supply to see what it looks like inside, how it is designed, and what components are used. Please read our Anatomy of Switching Power Supplies tutorial to understand how a power supply works and to compare this power supply to others.

This page will be an overview, and then in the following pages we will discuss in detail the quality and ratings of the components used. 

Figure 4: Overall look.

Figure 5: Overall look.

Figure 6: Overall look.

[nextpage title=”Transient Filtering Stage”]

As we have mentioned in other articles and reviews, the first place we look when opening a power supply for a hint about its quality, is its filtering stage. The recommended components for this stage are two ferrite coils, two ceramic capacitors (Y capacitors, usually blue), one metalized polyester capacitor (X capacitor), and one MOV (Metal-Oxide Varistor). Very low-end power supplies use fewer components, usually removing the MOV and the first coil. 

This power supply is flawless on this stage, with four Y capacitors and one X capacitor more than the minimum required, plus an X capacitor after the rectifying bridges.

Figure 7: Transient filtering stage (part 1).

Figure 8: Transient filtering stage (part 2).

In the next page we will have a more detailed discussion about the components used in the Gigabyte Odin Plus 700 W.

[nextpage title=”Primary Analysis”]

On this page we will take an in-depth look at the primary stage of Gigabyte Odin Plus 700 W. For a better understanding, please read our Anatomy of Switching Power Supplies tutorial.

This power supply uses two GBU806 rectifying bridges connected in parallel and attached to an independent heatsink. Each bridge can handle up to 8 A at 100° C allowing this unit to pull up to 1,840 W from a 115 V power grid without burning themselves; assuming 80% efficiency, they would allow this unit to deliver up to 1,472 W without burning themselves out. Of course we are only talking about this component and the real limit will depend on all other components from the power supply.

Figure 9: Rectifying bridges.

Two FCP16N60 power MOSFETs are used on the active PFC circuit, each one capable of delivering up to 16 A at 25° C or 10.1 A at 100° C in continuous mode (note the difference temperature makes) or up to 48 A at 25° C in pulse mode. These transistors present a maximum resistance of 220 mΩ when turned on, a characteristic called RDS(on). This number indicates the amount of power that is wasted, so the lower this number the better, as less power will be wasted thus increasing efficiency.

This po
wer supply uses two electrolytic capacitors to filter the output from the active PFC circuit. The use of more than one capacitor here has absolute nothing to do with the “quality” of the power supply, as laypersons may assume (including people without the proper background in electronics doing power supply reviews around the web). Instead of using one big capacitor, manufacturers may choose to use two or more smaller components that will give the same total capacitance, in order to better accommodate space on the printed circuit board, as two or more capacitors with small capacitance are physically smaller than one capacitor with the same total capacitance. Gigabyte Odin Plus 700 W uses one 330 µF x 400 V and one 270 µF x 400 V capacitors in parallel; this is equivalent to one 600 µF x 400 V capacitor. These capacitors are Japanese, from Chemi-Con and labeled at 85° C.

On the switching section Gigabyte Odin Plus 700 W uses another two FCP16N60 transistors, as you can see in Figure 10. The specs from these components were already published above.

Figure 10: Switching transistors, active PFC diode and one of the active PFC transistors.

The switching transistors are controlled by a FAN4800 PWM controller.

Figure 11: PWM controller.

Now let’s take a look at the secondary of this power supply.

[nextpage title=”Secondary Analysis”]

This power supply has ten Schottky rectifiers on its secondary heatsink, using a DC-DC project. This means that this power supply is basically a +12 V unit and the +5 V and +3.3 V outputs are generated by two smaller switching-mode power supplies that converts the +12 V into the required voltage.

The +12 V output is produced by eight of the available rectifiers. The other two rectifiers are used by the +5VSB output and by the -12 V output. All +12 V Schottky rectifiers are STPS20H100CT models, each one being able to deliver up to 20 A (10 A per internal diode at 160° C, 0.88 V maximum voltage drop).

The maximum theoretical current each line can deliver is given by the formula I / (1 – D), where D is the duty cycle used and I is the maximum current supported by the rectifying diode. Just as an exercise, we can assume a typical duty cycle of 30%.

As explained, the +12 V line is also used to generate the +5 V and +3.3 V outputs. Just as an exercise, if we pull all the current/power only on the +12 V output, the maximum theoretical power of this unit would be 114 A or 1,371 W. The real amount of current/power each output can deliver is limited by other components.

Figure 12: +5 VSB, +12 V and -12 V rectifiers.

The +5 V and +3.3 V outputs are generated by two small switching-mode power supplies attached to the +12 V output. Each one of these power supplies is available on a small daughterboard. Each board is controlled by an APW7073 PWM controller, with the +5 V board using one FDD8880 and two FDD8896 MOSFETs and the +3.3 V board using one NTD4809NH and two NTD4806N MOSFETs.

Figure 13: +5 V and +3.3 V power supplies.

The secondary of Odin Plus 700 W uses only solid capacitors, as you can see in Figure 14.

Figure 14: Solid caps.

The outputs are monitored by a WT7527 integrated circuit, which supports OVP (over voltage protection), UVP (under voltage protection) and four OCP (over current protection) channels, one for +3.3 V, one for +5 V, and two for +12 V. An LM339 voltage comparator is used to expand the number of over current protection channels.

Figure 15: Monitoring integrated circuit.

Figure 16: Voltage comparator.

[nextpage title=”Power Distribution”]

In Figure 17, you can see the power supply label containing all the power specs.

Figure 17: Power supply label.

As you can see, according to the label this unit has four +12 V rails. Inside the unit we could clearly see four current sensors (“shunts,” see Figure 18) which are connected to an LM339 voltage comparator and then connected to the over current protection input of the WT7520 monitoring circuit. Therefore this unit really has over current protection (OCP) for each +12 V group of wires and thus four +12 V rails (read our Everything You Need to Know About Power Supply Protections tutorial for more information).

Figure 18: Current sensors (“shunts”).

The four available rails are distributed like this:

• +12V1 (solid yellow wire): ATX12V/EPS12V cable.
• +12V2 (yellow/black wire): Main motherboard cable, SATA and peripheral connectors.
• +12V3 (yellow/blue wire): One of the video card power connectors.
• +12V4 (yellow/green wire): The other video card power connector.

This distribution couldn’t be better, as it separates each video card and the CPU (ATX12V/EPS12V connector) on separated rails.

Now let’s see if this power supply can really deliver 700 W.

[nextpage title=”Load Tests”]

We conducted several tests with this power supply, as described in the article Hardware Secrets Power Supply Test Methodology.  

First we tested this power supply with five different load patterns, trying to pull around 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% of its labeled maximum capacity (actual percentage used listed under “% Max Load”), watching how the reviewed unit behaved under each load. In the table below we list the load patterns we used and the results for each load.

If you add all the power listed for each test, you may find a different value than what is posted under “Total” below. Since each output can vary slightly (e.g., the +5 V output working at +5.10 V), the actual total amount of power being delivered is slightly different than the calculated value. On the “Total” row we are using the real amount of power being delivered, as measured by our load tester.

The +12VA and +12VB inputs listed below are the two +12 V independent inputs from our load tester. During this test the +12VA input was connected to the power supply +12V2 and +12V3 rails, while the +12VB input was connected to the power supply +12V1 rail.

Input	Test 1	Test 2	Test 3	Test 4	Test 5
+12VA	5 A (60 W)	10 A (120 W)	15 A (180 W)	20 A (240 W)	25 A (300 W)
+12VB	4.5 A (54 W)	10 A (120 W)	15 A (180 W)	20 A (240 W)	25 A (300 W)
+5V	2 A (10 W)	4 A (20 W)	6 A (30 W)	8 A (40 W)	10 A (50 W)
+3.3 V	2 A (6.6 W)	4 A (13.2 W)	6 A (19.8 W)	8 A (26.4 W)	10 A (33 W)
+5VSB	1 A (5 W)	1.5 A (7.5 W)	2 A (10 W)	2.5 A (12.5 W)	3 A (15 W)
-12 V	0.5 A (6 W)	0.5 A (6 W)	0.5 A (6 W)	0.5 A (6 W)	0.5 A (6 W)
Total	141.4 W	283.2 W	417.4 W	550.8 W	700.2 W
% Max Load	20.2%	40.5%	59.6%	78.7%	100.0%
Room Temp.	44.3° C	44.4° C	47.1° C	46.6° C	45.9° C
PSU Temp.	42.5° C	43.0° C	44.7° C	45.6° C	44.8° C
Voltage Regulation	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
Ripple and Noise	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
AC Power	167.7 W	330.7 W	492.7 W	661.0 W	868.0 W
Efficiency	84.3%	85.6%	84.7%	83.3%	80.7%
AC Voltage	116.3 V	114.8 V	113.3 V	111.1 V	109.0 V
Power Factor	0.980	0.989	0.989	0.992	0.994
Final Result	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass

Odin Plus 700 W from Gigabyte can really deliver its labeled power at high temperatures.

Efficiency was above 84% when we pulled between 20% and 60% of the labeled wattage (i.e., between 140 W and 420 W), peaking 85.6 W at 40% (280 W) load. At 80% load (560 W) efficiency was still very good at 83.3%. At full load, however, efficiency dropped to 80.7%. This unit is 80 Plus Bronze certified, but if you follow our reviews you know that Ecos Consulting (the company behind 80 Plus) tests power supplies at 23° C, a temperature that is too low, and several units can’t reach the promised efficiency during our tests since we collect data at temperatures between 45° C and 50° C (efficiency drops with temperature).

Voltage regulation was exceptional, with all voltages within 3% from their nominal values (including the -12 V output) – i.e., values closer to their “face value” than required, as the ATX12V specification allows voltages to be within 5% from their nominal values (10% for -12 V).

Even though it uses solid capacitors, this unit presented somewhat high noise and ripple levels. Below you can see the results for test five with the unit delivering 700 W. The maximums allowed are 120 mV for +12 V and -12 V outputs and 50 mV for +5 V, +3.3 V and +5VSB outputs.

Figure 19: +12VA input from load tester at 700.2 W (98.2 mV).

Figure 20: +12VB input from load tester at 700.2 W (104.4 mV).

Figure 21: +5 V rail with power supply delivering 700.2 W (14.8 mV).

Figure 22: +3.3 V rail with power supply delivering 700.2 W (34.8 mV).

Now let’s see if this unit can deliver more than 700 W.

[nextpage title=”Overload Tests”]

Below you can see the maximum we could pull from this unit. If we increased one more amp on any given output the unit would shut down.

Input	Overload Test
+12V1	33 A (396 W)
+12V2	33 A (396 W)
+5V	12 A (60 W)
+3.3 V	12 A (39.6 W)
+5VSB	3 A (15 W)
-12 V	0.5 A (6 W)
Total	881.5 W
% Max Load	125.9%
Room Temp.	47.5° C
PSU Temp.	45.5° C
AC Power	1,157 W
Efficiency	76.2%
AC Voltage	105.5 V
Power Factor	0.995

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

Gigabyte Odin Plus 700 W power supply specs include:

• ATX12V 2.3
• Nominal labeled power: 700 W
• Measured maximum power: 881.5 W at 47.5° C.
• Labeled efficiency: Greater than 85%, 80 Plus Bronze certification
• Measured efficiency: Between 80.7% and 85.6% at 115 V (nominal, see complete results for actual voltage).
• Active PFC: Yes.
• Modular Cabling System: No.
• Motherboard Power Connectors: One 24-pin connector and two ATX12V connectors that together form an EPS12V connector.
• Video Card Power Connectors: Two six/eight-pin connectors in separated cables.
• SATA Power Connectors: Six in two cables.
• Peripheral Power Connectors: Four in two cables.
• Floppy Disk Drive Power Connectors: One.
• Protections: Over voltage (OVP), under voltage (UVP), over current (OCP) and short-circuit (SCP).
• Warranty: Information not available.
• Real Manufacturer: AcBel Polytech
• More Information: https://www.gigabyte.com
• Average price in the US: This product is not sold in the USA yet.

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

Gigabyte Odin Plus 700 W is not a bad product: it can deliver far more than its labeled power, presents a very good efficiency if you pull up to 560 W from it and won’t offer any kind of risk of use.

However, we were a little bit disappointed. Because it uses a high-end design – DC-DC conversion, meaning that the unit is basically a +12 V power supply with the +5 V and +3.3 V outputs being produced by two small switching-mode power supplies attached to the +12 V line – with Japanese capacitors on the primary side and only solid caps on the secondary, we expected more from it. Ripple and noise, although inside specs, were too high in our opinion, proving that the use of high-end capacitors may not necessarily help reducing electrical noise (the use of high-end capacitors has more to do with life-span). The cable configuration was not the best we’ve seen for a product on this power range.

Everything will depend on the price it will reach the market. For what it offers, we hope it could arrive in the United States costing around USD 100. In Europe this unit is coming with a suggested price tag of € 130 (around USD 160), which makes the recommendation of this unit impossible, since we have better units costing way less than that.