Specifications

Efficiency is high enough at Gold, and the maximum operation temperature at which the unit can deliver its full power continuously is restricted to 40°C. We are still going to stress the unit at up to 45°C. Thankfully, the lack of OTP (Over Temperature Protection) won't lead to drastic situations. Available protection features are also restricted to the basics; OCP is absent, of course, since it is meaningless in a 1 kW, single +12V rail unit.

The cooling fan is of good quality as it utilizes ball-bearings, which last much longer than sleeved ones. The unit unfortunately doesn't feature a semi-fanless operation, so the fan is constantly operating, even at very light loads. This does, on the other hand, result in lower internal temperatures, something highly beneficial to most components, especially electrolytic capacitors.

The dimensions of the unit are compact with a lenght of only 165 mm. The currently smallest 1 kW unit is to the best of our knowledge only 5 mm shorter. Finally, the warranty is set at three years, a long enough period considering the category of this unit, but the price looks to be a bit on the high side for what the PSU has to offer. Users can even find modular units with Gold-certified efficiency in this price range. We think a price closer to $120 would be more appropriate for this PSU.


The single +12V rail is very strong and will easily feed a high-end system with a triple SLI- or Crossfire configuration. The minor rails are restricted to 100 W, but almost no contemporary system will need more out of these rails. We would, on the other hand, like a stronger 5VSB rail with at least 3.5 A maximum current output.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

The main ATX cable is a little short and should be closer to 60 cm long, but the EPS cable is really long. There is unfortunately only one, and a PSU of such a capacity should have been equipped with two. The length of the other connectors is near to normal with the exception of a pair of PCIe connectors that are installed on a rather short cable. Also, the 24-pin ATX connector uses 16AWG gauges while all the others utilize the normal 18AWG wires.

Fractal Design decided, for reasons left unexplained, to only include two 4-pin Molex connectors with the 1 kW unit. This is bad, of course. There should at least be three more such connectors since many components still use these.

We do not have anything to comment on about its power distribution because the unit features a single +12V rail.