Features
The power-supply is also equipped with Over/Under Voltage Protection, Over-Current Protection, Short-Circuit Protection, Over-Load Protection capabilities that will shut down the power-supply to protect the components in the system.
It is also equipped with a standard 3-pin fan-speed monitor connector for reading the status and speed of the 135mm power-supply cooling fan as the failure of cooling fan can cause damage to the components inside. The fan inside the power-supply has Smart-Fan feature to auto-adjust fan speed according to temperature and Delay-Off feature which keep the fan running after system shut-down to reduce the power supply temperature under 50' C and prolong the life of components inside it.
Cable Connections
The CoolMax CUQ-1200 series feature modular cable design to reduce the number of unnecessary cables inside the case with all cables having nylon netting sleeves for added protection from sharp edges inside computer cases. Cables permanently attached to the power-supply are
- a single ATX Power connector for the system board in 20+4 pin design
- Dual-Socket CPU power connector in 8 pin design for EPS dual-socket system boards
- CPU power connector in 4+4 pin ATX / BTX design.
- two PCI-e graphic power connectors in 6 pin design.
- a single cable with three SATA power connectors.
- 3 pin fan speed monitor cable for power-supply fan.
The rest of the cables can be attached to the color-coded sockets on the power supply. Black sockets provide +3.3V and +5V while the Red sockets provide two +12V rails with 20 Amp each for additional 6 pin or 8 pin PCI-e graphic card power connections. Extra cables are
- Two 8 pin PCI-e graphic card power cables.
- Two 6 pin PCI-e graphic card power cables.
- Two power cables with three 4 pin standard connectors and one floppy connector on each.
- Two power cables with three SATA power connectors each. (Although the manual stated two SATA connectors.)
The 15 page manual included with the power-supply provide clear instructions with illustrations on installing all the cables and the pin-out diagrams for each connection.
Actual Operation
To test the actual load of the power-supply a dual-socket Intel Xeon 3.0GHz (based on Net-Burst design) workstation machine by SuperMicro was used with two ATI Radeon X1950 Pro cards in CrossFire setup. There were six cooling fans inside the case in addition to the power-supply fan to draw on the +12V rails.
The workstation was loaded with Windows XP Pro and ran 3D Mark 2006 Pro benchmarks repeatedly over 72 hours to stress test it. The power-supply came out fine in the end with no issues. It was able to handle continuous full load of approximately 310 watts on the four +12V rails. The power-supply was rated 900 watts peak-power on all +12V rails combined. Since 'Peak-Power' only means for a short amount of time attempting to put this machine on a smaller '350 watt Peak-Power' unit would spell disaster.
In summary, the CoolMax Green Power 1200 watt power-supply is a very well made unit for a hi-end power-hungry machine. The good points goes to the sleeved modular cables and quiet smart-fan operation. The only down side would be in the extended length of the unit. But considering that it was made for a system with multiple CPU and graphic cards, this is not really an issue at all.
