| Article Index |
|---|
| Tagan 700W EasyCon XL Series ATX Power Supply Review |
| Page 2 - Modular Cables |
| Page 3, Power Output and Conclusion |
| All Pages |
Tagan were one of the first manufacturers to bring us a
modular cable power supply a few years ago. Today at OzHardware we take a closer look at the EasyCon XL Series, in the ‘not too over the top’ 700W guise.
The first thing that really hits you in the face when you first take possession of this power supply is the packaging. To say it’s extravagant is rather an understatement. Most power supplies, even rather high-powered top of the line models come in a cardboard box, they’ll look fancy for sure, but it’ll still be a cardboard box at the end of the day. The Tagan EasyCon arrives in its own specially designed paper gift bag, complete with carry handles. Inside the bag however it just gets better (or worse, depending on your point of view). Inside we find a leather-bound chest of drawers, yes that’s right, a small little chest of drawers, inside of which we find the power supply, as well as all the cables and accessories waiting for us.
I personally think the packaging is a bit over the top, and would rather have saved the $10 or so worth of packaging and had it taken off the price of the power supply and have it come in a plain cardboard box, but the good thing about these drawers is they can be used for whatever you want once the power supply is installed into your case. One likely use for the drawers is going to be to store all the modular cables that the EasyCon comes with that you won’t end up needing, the list of included cables and connectors is as follows:
- 1 x 20+4 Pin Main Power Connector
- 1 x 4+4 Pin ATX12V Connector
- 2 x 6-Pin PCI-Express Power Connectors
- 6+1 x 4-Pin Molex power Connectors (1 for VGA)
- 8 x 5-Pin SATA Power Connectors
- 1 x Ground Wire
- 1 x Molex to FDD Y-Splitter Cable
As you can see, there is no shortage of cables and connectors, which is a very good thing, the EasyCon will have power available to 14 drives out of the box, SLI support thanks to the dual 6-Pin PCI-Express connectors (though even this won’t be enough connectors for some video cards in SLI), as well as support for just about any motherboard on the market with the 20+4Pin, and 4+4Pin main power connectors.
All the cables are twisted together to reduce the mess and clutter inside your case, this also aids in reducing noise and interference. The PCI-Express and VGA Molex cables are braided for EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) reduction, as well as including ferrite noise filters. The included wall-outlet power cable is also shielded with a noise filter installed. Tagan seem very adamant about no noise or interference on the lines.
The modular cable design of the Easycon XL allows you to easily choose how many or how few cables to have in your system. On the front of the power supply there are 6 outlets for the drive power cables to clip into, and two separate connectors for each of the PCI-Express power cables.
There are no floppy connectors included in the cable bundles, instead a separate Molex to floppy Y-Splitter is included so you can still hook up that floppy drive if you need to. With the decline in the use and inclusion of floppy drives in new PCs, we can see a lot more power supplies being released sans-floppy connectors. The only other cable included with the EasyCon is a ground wire cable, which is to be attached via a screw to a motherboard mounting hole, again to give extra stability.
The EasyCon XL is cooled by a massive and extremely quiet 135mm see-through fan on the base of the unit blowing inwards. The fan remains quiet by only running at a speed of around 650rpm when the PSU is under light load, when under higher loads of 60+% the speed begins to increase up to around 1750rpm when the PSU is up to 100% load. Unfortunately there is no feedback wire for the fan to report to the motherboard, which I find a strange thing to be missing from a power supply of this calibre. At slow speeds Tagan reports that the fan is running at around 21dB, and only 26dB at full speed. When we were running it we could barely hear it at all on either low or full load, so we could barely tell the difference, and it certainly wasn’t louder than a standard Intel Core 2 Duo CPU fan, so noise really won’t be a problem with this PSU, and makes it ideally suited for Home Theatre PCs or people after a near-silent computer.
Getting to the actual power output, there are 4 separate +12V Rails to aid system stability, able to deliver up to 20A per rail, which is quite substantial but around what you’d expect for a 700W model. When all 4 +12V rails are being maxed out they can deliver a combined total of 56A, as well as 28A each for the +3.3V and +5V rails. This would be more than enough power for most high end SLI systems with quite a few drives and high-end components in there. It may start to struggle on SLI systems with the very high-end cards though. Active PFC (power factor correction) is also standard on the EasyCon XL series to help further reduce noise and maintain stable power levels.
Conclusion:
I think the packaging is a little over the top, but within that packaging you get a very capable and reasonably priced power supply with all the features and connectors you’ll ever need (and then some!), and one with a large focus on providing very stable and clean (noise free) power to the components in your system, all while remaining very quiet to boot. The modular cable system is excellent with so many options an combinations you’re sure to find one that will keep your case nice and clutter free. If you’re in the market for a quality, high featured power supply with good cable management, this should definitely be on your short list.
OzHardware Rating – 8/10
This product can be purchased online at www.techbuy.com.au (Direct Link)
