Introduction

MSI has a good presence in the PSU market. Its newest model, the MEG Ai1000P, is highly interesting since it is ATX v3.0 and PCIe 5.0 ready, offering native support for the newly released NVIDIA RTX 4090 without the need for a 12VHPWR adapter. The MEG Ai1000P and its stronger brother, the MEG Ai1300P, are MSI's top PSU products, based on platforms provided by Channel Well Technology (CWT). Efficiency-wise, the MEG Ai1000P is 80 PLUS Platinum and Cybenetics Platinum, and in noise, it is rated as Cybenetics Standard++ (30 - 35 dBA). With 160 mm in depth, it has a normal footprint. Still, MSI decided to equip it with a 120 mm diameter fan instead of a 135 or 140 mm one, which would be able to push the same amount of air at slower speeds, keeping noise output lower. Nevertheless, the fan is top quality, using a hydro-dynamic bearing.

The MEG Ai1000P uses a fully modular cable design, besides the standard cables and connectors, we also find a 12VHPWR connector with the sense pins set for 600 W max power output. According to the ATX v3.0 spec, a 1000 W PSU should have a single 12VHPWR connector rated at 450 W. Most brands don't pay attention to this guideline, using 600 W cables on all of their PSUs, even with capacities lower than 750 W. This helps them keep a smaller inventory of cables. Still, it isn't ideal to have lower-capacity PSUs informing the GPUs that they can deliver up to 600 W on the 12VHPWR connectors, because EPS connectors can also draw lots of power if they feed a high-end CPU. Intel's guidelines are there for a reason, and all should follow them when they state ATX v3.0 compatibility.

Specifications

Photos

The exterior design looks nice, thanks to the gold pieces. The fan grille is not so restrictive, but the top gold piece blocks a small part of the fan.


The gold and dragon graffiti pieces on the sides can be easily removed since they have magnetic tapes. They are plastic.


The power specifications label is installed at the bottom side.


There is a mini USB port on the modular panel since this PSU is compatible with MSI's Gaming Intelligence app, through which you can monitor the PSU's data and set its fan speed profile. I was able to do the latter, but I couldn't get any information out of the PSU. Since I had an early sample, I didn't spend more time troubleshooting this issue.


Measuring 160 mm in depth, this PSU has a compact enough footprint.


Here are some more photos of the PSU from various angles.

Cables and Connectors

The number of provides cables and connectors is high. It is nice to see so many PCIe connectors on dedicated cables, but I would prefer if MSI equipped the PSU with fewer PCIe 6+2 cables and increased the number of EPS cables/connectors to three. The PSU has a 12VHPWR connector, there is no need for so many legacy PCIe.


The distance between the peripheral connectors is adequate at 150 mm. It is also great to see two USB cables covering both usage scenarios with Type A and a mainboard header on the other side.

Component Analysis

Before reading this page, we strongly suggest looking at this article, which will help you better understand the insides of a PSU.



MSI used a high-end and expensive platform by Channel Well Technology (CWT), with code name CTT. It is a semi-digital platform with a pair of Texas Instruments MCUs controlling the entire primary side and part of the secondary side. All parts are of high quality, including Infineon FETs, Japanese caps, and a Hydro-Dynamic bearing fan. On the primary side, an interleaved PFC is used, along with a full-bridge topology and an LLC resonant converter for higher efficiency. The secondary side uses a synchronous rectification scheme, with the +12 V rail feeding a pair of DC-DC converters, which generate the minor rails.


The transient filter has all the necessary parts to suppress EMI emissions.


There is an MOV for protection against power surges. An NTC thermistor handles inrush currents with a bypass relay supporting it.


The pair of bridge rectifiers can handle up to 50 Amperes.


The interleaved APFC converters use two Infineon FETs and a pair of boost diodes from the same manufacturer. The bulk caps are by Nichicon and have 1240uF combined capacity. An SPN5003 FET is used to reduce vampire power by isolating the APFC converter when the PSU is on standby.


One of the Texas Instruments UCD3138A controllers, responsible for the APFC circuit.


The primary switching FETs are installed into a full-bridge topology, ideal for high power output.


The second Texas Instruments UCD3138A digital controller is installed on this board, along with the driver ICs for the main FETs.


The transformer is close to the +12 V board for lower power losses.


Six Infineon FETs regulate the +12 V rail.


The VRMs handling the minor rails use analog controllers.


The filtering caps are of high quality, both electrolytic and polymer ones.


The standby PWM controller is an On Bright OB2365T.


The main supervisor IC is a Weltrend WT7502R.


The modular PCB uses two large electrolytic caps and a large number of polymer ones for ripple filtering purposes.


Soldering quality is not the best I have seen from CWT because I had an early sample.

Some close-up photos of the main PCB.
Some more parts: an A1117B6 voltage regulator, an M3054M FET, and a P6SMB TVS diode.


The Microchip PIC32MM0064GPM036 handles USB communications, among others.


The cooling fan is by Power Logic and uses a hydro-dynamic bearing. This is a high-quality fan, and my only objection is that MSI should use a larger one, providing the same airflow at lower speeds with lower noise output.

Test Setup