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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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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Monday, 12 January 2015 16:35
When I was putting together the last few parts for our In Win D-Frame Mini build I knew I wanted to stick with a black and red theme and get a power supply that matched the performance of the rest of the build. Going with a Thermaltake Power Supply really was the only option to get both. So they were kind enough to send over their Toughpower DPS G 750 Watt power supply. While it fit everything I needed, it also peaked my curiosity. I mean, this is a power supply that comes with software. So today, beyond taking a look at the power supply itself, I will also be taking a closer look at the included software to see what it is all about and find out If it is something you really need or if it is marketing fluff.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Wednesday, 24 December 2014 08:49
Over the past few years we have really seen the Small Form Factor market grow, especially when it comes to small easy to transport gaming PCs, or what we call LAN Rigs. Early in 2013 I upgraded our Lunchbox 2 by upgrading the cooling and opening up room for airflow with a new SFX power supply from Silverstone. Later when I built Lunchbox 3 I used the same model of power supply. Why didn’t I change it up? Well not only did the first 450 watt SFX power supply perform reliably for me, but also frankly there just wasn’t any other competition. Silverstone had the highest wattage in the form factor not to mention the only SFX power supply with modular cabling. Well today we have the chance to check out the new top dog in SFX power supplies, Silverstone’s 600W SST-SX600-G.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Friday, 10 October 2014 13:28
Sadly when a lot of people are shopping for a power supply things like does it have modular cables and styling play a big role. A lot of people forget that buying a quality power supply is important both to protect your components, but also higher power efficiency waists less. With power prices constantly going up every dollar counts, especially when you have more than one gaming PC in your household seeing heavy use. Well one of our event sponsors FSP sent over one of their new 80+ Platinum power supplies. Today I’m going to take a look to see what sets it apart beyond its high efficiency.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Wednesday, 09 April 2014 12:17
The power supply is the single most important piece of hardware you can put into your system and while most enthusiasts like to go big and powerful, some of us are left with a much more down to earth budget for a new build. Cooler Master looks to fill this niche with its i-series power supplies that are meant to have a more budget oriented price tag while still providing high quality power and protection for your components. Today we preview the i500, the smallest in the line, and give it a once over to see if it is worth your attention.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Wednesday, 26 February 2014 13:58
When I think of XFX their video cards are the first thing to come to mind. But they have actually been in the power supply market for a long time now. They have done a good job of standing out in a very crowded market by coming up with unique PSU casing designs when most of the market has just done the same thing over and over. Today is actually the first time I have had an XFX power supply in the office to check out. We don’t technically review them (read more to see why), but today I’m going to take a quick peak at the new XFX XTR 650 watt to see what sets it apart from the competition.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Thursday, 09 January 2014 15:42
Cooler Master offers a wide variety of power supply solutions, and understanding the multitude of series and product families can be a bit daunting. The units essentially break down into four main categories, gaming being an intermediate solution between enthusiast and entry-level units. The GX, or “Game Xtreme”, line of power supplies have recently been re-introduced with a few improvements that blur the lines between enthusiast, gamer, and their self-entitled silent demographics while continuing to pay mind to budgets of a crowd torn between a software library and the hardware required to support it. Today we have the 650W version of the new GXII PSU family, and we’ll take a look at what new offerings it brings to the table.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Wednesday, 15 May 2013 13:00
Hey guys and girls, if you have been around the site or at some events you may have picked up that I have a thing for small form factor PC builds aka LAN rigs. I’m sure a few of you are laughing thinking about how big of a monster our “Fridge” build is, but that is exactly why it is important to have a rig that you can just grab and go without breaking your back. Last year I put together a rig that we called Lunchbox 2 using a Lian Li PC-TU200. After almost a year I had a few things I was interested in swapping around that I think some of you might be interested in.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Tuesday, 07 May 2013 13:00
When it comes to building your new rig there is one thing that often gets overlooked while being arguably the most important piece to the puzzle. That would be your power supply. After throwing down hundreds or thousands of dollars its really hard to force yourself to do the same with your power supply, especially when there is a cheaper model next to it and they both will power your rig right? Not only is quality important with a power supply, but you also need to keep in mind its fit, efficiency, wattage, and wiring. Today we are going to take a look at Cooler Master's new V1000 power supply to see where it fits in those four aspects.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:02
In the power supply world, most people end up buying far too much power supply for their builds. Part of this is with the hope of upgrading to a second hard in the future and sometimes it’s because they don’t know any better. On our video test bench for example we run a 1200 watt power supply, but even then we found ourselves scrambling for adapters and hoping we wouldn’t push the power supply too far when we tossed four HD 7970’s in quadfire on it. With a TDP of 250 Watts for each card and our I7-3960x itself with a TDP of 130 watts we were already pushing it. That doesn’t even count in power for the motherboard itself as well as memory, disc drives, cooling, ect. It’s clear than in some cases there is a need for a power supply larger than 1200 watts, even if the market is limited. Cooler Master introduced their Silent Pro M2 line today including a 1500 watt monster, we are going to take a sneak peak at what they have to offer.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Saturday, 16 October 2010 00:00
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.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Monday, 19 July 2010 00:00
Thermaltake's power supplies get a step up from pure power to tough power with the launch of their new line. Justifying it's name, the Toughpower XT sports a long list of features, including performance under extreme conditions while remaining cool and quiet. Thermaltake has sent us a sample of the 775W model to put to the test.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Tuesday, 15 June 2010 11:00
At Computex two weeks ago it seemed like everyone was announcing their new 80+Gold high wattage power supplies, apparently gold is the new black. We already took a look at Sparkles offering recently, today we have a chance to put Cooler Masters Silent PRO Gold 1200 watt to the test. With 1200 watts and an 80+ Gold rating we know this will be a monster, but will it maintain the silent performance that we have come to expect from their Silent Pro line up?
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Tuesday, 11 May 2010 19:34
Of the 2,195 power supplies currently listed on the 80 plus website, only 186 of them are certified 80+ gold. That means just over 11% of the power supplies tested meet or beat their highest standard. Although not listed on the 80+ website yet, Sparkle Computer Corp is gearing up to release a monster of a power supply. At 1250 watts it puts out nearly double the power of most of the other 80+ gold PSU’s. That high standard most likely is the reason for the “Gold Class” name; let’s dig in and learn a little more about it.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Sunday, 21 February 2010 00:00
LanOC will be one of the few national review sites to be the first to check out Sparkle's new power supply unit line, the Gold Class Series, with ratings of 1000-1250W. These 80 Plus Gold Certified units will be equipped with several features tailored for the needs on PC gaming, including super silent fans, spontaneous power loss protection, and a temperature control design mode. LanOC Reviews will be one of the few to get their hands on the first wave of review samples from Sparkle. Stay in tuned for this review, coming soon!
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Thursday, 11 February 2010 18:00
When it comes to power supplies, you may or may not know the name Ultra. Ultra is known for selling affordable power supplies with a few extra design elements thrown in (power supply with a window and lighting anyone?). Having heard of them or not you are going to want to take note, they released a new series of power supplies that have been getting high marks from some of our friends. With us being backed up with work, we are just now getting to testing ours out. Here is what we found out.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Thursday, 28 January 2010 00:00
Thermaltake's Toughpower series of power supply's makes a big statement with its name. Oddly enough even though we have taken a look at a variety of their products we have never put the Toughpower line to the test to see how tough they really are. Today we have the chance to check out the Toughpower XT 750 watt power supply. Lets find out how it compares to other PSU's we have tested in the past.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Monday, 18 January 2010 00:00
It's hard to tell it from the reviews we have done in the past, but our friends over at Cooler Master make more than cases. In fact, they have a wide range of products including a variety of power supplies. For the past year, I have been using their UCP 1100w in my own rig and have been very happy with it. Today we are going to take a look at their new 850 watt Silent Pro M and see if it lives up to the Cooler Master name.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Monday, 12 October 2009 22:55
Given their wide spread availability including Box stores like Best Buy, Antec power supplies are well known. In the past their reputation could be called hit or miss when it comes to quality, but given our past experience with the Quattro 850 its obvious bad quality issues are in the past. The next step up from the TruePower Quattro is Antec's Signature line. Today I will be taking a closer look at an 850Watt version of the Signature line to see how it performs.
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