The 140mm fan PSU - continued:

    Moving along to the bottom of the PSU, you can see the large 140mm (14CM) fan. It is clear by design, and looks as if it already has spots in the outer frame for LED's to be embedded into it. Let's hope we see some 140mm LED fans soon huh?

(15) Bottom of PSU	(16) Closer...

    One thing I immediately noticed is the finish on this PSU. While not automotive quality or anything, it is without a doubt, quite beautiful. That should be a great selling point too. Unfortunately in my Lian Li case, you can't see the PSU, but oh well. This PSU will be in my AMD machine for a long time to come.

(17) Reflection

The connectors:

    To save myself some trouble, the cables seem to be identical in length, and have the same number of connectors as the Taurus fanless PSU. So I'll quote myself from the previous page...

    "Along with 1 serial ATA connector, there are 6 Molex connectors, 2 Berg connectors, (Floppy connector) and 3 mainboard connecters that you may or may not need. The cables are tremendously long, so you shouldn't have any problems in full tower cases. However in smaller cases, you may have some trouble trying to hide the wires. Even though only the ATX power connector is the only one sleeved, it gives at a better impression from the start compared to some off brand cheapie PSU's that are out there.

    Since I previously mentioned the wires were long, I thought some might like a breakdown. So here are some quick measurements for you. The ATX power one is 20" long. The two sets of wires with the Molex (2 each) and Berg (1)  connectors are around 32" long. The length to the first Molex on the wires is about 21". The other wire with just the two Molex connectors is the same length as the ones with the Berg connectors. Minus the Berg connector coming out of the last Molex on the chain. I hope that made sense to you..."

    You "gotta connect 300 things to the inside of my computer people" may or may not, be let down by only 6 Molex connectors. I think there possibly could have been two more at least myself for this wattage, but I guess you can't have everything...Nor can you expect to easily hide this many wires in your case. Although the magic number 6, should be fine for most really.

    I don't however, view the Molex number as a bad thing especially on the fanless PSU. I would personally consider that quite a niche product anyway. As we'll see below, you'll need some good airflow, otherwise your case temps are going to go through the roof!

(18) The wires	(19) All cables

The back of the PSU:

    Getting back on track with the 140mm fan PSU, we have your standard AC power socket, an On/Off switch, a Voltage change switch, and a fan control knob. The fan can be put into 4 different modes. They are, Low, Medium, High, and Auto. I only tested with High and Auto, and the noise level was quite low. In High mode it does get to be a little noticeable, but since the fan is large, you don't have that high pitched fan whine that would drive some nuts. Low is damn near silent, and Medium is absolutely bearable as well. Don't let me lead you to believe the when the fan is on High, it's bad. In fact, if we compare it to 80mm fan PSU's I've heard, 90% more 80mm fan PSU's are louder. And since I took neither PSU apart, I don't have access to a sticker on the fan. My educated guess though would be about 23 dBA on the High setting.

(20) Back of PSU

Testing:

    Temperatures in Celsius, and voltages were polled every 3 seconds using MBM 5. Idle is the test PC turned on and left alone in windows XP for 1 hour. After that, load was accomplished by Sandra Max burn in test, and running prime 95 for an additional hour. There were 2 intake fans at 7 volts, 1 exhaust fan at 7 volts. Lian Li 6010 case. Tt Silent Boost. AMD 1700+ JIUHB @ 2.2 GHz. (200x11) DFI NF2 Ultra 400 rev A.


  How to read the tables:

     Reading across, is of course a breakdown of each respective PSU. Looking down in the columns, in the case of the temperatures, the lowest temperature is bolded, and reversed in color. In respect to the voltages, the PSU which is closest to the target voltage, AND has the smallest fluctuation of voltage is bolded and reversed in color. In both tables, if there is a tie in that column, all are reversed and bolded. The highest temps will be in Cyan and Black.


  Case temps:

  Voltages:

    Note that all PSU's fluctuate in voltages slightly. I thought I'd do some highlighting of voltages here too. Voltages closest to the target voltage, and have the least fluctuation, has their cell is in white. If it is a tie, all the tying cells will be in white then.  How to read: The average voltage is the top number in the cell, and the highs and lows are recorded below. The column with the worst, err, not the best voltages, will be in Cyan and Black. And no, it's not rocket science, look at the table closer yourself, and not just the colors. All are within 5% which is more or less an industry standard...

Summary:

    Both COOLMAX PSU's have very good voltages free from any real fluctuations that would cause anything to go awry. Unfortunately, the real test of a PSU is time. We all can't wait a year to see what happens, but in defense sort of, I've used the Taurus 140mm fan PSU for over 7 months now ,without a single glitch, or lockup on my machine. COOLMAX seems to have a heck of a lot of things right in making PSU's, and especially giving you adapters for future, well, current PCI-E boards. To get back into the whole frame of things, if you want quiet and quality in a PSU, than look no further than the Taurus line of PSU's. They are quite heavy, and solid as well.

COOLMAX Taurus Fanless PSU Pros:   • 0 dBa because it has no fan   • Stable voltages   • Includes SATA and 24 pin mobo connector Cons:   • Your temps will go up unless you have adequate airflow	COOLMAX Taurus 140mm Fan PSU   Pros:     • Very quiet large fan     • Adjustable fan speeds and auto fan speed     • Stable voltages     • Includes SATA and 24 pin mobo connector     Cons:     • Packaging mislabel
"Stable and absolutely silent!"	"A quiet PSU worth serious consideration!"

Closing:

    I'd like to thank COOLMAX for sponsoring both of these quiet PSU's for this write up. COOLMAX has a pretty large line of PSU's, and backup peripherals. Take a look for yourself on their homepage. At the time of writing, those of you looking for COOLMAX PSU's, I've found the fanless PSU, starting at 350 watts, on pricewatch just above $100 USD. The 140mm fan PSU is around $60+ USD. Newegg, and well as many other partners of COOLMAX, carry this line of PSU's. If I were you, I'd really consider having a backup, or heck, even a new PSU from COOLMAX on the table. I knew a long time ago that this will be a company to watch for. Look around the web for other COOLMAX reviews. COOLMAX does make some good products.

    Ok, while this isn't my most thorough review I've ever done, I hope you enjoyed this little dual COOLMAX PSU review anyway. Thanks for coming by! Until next time...

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