Back in black…and green. But XFX's latest power supply effort would be handy in any colour of the rainbow.
XFX impressed the last time we saw their neon-green juicebox, and that 850W model powered everything we threw its way without so much as a hiccup. They've come back with a slightly lesser-powered model, but one very much in the same vein as the bigger brother - and as we found, it doesn't drop much along the way. Returning is the same visual styling that will either make you fall in love or throw up slightly in your mouth, packing a bright green 140mm fan within an interesting casing. The case screws are even custom-shaped and pre-screwed into the unit, though the threading is not the standard gauge - don't lose those screws!
Cabling options are partially modular for neatness, though there's plenty on-hand to power two high-end graphics cards and a whole raft of peripherals - up to nine SATA and eight Molex at any one time. Showing the enthusiast tilt is the inclusion of an effective two 8-pin ATX cables for powering motherboards that can handle extreme overclocking. The cables are sleeved very well, with heatshrink applied throughout the cables to keep them shapely and ordered. It's rated up to 744W with a huge 62A 12V rail, and is rated for 80+ Silver with an average 88 per cent efficiency. We didn't notice the unit heating up nor becoming audible in testing.
Loading up the unit with a high-end system highlighted the unit's exceptional performance, barely wavering from an idle of 12.069V to a load of 12.075V. This was repeated in a 5V shift from 5.183-5.208V, suggesting that nothing has been lost.
The 750W unit costs $185, which is slightly more than other 750W models, but the five-year warranty and attractive test results promote this unit to the top of the pile.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012