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Cougar aren't exactly the first brand name you think of when we mention power supplies. Cougar have made a name for themselves with some uniquely styled cases and fans at affordable price points but their involvement in the power supply market is certainly something relatively new. Cougar's Power X 550W power supply that we have with us today is one of these brand new power supplies from Cougar. Like a lot of companies selling power supplies Cougar are not actively involved in producing these power supplies as they are produced by HEC/Compucase. That said Cougar are one of the few brands that I know of who actually bring HEC/Compucase OEM power supplies to market (most use Seasonic, FSP, etc) so I am very interested to have a look at this power supply, so without any further ado let us do exactly that!
It has been a long time coming, but finally the king has graced us with its presence! The Noctua NH-D14 was released back on November 2nd 2009 and it has been the benchmark for high performance air coolers ever since that day. Despite that we've never actually gotten around to producing a review of this amazing cooler. So I asked Noctua if they could provide us with one and they duly delivered. With us pushing forward and testing so many CPU coolers it is easy to get lost in the mountain of numbers but what easier way to make it through than with some Noctua NH-D14 results as a signpost.
You may be thinking, this review is a bit late, isn't it kind of pointless? Well not really I'd say. Firstly we are reviewing the NH-D14 SE2011, or the "Special Edition". This was released back on November 2nd 2011 - exactly two years after the original Noctua NH-D14 came to market making it around 18 months old. The changes are minimal but it brings LGA 2011 support and some improved fans. Nonetheless the NH-D14 has never been more relevant for high performance CPU cooling and to this day it still probably outsells every other dual tower CPU cooler on the market. That said I think you'll agree that it's about time we gave the Noctua NH-D14 a thorough going over to show you why most enthusiasts regard this as the best air CPU cooler on the market. And let's face it with the NH-D14 selling by the boatload, with Noctua struggling to produce them fast enough, I wouldn't be surprised if we see it last for at least a few more years before a successor is introduced.
Furthermore if that hasn't made you excited enough then we've also opted to add a third fan, an NF-F12, and see how the NH-D14 performs under triple fan testing!
Aerocool revient ce jour à la Ferme avec sa nouvelle gamme d'alimentation GT. Des alimentations plutôt stylées, qui sont disponibles en 80 Plus Bronze ou Gold et avec ou sans câbles modulaires. Ce jour, nous testons la GT-700SG, un modèle 80 Plus Gold disposant de câbles modulaires. A découvrir sans plus attendre dans vos colonnes préférées.
Be Quiet's reputation as a premium brand has gone from strength to strength in the PC hardware industry. Be Quiet perhaps became famous for their Dark Rock series of CPU coolers but alongside those they have had huge successes with their Shadow Rock CPU coolers, Silent Wings fans and their power supplies. Be Quiet have an extensive range of power supplies that span all different market segments starting with Dark Power Pro, then Straight Power, then Pure Power, then SFX Power, then TFX Power and then System Power. These roughly follow in order of "how good" they are with Dark Power Pro being the most premium series and System Power being the most basic.
Today we are looking at Be Quiet's "second tier" of power supplies as we examine the Straight Power E9 680W CM semi modular power supply from Be Quiet. This power supply has all the premium features we'd expect to see from Be Quiet but at a more affordable price point compared to the Dark Power Pro. In fact the particular unit that we have today is more than capable of powering a whole variety of enthusiast class systems with 1-2 GPUs and even heavy power consuming platforms like X79.
Antec have been a veteran of the power supply game for quite some time and today we are taking a look at their High Current Gamer 850W (Semi-)Modular power supply. Antec’s High Current Gamer series was designed with a few key principles in mind. First they’ve opted to minimise the number of rails and maximise current going through each of these rails so most of their High Current Gamer series uses a single or two 12 volt rails. Secondly these power supplies are designed ruggedly with a gamer in mind which means the design isn’t subtle or even that quiet but is more “bells and whistles” with an LED fan and red-accents.
It is pretty simple then to see what the Antec 850W HCG-M power supply is offering. In terms of the rest of its specifications we can see it isn’t that advanced as it only has 80 Plus Bronze Certification. A lower certification level generally means more wastage as “heat” and thus a higher fan speed is needed and so this probably isn’t going to be the quietest unit on the market either. Already we can see that the Antec HCG 850W power supply is going to have to excel in voltage regulation and value for money to be a truly worth power supply – so let’s see how it performs.
Corsair’s CX Series of power supplies have become increasingly popular in the DIY PC market. They offer strong value for money, good build quality, Corsair’s trademark warranty service and offer up 80 Plus Bronze certification at a reasonable price point. Today we are looking at the CX500M power supply which is a modular 80 Plus Bronze 500W power supply from Corsair.
Corsair’s CX500M power supply isn’t as extravagant as some of the power supplies we’ve looked at in the past but that is fine as this power supply is really only aimed at the single GPU gamer with a relatively mid-range system and on a restricted budget. If consumers want something more “high-end” they can obviously opt for Corsair’s more premium HX and AX series of power supplies.
If you’ve been following the pre-built system market you may see that Corsair’s CX500M has gained significant traction in that market inside pre-built systems from vendors like PC Specialist, Overclockers UK, Scan 3XS and so on. That said the CX500M has never been more popular and without any further ado let’s dive in and take a look at this budget offering from Corsair.
While Enermax are more associated with their ultra high performance enthusiast-class power supplies, like the Platimax 850W we reviewed recently, they do have a more budget range of power supplies – notably the Triathlor series. Today we have with us the Triathlor 450W power supply from Enermax. This is a budget orientated non-modular 80 Plus Bronze power supply designed for moderate systems with a single graphics card or two low power graphics cards that only use a single 6 pin PCIe connector. It is actually quite a compact unit thanks to its lower wattage and this allows it to be ideal for micro-ATX and mini ITX systems with constrained spaces for the power supply.
In terms of specifications this unit distributes its power over two 12 volt rails allowing the motherboard and CPU to have their own 12 volt rail separate from the graphics cards and molex/sata devices which are on the second 12 volt rail. The unit boasts a rather advanced Enermax Twister Bearing “Silence” 120mm fan compared to the normal cheap and cheerful ADDA fans we tend to find on the vast majority of power supplies, especially the budget ones. Without any further ado let’s take a look at Enermax’s Triathor 450W and see how well this budget offering stands up in our testing.
After having reviewed XFX’s Pro 750W Black Edition power supply I have high expectations of this next power supply from XFX. The XFX Pro 650W Core Edition power supply that we have here today is XFX’s attempt at a well priced power supply powerful enough for most high end single and dual GPU gaming systems. The raw design, like with all XFX power supplies is based on a Seasonic OEM design. This particular unit boasts 650W over a single 12 volt rail and is cooled by a 135mm fan.
The XFX Pro 650W Core Edition power supply features 80 Plus Bronze Certification and a non modular cable design. Like with all gaming products XFX have gone for a rugged looking black design. XFX state that this power supply is certified for SLI and CrossFire. Additionally XFX say that this product uses Japanese Capacitors and you need not worry yourself about its quality because XFX are backing it with a huge 5 year warranty.
Today we take a look at the Cougar PowerX 550W power supply. Never heard of Cougar? well they are a retail subset of parent company HEC. The PowerX 550W is a 80 Plus Bronze certified, compact, non modular design built into a brightly coloured chassis. We last looked at their CS 800W unit in January this year and while it didn’t earn a really high award from us, it was a capable all round unit.
The 550-650W market of power supplies is highly competitive these days with it being the "sweet spot" for gaming systems. These "gaming power supplies" should have enough wattage to comfortably power most single and dual GPU systems with a relatively power hungry overclocked CPU and all the other parts required for a gaming system (multiple storage drives, lots of fans and so on). Antec have a series of power supplies specifically designed for this under their High Current Gamer series. The particular model we have here today is the Antec High Current Gamer 620W power supply.
This power supply from Antec captures the sweet spot of the market perfectly with a decent 620 watts of power over a single 12 volt rail, a rugged gamer-looking design, all the industrial-grade protections to keep your gaming PC safe as well as 80 Plus Bronze efficiency and 135mm cooling fan. Additionally it comes with a semi-modular design to allow you to keep cable management under control and only use the cables that you need to use. As it is being thrown into a highly competitive marketplace it has competitive pricing to match. As with most Antec power supplies, the higher end ones at least, this power supply is OEM produced by Seasonic. Let's proceed with this review and find out how the Antec High Current Gamer 620W power supply performs.
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