Zalman ZM600-ST Power Supply Review

Conclusions

We were quite disappointed with this power supply. Although it can deliver its rated power at high temperature and high efficiency between 84% and 86% if you pull up to 360 W from it, efficiency drops below the 80% mark at full load. We also didn’t like the high noise/ripple levels when the unit was delivering its full 600 W (although they were still inside specs), the two video card connectors attached to the same cable and its price. For USD 25 less you can buy OCZ ModXStream Pro 600 W, which provides better performance, comes with a modular cabling system and has video card connectors on separated cables. This unit from OCZ also has presented noise/ripple levels a little bit above what we’d like to see, but lower than ZM-600ST’s.

Honestly, we don’t know what is happening with Zalman. They used to carry only top-notch power supplies at prices that were a little bit above the competition, but not by much. This is changing, and all units from them we reviewed lately are overpriced and some prone to high noise/ripple levels (see the reviews from ZM500-RS and ZM600-RS).