Overclocker Cafe - CoolMax 470watt Aluminum LED PSU Review

CoolMax 470 watt Aluminum LED PSU

Manufacturer: CoolMax Technology
Supplied by: PC-Pitstop
Street Price: ~$95

by Dean Barker (10/27/2002)

Introduction

More and more folks are upgrading their power supply units to deal with the added power demands from any number of case mods or power hungry components. The good old 300 watt PSU just doesn't cut the mustard anymore. With this recent demand for higher wattage PSUs, has come competition. This is a good thing for you and me. What this means is that prices decrease and features increase as different companies battle for market dominance. Today we have a look at the CoolMax entry into the fray. Our test unit is a 470 watt job with an aluminum housing, triple cooling fans, and LED fans. We want to extend our thanks to CoolMax Technology and PC-Pitstop for making this review possible.

The first thing we thought about when we looked at the CoolMax unit was that it is almost exactly like the Kingwin 450 watt PSU we reviewed a few weeks back. Granted there are differences but the original point of manufacture for both units must be the same place.

Looking at the outside of the unit, we immediately see a three fan cooling system. Each fan has a gold colored finger guard. The three fans are set up as two intakes blowing into the unit and over its heatsink and one out for an exhaust.

A three position switch is located on the rear of the unit. This switch allows you to set the fans to automatic, low, or medium.

When in automatic, a temperature probe located in the PSU's heatsink adjusts the fans speed in accordance to the chart below that is on the base of the unit.

The low position was a quiet as you could want a PSU. At three feet I couldn't hear it. The Medium setting while not exactly quiet, was acceptable, especially considering that most of us have CPU fans that will mask the sound of about everything else in the box.

There are three strands of power connectors with ten Molex connectors and two FDD connectors. The Molex power cables measured 36 inches long. I think the extended length of the Enermax lines are a pain in the arse. Glad to see that you won't need to pick up an extra pack of zip ties with this PSU.