Recently, Corsair revamped their Enthusiast Series with a line of brand new modular units. I already took a peek at one of these units in the TX750M. Today, I'm going to have a look at another one to see if there are any major changes down at the 550W level. Folks, let's take a look at the TX550M.
Here's a scenario for you: you've been a longtime member of a certain online forum, and people keep asking you how to do the 7 volt trick for fans. Other people jump in after you post how to do it, arguing that you really shouldn't be using the 5V rail as a ground for your fans. Well, what's the solution then? No power supply on the market comes with a 7V rail!
Until now. Coolermaster decided to come up with a new line of units that do, in fact, have a 7V rail. An evolution of the Silent Pro Gold line, they also include such goodies as an external fan controller and full modularity. I'm looking at one of these units today, the 1050W middleman. Let's waste no time and see how it works.
It's become a trend lately. More and more often, I'm seeing units come through here that are higher efficiency than ever, and many of these are turning up without fans. Silverstone is the latest company to float one of these fanless units my way in the ST50NF. You may recall that I once had a look at another fanless unit from these folks in the Etasis built ST45NF. Let's find out if this newer, higher efficiency fanless unit has what it takes to compete these days.
Not too long ago, Enermax contacted us with an opportunity to review their new 80 Plus Platinum certified, fully modular power supply, the Platypus... err... sorry.. The Platimax. The Platimax is an upgrade over Enermax's 80 Plus Gold effort, the MaxRevo. Needless to say, we wanted the chance to see if the Platypus.. sorry... Platimax performed at least as well as the MaxRevo, but with better efficiency.
Corsair is continually evolving their lineup of power supplies. Today, I'm looking at one of their latest evolutions to the TX series - the new modular TX750M model. Let's find out if the move to modularity in this series was a good one.
Not very long ago, I took a look at a fanless power supply from Superflower that turned out to be the bee's knees when it came to providing stable power at very high efficiency without so much as a cooling fan to help it. At the time, I wished and pined for this unit to come to the North American market, since you cannot buy any Superflower retail units on this continent. Well, Kingwin has granted my wish. They are now offering their own version of this awesome unit which goes by the name Stryker. Let's see if anything has changed about the design.
Super Flower is a manufacturer, headquartered in Taiwan but with their factory in mainland China, that's been around making computer chassis and power supplies for quite a long time. Unfortunately, the brand has not been available in the U.S. for some time, although Super Flower units can still be purchased all over Europe and Asia. Here in America, we usually have to wait for a company like Kingwin or Sentey to pick up and re-brand a unit.
The Golden King is the first power supply I've had a chance to review that advertises 80 Plus Platinum efficiency. That means this power supply should be at least 90%, 92% and 89% efficient at 20%, 50% and 100% loads. We will certainly try to confirm this in today's tests.
We've reviewed a lot of big power supplies at jonnyGURU.com in the past. One of the most common requests I get is to take a look at the smaller units that are still likely to perform at the high level we enthusiasts expect from our new power supplies. Today, a new unit from Superflower lands on my test bench, the Golden Green 450 watt model. We'll see if this unit lives up to our expectations.
A little while ago, I had a look at Thermaltake's latest and greatest Toughpower Grand unit. Clocking in at 1200 watts, that unit ended up being somewhat more bland than grand. Well, today I'm looking at something even more powerful - the Toughpower TP-1350M 1350W unit. Will it leave a more lasting impression on us? Let's take a look.
