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A
Look Inside:::...
There's
a look to the inside of a Tagan power supply that makes
it almost instantly recognisable. The front and rear-mounted
pull-push fan arrangement, the large black heat sinks and
the beige and blue PCBs are a dead giveaway. Unfortunately
it seems who ever Tagan contract out the production to is
now building very similar looking units for other manufacturers,
something that doesn't detract from the quality but which
does make the quality less unique to Tagan.
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Internal
Components
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Considering
this is "only" a 420 watt power supply, it's stuffed
to the gills with electronics. Not surprising with the various
regulatory controls and damage limitation functions in its
spec sheet.
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Internal
Components
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It's
tempting to believe that the sheer volume of components
would work against things with regards effective cooling
but what tends to happen is the air gets circulated around
both the heatsinks and the components themselves which,
while not actually increasing thermal efficiency, certainly
brings it back in step.
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Internal
Components
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Internal
Components
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Internal
Components
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Internal
Components
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In
Use:::...
I've
never been troubled by power supply noise if truth be told,
nor graphics cards if it comes to it, and I can only imagine
that people with no case fans operating every really do.
There are a growing number of users working towards building
the ultimate silent PC, and it's probably just such a user
who will dislike Tagan's use of 80mm fans.
The
good news is that they rarely spin at anything more than
their minimal, 22dBA, but because they base their speed
on load rather than heat, you may find that in passively
cooled cases the power supply gets actually quite warm even
under relatively light loads. It doesn't have any negative
effects as a rule though, and is usually a quieter option
than having thermally controlled fans turning full-tilt
constantly.
Despite
the use of theoretically noisier 80mm fans then it's fair
to say the Tagan is one of the quietest power supplies I've
tested, quieter even than the 120mm units we have in-house,
which in their defense generally keep the PSU interior cooler
than Tagan's fans do though with no discernible benefit
from doing so.
Voltages
For
our test rig I put together an Athlon64 3400+ on a DFI Lanparty
UT nF3 250Gb with a Gigabyte of GeIL's PC3200 CAS2 and a
Radeon X800 PE from Connect3D.
I threw it in a Thermaltake Tsunami case so I could call
on its twin 120mm fans to help with the load and I then
rigged up a Corsair Hydrocool water cooling setup, a pair
of additional illuminated 120mm fans and four 92mm fans
to run alongside the usual two hard drives and two optical
drives.
Before
running our usual stability tests I hopped into the BIOS
to take a look at the voltages being reported there and
was slightly bemused to see just 11.83V being read from
the 12V line.
In
Windows this figure became even worse, reading just 11.71V
without any additional strain on the system.
The
moment I fired up SiSoft Sandra's Burn-In Wizard running
just the CPU arithmetic benchmark, the voltage dipped to
a slightly puzzling 11.58V. Despite this the system remained
completely stable no matter what I though at it so I decided
perhaps I should take a proper look at voltages using my
trusty multimeter.
Provided
my meter is still calibrated and accurate, and it should
be, the DFI board is rather pessimistic with its reported
voltage on the 12V rail and, by sheer coincidence, 11.98V
was the lowest voltage I was able to record which I find
actually quite impressive. Even under minimal load the hardware
monitoring only reported around 11.75 Volts in Windows.
I do have a PSU here that manages 12.25V under the same
operating conditions and although this, for some reason
tends to make some users feel more confident in the PSU's
ability, is as much an error as reading under-voltage.
Metered
Voltage Vs Reported Voltage
Likewise
the 5V rail which despite being reported to me as only 4.97V
was actually supplying 5.15V at the Molex, which is where
I want it. This is maybe a touch high but bare in mind the
lack of demand on the +5V rail during testing.
Metered
Voltage Vs Reported Voltage
When
I initially spoke to NanoPoint about the low reported voltages
they suggested I check I had the ground cable connected
as this often gives a small boost. By this stage I'd checked
the voltages with the meter and was perfectly happy with
them but now of course I was curious so I connected the
ground cable, which is used primarily to smooth out any
ripple and thus aid stability, and looked again the voltages,
but they remained unchanged. Certainly at times of dire
stress we're told they provide a bit of a crutch but in
our test system it made no measurable difference to the
output.
Ground
Cable
Conclusion
The
3DVelocity "Dual Conclusions Concept" Explained:
After discussing this concept with users as well as companies
and vendors we work with, 3DVelocity have decided that where
necessary we shall aim to introduce our 'Dual Conclusions
Concept' to sum up our thoughts and impressions on the hardware
we review. As the needs of the more experienced users and
enthusiasts have increased, it has become more difficult
to factor in all the aspects that such a user would find
important, while also being fair to products that may lack
these high end "bonus" capabilities but which
still represent a very good buy for the more traditional
and more prevalent mainstream user. The two catergories
we've used are:
The
Mainstream User ~ The mainstream user is likely to put
price, stock performance, value for money, reliability and/or
warranty terms ahead of the need for hardware that operates
beyond its design specifications. The mainstream user may
be a PC novice or may be an experienced user, however their
needs are clearly very different to those of the enthusiast,
in that they want to buy products that operate efficiently
and reliably within their advertised parameters.
The
Enthusiast ~ The enthusiast cares about all the things
that the mainstream user cares about but is more likely
to accept a weakness in one or more of these things in exchange
for some measure of performance or functionality beyond
its design brief. For example, a high priced motherboard
may be tolerated in exchange for unusually high levels of
overclocking ability or alternatively an unusually large
heat sink with a very poor fixing mechanism may be considered
acceptable if it offers significantly superior cooling in
return.
The
Mainstream User ~
Tagan
continue to set the pace, not this time with a monstrously
large output but instead with a little something different
achieved while still conforming to the necessary industry
regulations, which is more than a lot of other PSU manufacturers
can claim.
Unless
your case allows the internal light show to be shown off
to best effect the iX-eye is a bit like buying a car with
a custom paint job then driving round with a sheet over
it. Fortunately, you can actually get the same unit minus
the lighting by opting for the TG420-U01 which costs £49.99.
If you want a lazy way to add a little illumination to your
PC and equip it with a top-notch PSU at the same time, then
this is the way to go.
The
Enthusiast ~
420
Watts is perhaps a touch small for some hardened tweakers
but you'd be surprised how hard it is to actually get 420-
Watts-worth of electronics inside a PC case.
Even those with more fans than is sensible, a good selection
of lighting and a top-of-the-range graphics card rarely
nudge 350 Watts.
As
for overclocking headroom, well let's just say our 2.4C
system which happily hits 280MHz FSB with a Radeon X800XT,
a Gigabyte of memory, a full compliment of drives and water
cooled off a 4-pin Molex does all this off a 350 Watt PSU
and will run HotCPU's stability tester all week if I want
it to.
Naturally
people take more notice if you tell them you have a 900
Watt power supply cooled by two swamp-boat fans, but it's
overkill for the vast majority of us. The iX-eye is a great
power supply with ample power, eye-catching lights and CE
conformity. There's not really a whole lot more you could
want except maybe a modular design.
We're
always looking for ways to make our reviews fairer. A Right
To Reply gives the manufacturer or supplier of the product
being reviewed a chance to make public comments on what
we've said. They can explain perhaps why they've done the
things we were unhappy with or blow their own trumpet over
the things we loved. It's easy for us to pick a product
apart but sometimes things are done a certain way for very
specific reasons.
Should
Tagan decide to exercise their "Right To Reply",
we'll publish their comments below:
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