1000W-1200W Roundup: Five High-End PSUs
by Martin Kaffei on December 9, 2010 1:20 PM ESTCougar GX G1050
Cougar is a retail brand from HEC, and they sell some cases as well as many PSUs in EMEA. To export their products to the USA they started a marketing campaign a few months ago, which is why various tech sites have seen samples of late. AnandTech received their newest 80Plus Gold PSU from the GX-series (G for Gold). This series has PSUs rated at 600, 700, 800, 900 and 1050 watts; our test unit is the highest rated G1050 model. Cougar has two designs, one with a single transformer and two transistors, the other with two transformers (one switcher each) and an interleaved PFC; we will be looking at the latter.
In the GX G1050 box we find some mounting screws, cable ties, a power cord, a manual, and the modular connection cables. Besides the high efficiency, their robust case and special cable sleeving are the most interesting features. Moreoever Cougar told us that ripple and noise is low because of the CLC filtering; we'll test that claim shortly. The PSU case has a length of 18cm.
| Cables and Connectors | ||
| Fixed/Modular | Main | 24-pin 60cm |
| ATX12V/EPS12V | 8-pin 60cm + 4+4-pin 30cm + 4-pin 30cm | |
| PCIe | 6x 6/8-pin 50cm | |
| Peripheral | 4x SATA 50-95cm + 1x Molex 15cm / 4x SATA 50-95cm + 1x Molex 15cm / 4x SATA 60-110cm | |
| 3x Molex 50-95cm + Floppy adapter 15cm | ||
Two peripheral cables have SATA and Molex connectors; overall Cougar offers 12x SATA and 5x Molex. There is a very long cable with three different types of CPU connectors. This is good for just about any kind of mainboard, but three separate cables would be better. Most readers don't need more than one 4+4-pin connector and want to disconnect the other cables.
The GX fan has seven thin fan blades and comes from Power Logic, with the product number PLA14025S12M. It's a 140mm fan with a fluid dynamic bearing to provide increased longevity.
We have dismounted one part from the heatink on the secondary side to show more of the circuit. This Cougar design has DC-to-DC, synchronous rectifying, and more components than the smaller design used for the GX 600W. The main caps are from Japan while the other ones come from Teapo, a standard choice for HEC. There are many similarities to the AeroCool unit, largely because of the same EMI- and output-filtering. The rectifier bridge from Diodes Incorporated has its own heatsink and the wire cross-section of most cables is big.
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SirGCal - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link
Ditto! I have bought nothing but Corsair powersupplies for quite some time. I got tired of my Antec supplies dieing out on me so I switched to some of the others (Seasonic) but once I found the new (at the time) Corsair's lineup... There was no competition. And generally speaking, I don't buy their ram or other products, but their power supplies are rock solid.Squuiid - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link
+1Where's the Corsair?!
aandea - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link
+1Where's the Corsair?!
Martin Kaffei - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link
Well, we can't test all brands out there, but we've already reviewed the AX 750, which is a very good PSU and this roundup wasn't the last one. I'm sure, Corsair will send more samples, if you are interested.landerf - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link
The AX 750 and the AX1200 are hardly comparable. You can't just assume by the model line, especially with corsair. They're not made by the same manufacturer. The AX is considered "god" tier at the moment, so it'd be expected to be in any such comparison.landerf - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link
Meant AX1200Havor - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link
Still the AX1200 belongs among the tested products as its the only one that is in the same range as the Antec High Current Pro 1200WJerricho24 - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link
I also have a few corairs and would have liked to see the AX1200 set along side the enermax Revolution 1250 or Galaxy 1000(that I also have both of)the REAL top end players seem to be missing from 1000W+ review.
Beenthere - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link
...it's good to expose that some known and unknown brands have mediocre PSU quality. Now days you need to consider accurate PSU reviews on the specific model PSU you are considering purchasing as the quality and performance can vary drastically from one PSU model to another of the same brand.SirGCal - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link
Even the Corsair CMPSU-1000HX or CMPSU-950TX would have been interesting in the mix. Let alone the AX1200 monster.But still, the majority of users who aren't running tripple SLI won't need anything more than a 600-900W unit depending. It would be more interesting to see a good comparison of say the ~750W range. That'll hold most systems even with two GPUs in many cases. But no problem at all with any single GPU as the majority of users run.