There are some that say the power supply is the most important part of your computer. On the other hand, there are others that could care less. They're content to buy the cheapest off-brand box with wires coming out of it, they can get their hands on. I have to assume you're not the latter, since you're reading this review. That being said, AXP (Xion) Sent me one of their 90+ power suppies to check out. Let's see if it how it does.

Product Name: AXP-700W14FG

Review Sample Provided by: Xion

Review and Pictures by: Chris

Specifications

· Energy Star Resonant Topology Transformer Technology.
· Complies with EuP ( Energy-using-Products) instructions. Zero-Load Design for current/future CPU and GPU Generations.
· Full Graphic Power for SLI and Cross-fireX system, and DXXI Ready to full supports for current DX 11 Graphic cards ( 6+2 pin x 2 )
· 80+ Gold Certification.
· Patented Dual Voltage circuit with Thermal control system.
· Solid state 12V Rail-Design: offers unflappable & Clean current delivery under heavy load and provide stable voltage output.
· Over Current Protection /Over Voltage Protection /Short Circuit output protection
· Heavy-duty Japanese electronic capacitors to ensure DC stability and regulation Up to 90% efficiency.
· 140mm Silent Black Transparency Fan with Auto. Temp. Control for optimal cooling and minimum noise.
· Black Painting Housing
· 3 years Warranty.

Type:	Complies with ATX 12V 2.2Version, EPS 12V 2.91, and 2.92 version
Series:	AXP _ 90+ Gold Series
Model:	AXP-700W14FG
Maximum Power: 750W	700W
Fans:	140mm Silent Black Transparency Cooling Fan
SPEED:	1800 RPM (±10%)
DIMENSION:	140 X 140 X 25 mm
AIR FLOW:	103 CFM TEMP. AUTO CONTROL
Dual +12V:	QUAD 12V RAIL-DESIGN
Main Connector:	20 + 4 Pin
+12V:	1 x 12V RAIL-DESIGN
PCI-E Connector:	3 x 6 Pin, 3 x 6+2 Pin _ nVidia SLI and Cross FireX Ready.
SLI Support:	3 Way SLI Ready
Efficiency:	Up to 90 %
Power Good Signal:	100 – 500 ms
Hold-up Time:	16ms min.
Over Voltage Protection:	Yes
Overload Protection:	Yes
Input Voltage:	115 – 240 V
Input Frequency Range:	47 – 63 Hz
Input Current:	12A @ 115V ~ 240V
Output:	+3.3 @24A, +5V @24A, -12V @0.5A, +5VSB @3A
MTBF:	>120,000 hours
Approvals:	CUL, FCC, TUV, CE, C-tick, CB, BSMI
UPC Code:	842431012258

Packaging

Before I get to the packaging, I want to clear things up a little. Xion and AXP are one and the same. Depending on what side of the box or which part of the website you're looking at, It could say either one. This disparity comes into play with the naming of the power supply as well. One place calls it AXP _ 90+ Gold Series 700W, and another calls it AXP-700W14FG, which is the actual model number. On the top of the box is says "Xion LAN Party Edition", and I couldn't find any references to this anywhere, so I have to assume that this is referring to the box and not the power supply itself. It comes with a nice carry handle on the top, which would make it easy to carry to and from a LAN party. After you put the power supply in your computer, it's sized just right so you could use the box to hold your game discs or something. We know it will support the weight of a heavy power supply, so it should hold about anything.

While this power supply is modular, they decided to hard-wire the ones they thought everyone always uses. This isn't unusual, but the PCI-E connector isn't always used by everyone. There are a number of graphics cards that don't require any extra power. I know most avid gamers aren't going to be using those particular cards, but there are a lot of them out there.

Before I got to the installation, I broke out the tape measure to see how long the wires were. All the ones that are hard-wired and the PCI-E cables are 23" long. If you only need a single 6-pin connector on your graphics card, it can extend out another 5" if you use the one that's furthest away. The SATA and Molex cables have four connectors on each and are 40" long. This gives you the ability to really load your computer up with drives and not have to worry about how close they are to the power supply. I only wish that the CPU cable was a bit longer. With the power supply at the bottom of the case, it has to run all the way up to the top. If you're like me and your computer sets on carpeted floor, it's better to flip the power supply around so the intake fan is facing up. It's usually not a big deal to do it that way. The problem is that the wire now also has to stretch across the width of the case as well. At 23", it wasn't long enough to run through grommeted hole on the motherboard panel, around to the back, up through the upper hole in the panel, and to the connector.

Unlike most other modular power supplies I've seen, all the connections are the same on this one. Every socket has the power needed to do any job. This Makes it so you can plug any wire into any socket that you want. All they had to do was make it so each plug is wired to only draw power from whatever voltage is needed. With this, and the way that each PCI-E wire has two connectors on them, they can get away with putting fewer sockets on the power supply itself. This gives you the potential for a cleaner look.

I'm not sure if you're able to tell from the picture, but this power supply is a bit longer than average. One inch is all, but could be the difference between fitting or not, in small cases.

With the way the PCI-E cables are configured, it makes it a little harder to tie them together into a single bundle of wire. Not wanting to kink the wires too much, I went with a loop configuration. It has an interesting look, if nothing else.

Performance

I would first like to state as we have before, that in no way is LanOC capable of the type of power supply review you find on Johnny Guru and Anandtech. We just don’t have the equipment to do the style of testing that they do. We have to rely on real world testing. Pushing the computer to the limit. It’s not the best way to test a power supply; it won’t tell you how it will perform at 700watts under load. But it is helpful for most real world situations. To test it's performance, I ran OCCT for ten minutes in Power Supply mode. It runs both the CPU and GPU at max and graphs out the the voltage readings it took durring that time. Because I shortened the testing time down from the default 1 hour, you're better able to see the minor fluctuations on the graph. The green line indicates CPU load and the red line idicates the voltage. My test system is comprised of...

Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3ghz
Abit IN9-32X-MAX
4gb DDR2
2 - GTX 260 SLI
4 SATA Hard Drives
OCZ Agility SSD
Lite-On DVD burner
5 - 120mm fans
1 - 200mm fan

As you can see, it did a pretty good job of maintaining the voltage above the what is required of it. There were a couple larger spikes in the 12v rail. Being a gamer, not an electrical engineer, I'm not sure if that's worrisome. I only report it, I'll let you decide if it is.

Overall

Even though I wish the CPU cable was a bit longer, it's not much shorter than what I've seen on the competition's, so I won't knock it for that. The other wires make up for this and are long enough to reach across even the biggest of cases. To top it off, they have plenty of connections on each, to get the job done, with just a single run. At $129.99 it's at the the high end of the price spectrum of 700 watt power supplies. Newegg only had two others listed that were more expensive, at the time I wrote this. That being said, it had the highest efficiency rating of any of them. I checked with the 80+ website and the AXP got an outstanding score. At a 50% load, it was 90.99% efficient. That's nothing to sneeze at. Couple that with some great features such as a single 12volt rail, Heavy-duty Japanese capacitors, 140mm Silent fan, 3-way SLI capable, and a 3 year warranty, and you've got yourself one heck of a nice power supply.