If your PSU is a $10 unit, and you are wondering why your rig keeps crashing.... or you have just upgraded to a new CPU, upgraded your video card, added in a couple of new hard drives... and your PSU is getting VERY hot, it likely simply cannot handle the increased load... those are the reasons you buy a unit like the TurboJet from Tagan. This unit will have you covered for 90% of your upgrades (these are 6pinPCI-Express cables, not the newer 8 pin, so keep that in mind)! This power supply buys you peace of mind in knowing that it can handle anything you throw at it. Very few machines would be able to tap an 1100 watt power supply for extended periods, so rest assured you have headroom for those overclocked/volt modded cards and motherboards. Think of it as the chef that does not sweat at the "all you can eat" sushi buffet. Calm, cool, collected.... even in the lunch rush!.
From Tagan's website:
"Tagan TurboJet Series offers solutions for high-end gaming, video design, and server applications.
Record-breaking: Over 1000 Watt of continuous power for Quad GFX engines and built for multi-core server systems. Patented EMI Shield for PCI Express, Ground Wire, PCI-Express socket with built in grounding and high efficiency. Look no further for PSU with highest quality and best protection for your machine.
Supports NVIDIA SLI and ATI Cross Fire.G80 Tested & Ready.Patented SATA to Molex connectors for additonal storage support."
Read on, intrepid advenutrer! This is going to be a rather unique scribed journey into the product that is the Turbojet PSU. I don't want to waste your time with "load" and "stability" characteristics of this unit for 2 main reasons:
- I dont have enough equipment to "load" this PSU. 1KW of consumption is insane! And trust me when I say this, that a vast majority of the people reading this article will *never* touch the capacity on this supply using todays technology.
- Another well read and highly popular "(R)igid and {S}tiff" website has, in my humble opinion, the best testing methodology I've seen to date, with regards to power supply specs, stability, component build quality, and load/stability testing under reproducable conditions.
This review is going to be concentrating on the build design of the unit, how flexible it is on implementation, tricks that I learned while using it, and ways of wrangling the cables on this unit. Remember... this is a modding site, and I'm going to review this PSU from a modder's point of view, and hopefully bring up things that are important to you. Things that will make you think and look at this unit with all the possibility that it holds
"Record Breaking" - it was record breaking when it was released, however there are higher capacity PSU's on the market now.
"Power for Quad GFX systems and built for multicore server systems" - with 4 of the 6pin PCI-E power leads, compute your quad graphics cards correctly! ;) I believe this is for the Nvidia 7950 GX2 series of cards.
EMI Shielding for the PCI-Express cables (the oblong lump that you see before the connector is a "choke" that helps to clean the signal prior to going into your graphics cards. as well as the impeccable cable sheathing metal braid surrounded with a clear rubber insulator) are really well done and feel like quality. .
"PCI-Express socket with built in grounding and high efficiency" - man, are they paying attention to the high end users or what? For the user that just dropped several Benjamins on their graphics solution, seeing vendors take this kind of time and engineering on the power going to my video solution just gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over...
The unit arrives in a unique presentation for packaging... it comes in a briefcase folks. This thing *means* "business"! The briefcase is about the size of a lunch pail, but holds the PSU, cabling, documentation and the ever present wall cable in stylish aplomb. This really is a refreshing approach to set your unit apart from the other high end offerings from other vendors.The packaging literally screams, "Here... take my handle! Let's go home and fix your power problems!" I like a confident presentation like that! I'm sure that the packaging costs quite a bit more than other vendors... but for this unit, it seems to set the tone for a "much above average" user experience.
As I unpacked the unit, I was immediately intrigued by the cable arrangement. Specifically, the PCI-E power and the secondary motherboard power cables. They were wrapped in what looks like a metal sleeving, that is then surrounded by a smoke colored rubber tubing! Very appealing! Pulling the cables apart, the tube encased lines though exhibited a very stiff feel, and that gave me cause for worry. "What if I cannot bend them into the shape I need? What if the cables need more pliability? Is this going to botch up my mod?" Well, my fears were quelled when I started installing it. The power cables that go to the SATA/4pin molex headers were all spiral twisted. Very nice attention to detail! Also, they have an exraordinary number of native SATA power connections on the PSU. If that number does not work for you, or you have a mixed power need on the connections, Tagan ships their unit with SATA to 4pin Molex converters! Very handy! Very handy indeed!!!
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