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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Friday, 17 June 2022 15:50
While Cooler Master has been in the power supply game for a long time at this point, their most recently introduced mode the XG Plus Platinum is their first in-house designed platform. Having outside help for PSU design isn’t anything unusual but I am interested in seeing what Cooler Master is up to now that they have more of a hand in their designs. The XG Plus Platinum line is available in 650-watt, 750-watt, and 850-watt models and we have the 850-watt XG850 Plus Platinum ARGB on hand to check out today.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Wednesday, 01 June 2022 22:00
FSP originally announced their Dagger Pro line of SFX power supplies back in 2019 but last year they updated the lineup with a few more wattages. The original lineup was the Dagger Pro 550 and 650 and then last year they introduced the Dagger Pro 750 and the 850. I’m a little late to the party but we did get their Dagger Pro 850 in for us to check out and today I’m going to take a look at its features to see what it is all about. I’m a big fan of small form factor builds and having options in the true SFX size range for high wattages like this 850-watt model is huge so let’s see what it is all about.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Friday, 27 May 2022 21:57
Storytime gather around. I remember back in the day when Be Quiet! first approached us and sponsored one of our LANs. That first time while they were established in Europe, the US market was still new to them. So new that all of the power supplies that came in had their EU power cords. Well, things have changed, the Be Quiet! brand is well known and they have established their reputation for quality and as the name would imply, for keeping the noise down. So I’m always excited what something new from the Be Quiet! team comes in. This time around we have the Pure Power 11 FM in the 1000 watt variation. Their Pure Power lineup is their more budget-friendly lineup and the FM means full modular which should fall right in the range that most people are looking for so let’s check out what they have going on.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Wednesday, 29 September 2021 17:42
Thermaltake has been doing the RGB power supplies for just about longer than anyone. They have had USB-controlled models as well as simpler cheaper models that keep things simple with push-button controls. One of their latest models, the Toughpower GF2 ARGB mixes things up by combining the push-button controls while also adding in the ability to tie itself into your motherboard's lighting to sync everything together. They are also aiming for a happy medium when it comes to efficiency. Some of those cheaper models have been 90 Plus Bronze and they have also gone to the other end of the spectrum with expensive platinum models. For the Toughpower GF2 ARGB, it is 90 Plus Gold rated. So today I’m going to check out the GF2 and see what else it has going on and find out feature-wise if it has the potential to be a happy medium for someone looking for a power supply with addressable RGB lighting.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Friday, 26 March 2021 13:39
Last fall MSI announced that they were entering into the power supply market. It isn’t a huge surprise. MSI has been slowly branching out their product lineup with lots of peripherals for years in addition to the normal motherboards and GPUs. They are also a big name in laptops and prebuilt systems as well. We have seen similar companies like Asus do the same thing over the last few years and Gigabyte as well. You can now pick a brand and nearly build a complete themed out PC with a lot of companies. I did that with Asus not long ago and here soon MSI could be a possibility as well now that they have PSUs, new cases (they did a few cheaper cases years ago), and water cooling all being added. The new power supplies have the same MPG branding that MSI uses on their motherboard naming and their first units are available in 650w, 750w, and 850w options. The MPG A750GF that I’m checking out today is of course the middle option. SO let’s see what they are all about.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Wednesday, 16 December 2020 23:33
I don’t think there are any companies who have embraced the RGB trends more than Corsair has, both with their product lineup which has some of the best RGB fans, RGB lighting for your office, RGB memory, and of course keyboards and mice as well as on the memes side of things as well. Corsair has been on point with RGB memes, embracing it and doing April fools jokes like RGB thermal paste. Even the first gif that pops up on Twitter when you type in RGB is their social media manager with RGB glasses and keyboard. But even with all of that their PSU lineup hasn’t had an RGB model available with the competition doing it years ago. But that changed recently with the Corsair CX-F lineup, and today I’m going to check out the CX750F RGB and see what the new lineup is all about so put on your RGB glasses and get ready!
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Tuesday, 17 November 2020 20:49
Cooler Master has been known to mix in a few different popular small cases into their case lineup over the years. But it might come as a surprise, up until this year they hadn’t released anything with an SFX power supply, even though SFX has been around for a long time now. I think we used one in our Lunchbox 2 build over 7 years ago! Well, this year they introduced their NR200 and NC100 SFF cases, and to go with them they were also working on an SFX power supply to add to their PSU lineup as well. In fact, I’ve got the NR200 here in the office, just waiting for the new V850 SFX Gold to come out and after a few delays, it looks like it is finally time. Today I’m going to check out the V850 SFX Gold and see what Cooler Master has going on with their first SFX PSU, then maybe here soon we can use it in a build in the NR200!
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Wednesday, 09 September 2020 15:52
Back in 2015 Cooler Master introduced their V Series of power supplies which over the years they have filled in with a variety of different wattages and 80 Plus ratings. In fact, I’ve been using a few of them in our builds as well as one of our test benches. But think about how much has changed in those 5 years in other areas of PC hardware. It’s not a huge surprise that they might be looking to change things up and today is that day. They are introducing the V Gold V2 which is as the name might indicate an 80 Plus Gold rated power supply. They have it available in 550, 650, 750, and 850 Watt models which is spot on for the mid to higher-end PCs, and this time around they have both a black and a white model. Cooler Master has never had a white power supply though they did have the MWE White which wasn’t white at all. So I’m excited to see what is new with the V2 as well as check out the new white model so let’s go take a look.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Friday, 13 December 2019 13:52
One of my favorite SFX power supplies for a long time now has been the Fractal Design Node 202, they have a small size with its 10.2-liter capacity while keeping the pricing down compared to similar community made designs with its console-like form factor. With that Fractal Design has been in the SFX market for a while now, they even had an SFX power supply to go with it with the Integra 450W. Recently Fractal Design introduced their newest SFX PSU series, the Ion SFX series and I’m excited to see that Fractal Design is continuing to push into the SFX market and to give even more options for power supplies in the form factor. Hopefully, this also means new cases are coming as well. Anyhow, they did send over the new Ion SFX 650G and today I’m going to take a look and see what sets it apart from the competition from companies like Corsair and Silverstone.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Thursday, 31 October 2019 20:45
Not too long ago I took a look a the Silverstone SX700-G which at 700 watts is one of the highest wattages per square inch power supplies there is. As far as traditional sized SFX PSUs it is also one of the highest wattages available as well. But there is one that beats it. That would be the SF750 from Corsair. I’ve had great experiences with Corsair power supplies and run them in a few of my own PCs. Well Corsair actually sent the SF750 over to use in our Dr Zaber Sentry 2.0 review and build but it came in late. I didn’t want to miss checking out Corsairs powerful little SFX, so today let’s check it out!
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Thursday, 24 October 2019 13:20
If you visit LanOC often you might notice I love checking out and using SFX power supplies. Early on they were limited in power, heat, and even in options with most models not even being available with modular cables but over the years that has changed significantly. I even took a look at an 800-watt Titanium model just last year. But a lot of the innovation has been with the SFX-L form factor which is similar but not as small as the normal SFX form factor even though a lot of cases only support the latter. But Between Corsair and Silverstone big strides have been made in SFX as well like Silverstone’s SX700-G. It doesn’t have the same Titanium 80 Plus rating as the SX800-LTI but it does win in wattage per liter with an impressive 882 watts per liter. Today I’m going to check out the SX700-G and see what Silverstone has been up to in the true SFX form factor, check it out.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Monday, 03 June 2019 11:43
At this point, I couldn’t even count how many SFX power supplies that have come into the office. I love the form factor, even when building in smaller cases that can fit a full ATX power supply. Early on the SFX form factor was limited in power and because of the overall density struggled with heat and with that noise. That has improved a lot over the years, especially with Silverstone being a champion for SFX all the way from the start. They used to be the only option available if you wanted an SFX power supply with modular cables. Recently they introduced a few new SFX power supplies and one really stood out. This time it wasn’t about the jump in wattage, this model, in fact, has the same 450-watt rating of the early Silverstone SFX PSUs. The NJ450-SXL stands out for two reasons, it is 80 Plus Platinum rated which is great and also because it has no fan at all. The noise issues of the past can’t be an issue if there isn’t a fan to make noise right? Well, today I’m going to check it out and while we don’t do full PSU testing I am going to take a look at the thermals of the NJ450-SXL while under load to see how it does for cooling with no fan.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Wednesday, 23 January 2019 22:21
If you were to look at the last few PSU articles we have published you would think that all you can get these days is Platinum or Titanium 80plus rated power supplies. The fact of the matter is unless you are building an expensive build that isn’t really the type of power supply you will be looking at, nor is it what I would recommend. Don’t get me wrong, the power supply quality is important. But you can find quality power supplies that better fit your budget like in the 80 Plus Gold range. That is why when Cooler Master offered to send over their MWE Gold 750 I took them up on the offer. 750 watts is exactly the wattage a lot of builds need and a budget-friendly gold rated PSU checks most of the other boxes as well. So today lets take a look at the MWE Gold 750 and see what it is all about.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Monday, 31 December 2018 23:22
Two weeks ago before taking a Christmas break, I took a look at two different Asus products. Before the new year I figured I might as well check out one last Asus product that came in as well. Along with the new water cooling kits Asus has also brought out their own power supply lineup. They are calling them the Asus ROG Thor, which I think the biggest surprise is that no one else has snatched that branding up for their own power supplies given the whole god of thunder and lightning thing. Anyhow like with their water cooling kits, Asus has gone a different direction with the Thor lineup including building in an OLED screen that shows the real-time wattage usage as well as integrating addressable lighting into the power supply as well. Sop today I’m going to take a look at some of the features that Asus went with on top of an already highly rated Seasonic Prime Ultra Platinum power supply. With that at its base, the Thor lineup is already one of the best on the market, but I’m curious to see if the Asus specific features and styling makes this any better of a choice over the Seasonic.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Friday, 30 November 2018 19:51
The SFX market has been slowly growing and with that companies have been finally taking notice with new brands now making SFX and SFX-L power supplies. Silverstone though was there at the start, being one of the only companies looking to provide a modular and high-power option for small builds. This has given them time to refine and work on their designs, that is why they have been increasing the wattage available over and over as well as coming out with new more efficient designs. They introduced the SX800-LTI early this year and the 800-watt capacity alone is worthy of getting your attention. With X299 and X399 systems having an extremely high-power draw and a renewed push in the GPU market that is starting to require more demanding power supplies the additional wattage is perfect for high-end SFX systems. But the 80 Plus rating was really what surprised me. The SX800-LTI is an 800-watt SFX-L PSU with an 80 Plus Titanium rating, the highest certification currently available.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Friday, 25 November 2016 16:49
It’s starting to become a meme at this point, but in the PC market almost everything now is available with RGB lighting. This is partially due to companies finally locking down the control they wanted for crazy lighting effects and also because it finally lets everyone bring out just one product that will work with any theme. No other company has taken this as far as Thermaltake as they have RGB lighting with their water cooling and RGB power supplies. As someone who prefers to make sure everything in my build matches I’m all for RGB and with that I wanted to take a look at Thermaltake’s Toughpower DPS G RGB to use in a build, specifically their 850-watt model with the crazy 80 Plus rating of Titanium!
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Friday, 18 November 2016 17:46
When it comes to building a new PC most of your focus is going to be on things like your video card, your CPU, SSDs, and maybe your case. That is because those are the components that affect the performance of your PC and with your case, it is the most visible component. So I completely understand why your power supply isn’t at the top of your list. You do have to remember though that a poor quality power supply can take out all of those other expensive components in an instant. I recently started looking at components for a new build for my main rig to replace the monster Fridge build. For the power supply, I wanted to go with a lower wattage because I had only planned on having two video cards, but I wanted to stick with Corsair and I needed fully modular to change out the cables later. So the Corsair HX850i came to mind. With its Platinum 80 Plus certification and a few cool features. The build it is going in is coming along, so today I’m going to take a look at the HX850i and see what it is all about.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Monday, 29 August 2016 06:03
So over the past few years and especially in the past few months I’ve had the chance to take a look at a variety of SFX form factor power supplies from a few different manufacturers. So far all of them have fit the standard SFX form factor, but recently Silverstone introduced a few power supplies that are SFX-L. The SFX-L form factor is the same size as other SFX power supplies in most dimensions, but they are slightly longer. This extra length squares off the SFX form factor and allows for a much larger fan to fit inside. The extra space and cooling also allowed Silverstone to up the power a little up to 700 watts. This is exciting because it finally allows for proper SLI and Crossfire setups in the SFX form factor. So today I’m going to take a look at the SX700-LPT and see what is different than Silverstone’s other SFX power supplies.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Monday, 15 August 2016 17:34
Returning readers have most likely seen a wide selection of SFX power supplies coming through the LanOC office over the years. I have to admit, I have a little bit of an obsession with these tiny power supplies. It’s because I love building small form factor LAN rigs and you can’t go small without having the power to push it, so when I first saw Silverstone introducing them a few years ago I jumped on them and used them in Lunchbox 2. I later built our entire Lunchbox 3 all around one as well. Recently a few other manufacturers have been jumping into the SFX market. This is exciting for two reasons. For one it means more options. But the most exciting thing is that most of the companies who have been bringing them out also manufacture cases, meaning there may be more SFX based case options coming in the future. Well, Thermaltake introduced a 450 watt and a 600 watt recently and today I’m going to check out the 450 watt and see what it is all about and find out how it compares to the Silverstone and Corsair SFX options.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Thursday, 05 May 2016 18:34
By now if you have been around LanOC on the review side of things as well as our LAN events you will have noticed that I love small form factor builds. I’ve gone on and on about them many times when covering all of the unique components that have been coming out for them. When it comes to feeding your new tiny build with power you used to have just two options. You could build a tiny build and use an adapter to run a laptop power adapter or you could shoe horn in the smallest ATX power supply you could fit. The laptop PSU option was limited in wattage basically eliminating the possibility of a powerful build and going ATX gave you the power but they take up a lot of space. Those of you who have dug into prebuilt PCs have most likely seen some of the FlexATX PSU’s, well SFX is a small standard form factor version of that. Over the past few years Silverstone has been the only option in SFX power supplies with enough power and modular options, but that has changed. Today I’m going to take a peek at the Corsair SF600 and see how it compares.
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