Zalman ZM600-RS Power Supply Review

Posted By Gabriel Torres on Dec 17, 2009 in Power

Introduction

Zalman has recently released a power supply series based on a resonant switching (RS) design, aptly named RS series. Let’s see if the 600 W model from this series is a good buy.

Like other power supplies from Zalman, ZM600-RS is manufactured by FSP.

We’ve already reviewed the 500 W model from this series and the printed circuit board from this other unit is different, so the 600 W model isn’t the same power supply as the 500 W with upgraded components.

Figure 1: Zalman ZM600-RS power supply.

Figure 2: Zalman ZM600-RS power supply.

Zalman ZM600-RS is only 5 ½” (140 mm) deep, using a 120 mm fan on its bottom and active PFC circuit, of course.

All cables are protected by nylon sleevings, which come from inside the power supply housing. All cables measure 21 5/8” (55 cm) between the housing and the first connector on the cable, except the SATA and peripheral cables, which have 19 ¾” (50 cm) between the power supply and the first connector on the cable and 5 7/8” (15 cm) between connectors. All wires are 18 AWG, which is the correct gauge to be used.

The cables included are:

Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector.
One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form one EPS12V connector.
Two auxiliary power cables for video cards with one six/eight-pin connector and one six-pin connector each.
Two SATA power cables with three SATA power connectors each.
One peripheral power cable with three standard peripheral power plugs.
One peripheral power cable with three standard peripheral power plugs and one floppy disk drive power connector.

ZM600-RS comes with a better cable configuration than ZM500-RS, with each SATA and peripheral power cables having three connectors instead of only two. This power supply also comes with two cables for video cards with two connectors each, whereas the 500 W model comes with only one cable with two connectors installed. This way with this power supply you can install two high-end video cards that require two power connectors each at the same time. Of course we’d prefer if the unit used four separated cables instead of hanging two connectors on each cable.

Figure 3: Cables.