About a year ago I was working on a review for a 600W PSU and I remember thinking how much more power could I possibly need, a few months later I was taking a look at a 700W PSU. Well today I'm taking a look at a monster 1100W PSU from Tagan called the TurboJet TG1100-U95. 1100W may seem like a lot of power, but take into consideration the power needs of some of today's high end hardware like dual or quad core CPU's, multi GPU's, HUGE disk arrays etc. and it is easy to see why you might need a beefy 1100W power supply.
The day the unit arrived I never would have guessed the plain brown box it arrived in contained a power supply, this thing was HEAVY. Not wasting any time to see who it was from I tore into the box to find the coolest retail packaging for a piece of hardware I have ever seen. It was obvious Tagan wants to impress from the start. There was no retail box, instead the unit came in a bag a lot like the gift bags you can buy if you cant be bothered to wrap a present for someone, on the back you will find assorted info about the PSU, but it was what's in the bag that impressed me. The PSU is packed in a small leather suitcase, yes I said suitcase...complete with hinges and clasps and all of the other things that would qualify something as a suitcase.
I've already converted the "suitcase" to carry most of my common PC tools, a few extra fans, thermal goo etc. anyway, back to the PSU, as you can see from the picture everything is neatly packaged inside the case. Once you take it all out you will find the PSU, A power cord that is EMI shielded, Velcro straps for keeping things neat and tidy, mounting screws, 4 SATA to molex adapters (more on these in a few minutes) a a splitter that will give you two 4 pin floppy connectors and a manual.
There is no shortage of connections on this which includes a 20+4-pin primary power connector, a 4-pin and 8-pin auxiliary power connector, four PCIE connectors to handle a Quad-GPU's, four Molex connectors and ten SATA connectors, 10 SATA seems like an awful lot, and certainly more than most people need, as a matter of fact 4 molex just doesn't seem like enough. That's were the SATA to molex adapters come in, using the adapters you can change that to 8 molex and 6 SATA or any other combination you can come up with using the four adapters. There is also an additional peripheral molex connector that can be used for video, so now rather than stretching a string of molex leads across your case to plug into the "Ez Plug" for your video you will have a dedicated line with a single molex just for that.. There is also a ground wire that attaches to the inside of the case.
You might have noticed some of the cables have a thick plastic looking sleeve while others have the standard mesh sleeves. The 4 PCIE cables, as well as the peripheral connector, the 20/24 pin 12V connector and the 4/8 pin 12V all have the thick plastic shield this is to reduce EMI.
Everything about this unit screams quality, from the packaging down to the EMI shielding and cable sleeving. Their PSU itself is black with cooling handled by two 80mm fans. You wont find any "bling" like blinking lights, LED fans etc. on this beast. The sleeving on the cables is carried all of the way into the PSU and there is a ring around the opening for the cables that prevents any sharp edges from fraying the sleeving or cutting into the cables. I was kind of surprised to see 2 80mm fans rather than 120mm.
I was expecting a much larger footprint but was surprised to see it wasn't much bigger than the 700W OCZ I reviewed a while back. I don't see anyone using a SFF case needing a 1100W PSU so unless your doing something out of the ordinary with an extremely small case then you should be fine.
I'm usually not one to crack open a power supply for a review, but in this case I just had to, I had to find out if the quality of the outside carried over to the insides.
The first thing that might have caught your eye is the two monster heatsinks inside, they use a finned design to provide as much surface area as possible, 1100W can produce a lot of heat, an efficient cooling method is key. Another sign of quality is wiring, not only is sleeving carried all the way into the housing but everything is secured very neatly and doesn't look like a family of birds have been building a nest inside the housing. Another thing that might catch your eye is the dual transformers.
OK, we have seen the unit itself, now how about some technical specs?
Compatible with Intel EPS12V Ver.2.9 and downwards
Universal motherboard support due to 20+4 pin main power as well as 4-pin & 8-pin +12V power connectors for 20, 20+4, 24+4, and 24+8 configurations
Four 6-pin PCI Express connectors with REMI technology reduce EMI and support multiple graphic cards
Combo-S2M (SATA to IDE) connectors empowering all types of hard drives
Universal AC input range for all countries: 110~240VAC
36 months warranty
Voltage rail specifications:
3.3V-25A
5V-25A
12V1-20A
12V2-20A
12V3-20A
12V4-20A
Combined ratings are:
3.3V & 5V-180W
12V 1-4-960W
Total wattage 1100W
Four 12V rails providing 20A each, that should be more than enough to power just about anything you can throw at it.
Testing:
The test system for this review consists of, Intel P4 CPU 3.40GHz (LGA775), Foxconn 975X7AA-8EKRS2H, 2 X 512MB Kingston HyperX, 2 X Asus EAX1950Pro, 2 x WD 74GB SATA Raptors, 2 x Maxtor 40GB IDE, ASUS DLDVD/RW, Lite On DVD ROM.
Voltage output was recorded with a digital multimeter at 5 different points: boot, Windows start up (when loading screen appears), Idle, Load and shut down. To achieve a full load on the system Folding @ Home and Prime95 were run while converting a couple of home movies to DVD format. Testing at 5 different points should give a better Idea of the stability of this power supply since most fluctuations would occur when switching between different states.
12V
| Post |
12.1 |
| Windows Start Up |
12.2 |
| Idle |
12.1 |
| Load |
12.3 |
| Shutdown |
12.1 |
5V
| Post |
5.1 |
| Windows Start Up |
5.2 |
| Idle |
5.2 |
| Load |
5.3 |
| Shutdown |
5.1 |
3.3V
| Post |
3.2 |
| Windows Start Up |
3.3 |
| Idle |
3.3 |
| Load |
3.4 |
| Shutdown |
3.1 |
This is the most stable PSU I have tested to date, there was VERY little fluctuation in any of the rails, but to be honest my set up barely scratches the surface of what this PSU should be capable of running, it would be interesting to see how this unit would handle a truly loaded up power hungry quad core, quad GPU, multi disk array system. Without having that type of hardware I can only speculate, but considering the build quality and attention to detail I would imagine this thing would chew up pretty much anything you throw its way.
Final Thoughts:
Surely at some point there has to be stopping point, exactly how much power does a home computer user, or even an extreme PC enthusiast really need? If the answer is more power then the TurboJet TG1100-U95 is the solution . This thing is rock solid and oozes quality and performance from every angle. The TurboJet TG1100-U95 isn't cheap at $400+ , but like in all things you get what you pay for. The TurboJet TG1100-U95 is one of those things designed and built for enthusiasts, by enthusiasts, and it shows.
Hardware is advancing almost daily, it seems like every time you turn around something bigger and better is coming out. With those advances come larger power requirements. If you are running the "latest and greatest" CPU or video card you certainly want to have a good "engine" providing the power for them. The TurboJet TG1100-U95 is the supercharged, NOS equipped, fuel injected 454 of choice for my hot rod PC. It performs great, looks even better and should provide ample power for even the most extreme PC enthusiasts for years to come.
