When
you look back over the last couple of years, you won't really
find that much changing to the power supplies you see in retail
stores, more often than not, simply an increase of power capabilities.
Some added more fans, but the general basic technology never really
changed all that much until just recently.
350w
power supplies are probably considered the bottom end these days
and you can easily find wattages all the way up to 600w or more.
Power supply manufacturers have increased the wattage to handle
the ever increasing demands of the modern enthusiast PC, however
increasing power usage in the form of Watts isn't strictly
the issue. The real issue is that with high powered systems having
a lot of power hungry devices requiring power all at once there
was often a severe drop in the power available to the system at
any given time, especially on the 12v rail, so while the overall
draw of even an SLI gaming rig might only be around the 400w mark,
a 500w or more PSU is needed to ensure enough juice gets to the
system and the peripherals at all times. Enter ATX12V which has
2x12V rails instead of just a singular 12v rail, which splits
the power into two separate 12v rails, one for the main system
and one for your add-in devices such as graphics cards, hard drives
and optical drives.
One
of the first manufacturers to apply this technology to their units
were Tagan, and today we have one of their power supplies on the
test bench, which doesn't stop at just ATX12V, but supports
multiple form factors (including BTX) and also has quite a few
other nice touches and nifty features to boot; introducing the
Tagan TG480-U22 “2Force” 480w PSU.
Specifications
and Features
•
New 12V rail Split (ATX 2.x) and Combined (ATX 1.3) Technology
can easily be switched manually
•
Two independent EMI shielded PCI-Express VGA connectors
•
Four integrated Serial ATA power connectors for SATA hard disks
•
Universal connectors 20 or 24 and 4 or 8pin for all kind of motherboards
•
Extra quiet-cooling design (22dB-27dB) with an additional metal-net
on top, reduces temperature inside by 10C-15C
•
Active PFC for more perfomance and less degrading radiation
•
Gold plated contacts long life and less transition resistance
•
Twisted cables for better EMI and easier handling
•
Additional ground connector for better safety and trouble-free
audio transmission
•
OVP, OCP, SCP and OT (over-load/-voltage/-temperature and shortcut-protection)
to protect your power supply and components
•
Universal wide range input for all countries (100-250 Vac)
•
PS/2
Dimensions (WxHxD): 150mmx86mmx160mm
•
True
480w (580w peak for 60 seconds)
•
36
Months Warranty
The
box for the Tagan TG480-U22 comes in a black matt embossed format,
with a picture of a stealth fighter on the front to indicate
the quiet nature of the product. The rear lists all the special
features of the PSU. Opening the box we find everything neatly
compartmentalized and/or tied up.
The
extras included are quite extensive for a non-modular power
supply and come in their own separate box. We have a packet
with five Velcro cable ties in different colours as well as
two plastic black cable ties. Also in this box are five (4+1
extra) screws and the shielded and braided power cord, aimed
at reducing EMI/noise. We also have one the best manuals I've
ever seen come with a power supply. It goes into a lot of detail,
but not overly so, allowing you to read and get on with it without
feeling like you need Steven Hawkins to come and translate it
for you.
The
unit itself comes in matt black aluminium, and we'll start our
tour at the rear. As expected we find an exhaust fan, no flashy
lights or anything, just a simple fan complete with a stainless
steel grill (the preferred option to that of a pressed out grill)
and Tagan badge. The actual power switch is a big chunky item
which is great since 9 times out of ten you will be looking
for it with your fingers. Below is the power inlet and between
them both is a selector switch. While some power supplies carry
a similar switch to adjust fan speeds, the purpose of this switch
is to set the PSU into either ‘split' or ‘combined'
power modes. More on this a little later but the purpose of
the switch should be obvious and makes Tagan's power supplies
the first to support both split and singular rails.
On
top of the PSU we find a mesh grill which aims at reducing the
internal temperature passively. The front of the unit also features
a badged and grilled fan for intake and of course the exit point
for the cables.
Times
have changed from the days of using just plain Molex and floppy
connectors, we now have quite a few connectors in use at anyone
time, to which Tagan have responded very well indeed. The first
leads we will go into however is the Molex leads. 8 Molex connectors
on 4 leads are included, with two of the leads also having 2
floppy connectors. All 4 leads are twisted, and while not the
same as being sleeved, do help to reduce the overall messy look
and in theory should help improve airflow in the case. The downside
is that the twisting has drawn the cables tighter together and
reduced the overall length, and I did find that plugging in
an IDE HD on the bottom tray of my Antec P160 case was about
an inch short.
The
Tagan TG480-U22 is a SLI ready power supply, and has two separate
6 pin PCIe connectors ready to power your graphics cards. Both
cables, unlike the Molex cables, are braided and shielded against
RFI/EMI. This makes them both attractive and easy to route.
Tagan have also seen fit to include a ground cable, again to
reduce noise. Tagan also have 4 SATA power connectors onboard,
and like the Molex connectors they come on two leads of 2 connectors,
twisted cabling. While 8 Molex connectors may at first seem
a little low, when you consider that 4 SATA hard drives and
2 PCIe graphics cards are already catered for.
To
truly support multiple motherboards in this day and age, a PSU
needs to support both 20 pin and 24 pin ATX connectors, as well
as 4 pin P4 and 8 pin +P4, and it's here that Tagan have
a wonderful solution. No adaptors in sight, the connectors are
modular. Looking at the ATX connector first, we can see that
it is a 20 pin black connector with a sliding, side connecting
4 pin plug to transform it into a 24 pin EATX connector. This
cable is sleeved and also has a little instruction tag to describe
the sliding connector. The P4/+P4 (P8) connector functions in
a similar manner, with the cable able to split into two 4 pin
connectors; the P4/+P4 connector cable is also sleeved.
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