Overclocker Cafe - Tuniq Miniplant 950w PSU Review

Tuniq Miniplant 950w PSU

Manufacturer: Tuniq
Supplied by: Tuniq
Street Price: $250 (USD)

by Dean Barker (12/28/2007)

Introduction

Tuniq's latest release to the power supply market is their Miniplant line. Offered in 950, 850 and 750 watt sizes, the Tuniq Miniplant is aimed at bringing clean high wattage PSUs to market in standard PS2 size. We have all seen the extended length 1000 watt units that can be 200mm or more long. While desirable, there are a lot of folks who own cases that these long units simply won't fit in who still need a high wattage PSU. Enter Tuniq's Miniplant. Adding a number of features found on its higher end Ensemble PSU to the Miniplant, they have come up with a very practical high quality alternative for anyone looking for a smaller unit. Today we have a sample of the Tuniq Miniplant in 950 watt trim on the bench courtesy of Tuniq. Let's start out with the specs.

Specifications

Power Output: 950 watts

Certified 80+ Efficiency

Observed dimensions: 159 x 150 x 85mm

Bottom mounted 135mm cooling fan

Two 8-pin and two 6-pin PCI-E connectors

Active PFC

All cables sleeved

Over/Under Voltage Protection

Over Current Protection

Short Circuit Protection

Over Load Protection

Offered in 950w, 850w and 750w sizes

Offered in Silver or Black color scheme

NVidia SLI Certified

What you get

Included with the Tuniq Miniplant we find the basic PSU fare. The unit, wall cable and two 8 pin to 6 pin PCI-E adapter cables represent the bulk of what's in the box. We also find a manual, mounting screws and ten 100mm zip ties for keeping the extra line out of the way. The last is nice but I would have liked to seen the 150mm hook and loop wraps that were included with the Tuniq Ensemble. But you can't have everything.

Mini-me?

Calling the Tuniq Miniplant is a bit of a misnomer. The Miniplant is a standard sized power supply. However, many high wattage units are as long as 220mm in some instances. So, it's clear that Tuniq is really wanting to convey that the Miniplant isn't an 'extended' sized PSU. The Tuniq package has color option listed on the side as 'Black' and 'Silver'. Our review unit's package was tagged as black but it is obviously gunmetal.

The Miniplant shares the same bottom mounted 135mm intake fan as it's bigger brother, the Tuniq Ensemble. Perhaps "shares" is or is not the right word. We couldn't find much documentation on the fan such as if it shared the same variable rate speed or fan off feature of the Ensemble. Under power, regardless of load or temperature conditions, I was unable to discern any speed (aka noise level) change with this 135mm blower so I can't say for sure one way or the other.