Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

The Zalman ZM1000-EBT overall is a good power supply series at a Gold certified efficiency level. And we are fine with that. We prefer single voltage rails, and yeah .. this 12V one surely is massive at a rated 83A. The product could be improved on two things, aesthetics and noise levels. We do find the fan after 50% load to be audible, and anno 2015 that pretty much jinxes a product. That said we cannot complain about stability or efficiency levels as all looks to be very decent. The real benefit of this product actually is value for money, you can purchase the 1000W model as tested today for roughly 130 USD. And yeah a Gold certified kilowatt PSU for that money, is honestly a steal.

Prices

Hey that's good news, at a price of 129.99 USD the product pricing is expensive for what you receive. Stability wise we have very little to complain about. Lovely is obviously the massive single +12V rail, it has more than enough power to handle two maybe even three graphics cards for this 1000 Watt model, so multi-GPU wise you are good to go as Zalman offers no less than six 6/8-pin PEG graphics power headers with this PSU.
 

Aesthetics 

Aesthetics then, as stated we do find the design to be a bit too run of the mill with too much coloring going on? A tip for Zalman, key your color combinations two tone with dark matte black as base color. The cables are sleeved black and or flat for most of them. Good to see is that the connectors themselves are all black as well. The added benefit obviously is very clean looking wiring for that ultimate finish. Anno 2015 we do feel that modular designs are the way to go, and that's where you are in luck as well. You use what you need in terms of wiring, keeping the innards clean and tidy, plain and simple.

Concluding

Overall the ZM1000 is your run of the mill power supply in the high wattage category. It has OK looks (that can be improved on a bit). The noise level again are OK, at load this PSU can be heard. Not a biggy, it's just that the competition all offer PSUs that hardly make noise these days. Lovely is the massive Wattage at your disposal at proper efficiency levels as well. Let's wrap things up. The PSU is efficient, has decent looks, is modular, is stable, comes with nice dark cabling albeit we have to acknowledge that it could be a notch more silent under hefty load. Overall it's all good really. With a good size of 150mm x 86mm x 180mm it is a bit longer, but will likely install easily in almost any PC. The 129 USD MSRP we feel is really fair as remember this is a Kilowatt power supply. For that money you will also receive a whopping 7 year warranty in the US and 5 years in the EU - IMHO that alone is golden and well worth the money. Components seem to be in done right. The Zalman ZM1000-EBT is an affordable kilowatt power supply that seems to be a solid product. It might not be the cream of the crop compared to the competition, but at 130 bucks, really it offers good value. Recommended as such.

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