When you first open the retail packaging, you find yourself looking at another box. We’ll open it in just a minute, but it contains the modular cabling for the unit. Also included is the power supply itself, a new power cord, and several Velcro ties for cable management. While it seems to be a small thing, I always like to see these ties included. After all, the cost is minimal to the manufacturer and it helps a lot when it comes to cable management within the enclosure.
The power supply is a slick looking piece and should enhance the interior of the case for those sporting a side window panel. The build is a solid feeling unit with plenty of heft and it has a very shiny finish. The only cabling hard-wired into the PSU are the primary 20+4-pin coupler and a pair of 4-pin auxiliary connections. The two auxiliary connectors also come together for those requiring an 8-pin auxiliary coupler. Everything else is a modular design and you can add cables as you have need of them.
As far as specifications are concerned, this model is designed to handle a constant power draw of 580 watts. The peak appears to be in the vicinity of 636 watts according to the specifications listed on the Mushkin website. This gives a good deal of power for all but the meatiest of systems. As long as you’re not running a quad core and quad GPU system, you should have no difficulties finding enough power in this unit.
Some of the features that this model boasts consist of Active PFC, four 12v power rails, power conditioning (claiming no more than a 1% fluctuation at any system load), automatic fan speed adjustments, and something called “Rail Fusion”. This last feature is something that has only begun showing itself in modern power supplies and is huge in my own opinion. The way it works is reasonably simple; you have four 12v rails each with a set limit to the amount of power can be drawn from that rail. If you set your system up with one rail needing more power than it can handle, another 12v rail will combine with the hungry rail and make sure everything runs smoothly as it should.
Power levels of the rails allow for a 24A draw from the 3.3v rail, a 30A limit to the 5v rail, and a 20A top end for each of the 12v rails but with a total 12v limit of 38A. While not the highest levels I’ve seen, this will allow for a whole lot of upgrades before a new power supply is needed.
Moving to the exterior panel of the unit shows a very minimal layout with only a power cable and primary power toggle switch to content with. Like most units hitting the market today, this one has an automatic adjustment for 110/220v household power systems. As one who has made this mistake before (forgetting to verify the voltage switch), this is a nice addition. The rest of the space is taken up with a mesh material that aids in the exhausting of heat from the system.
Toward the bottom right of the above photo you can also see an LED light with a label that tells you when the Rail Fusion feature is active.
Cooling is provided by a monstrous 140mm fan built into the bottom of the unit. With many manufacturers using smaller fans, this beast will move larger amounts of air with less noise. Add in the fact that the fan automatically adjusts to temperature and power load and you can see that the noise aspect of this PSU will be toward the low end of the spectrum.
Moving to the back of the unit shows the modular plugs used for attaching just the cabling needed for your system. The two blue ones toward the bottom are for the PCI-E cables while the others are used as needed.
You can also take note of that chrome-like finish I was talking about earlier.
Above is a layout of the included cables. You have a total of two PCI-E connectors, eight SATA connectors, six 4-pin Molex and two FDD connections. Something that I have noticed in the past is that the FDD connectors don’t have enough wiring to handle both a floppy drive and the attachment to a motherboard (DFI boards come readily to mind in this area). With the Mushkin Enhanced unit, the FDD connections are on separate cable strands so this won’t be an issue.
