Sold!
Thanks for the great review, you sold me one on the basis of the USB management connectivity. It is wonderful to be able to actually monitor the current consumption of each channel. Before, there was always the doubt at the back of my mind whenever I had any instability: am I maybe overloading the PSU? Before this PSU it was virtually impossible to measure this important parameter.
If Gigabyte are listening, though, there ARE some improvements I'd like to see:
1. If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing properly. I'm fed up with half-assed modularity, either do it properly or not at all! Having two of the PCI-E cables fixed and two modular is just dumb! There is plenty of room on the back panel for four modular connectors not just two. It is perhaps excusable having the MB cables fixed since everyone will have to use these, but even here it does loose one of the benefits of modularity, the ability to swap out a PSU without having to dismantle the whole system. Also four drive connectors is not enough, there should be at least eight, cutting down on or eliminating the doubling and trippling of connectors on the same modular cable.
2. A picky point, but why are the rating label and the modular connector decal opposite ways up? Gigabyte should supply these labels seperately so we can fix them ourselves the right way up for our case and, for the rating label, on whichever surface remains visible when the unit is installed.
3. There should be more than one case fan channel and it should be 4-wire PWM rather than DC. What is the point of having four temperature measuerment channels and only one fan channel (two including the built-in fan). With 800W to dissipate you are going to need more than this! OK there is usually more fan connectors on the MB, but having fan control the responsibility of the PSU makes sense since the PSU knows how much heat needs to be dissipated at any time.
4. The USB management interface should include measurement of input as well as output power. This would enable the efficiency of the PSU to be displayed.
5. The USB management interface should include the ability to set the current limiters on each channel to a lower value than the rated current. This would be a good safety feature since the impact of a short circuit could be minimised limiting the possibility of collateral damage or even fire.
However all in all the USB management interface is a great feature which seems to be unique for the moment!
