![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , July 21, 2008
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Koolance PSU-1300ATX-12N Liquid Cooled Power Supply
We put the screws to Koolance's new 1300 watt power supply that takes advantage of being fully immersed in a non-conductive cooling liquid. Yes, we test at 100% load and 8-hour Torture Tests! Then we tear it apart to show you the insides. We almost cried.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the Koolance 1300w is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While normally none of these items is a real make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing and use more efficient.
The first thing that became apparent from the Koolance’s massive packaging was that this power supply was big, and heavy. To give users an idea of exactly how heavy, the shipping weight of the unit tips the scales at over 21lbs which is more than the previous Koolance 1200w unit! Users should exercise caution when installing this unit and follow the installation instructions provided by Koolance in order to properly secure this unit given its weight and special requirements.
Even though the packaging of the Koolance 1300w is bare we went ahead and checked for the certifications that we have come to expect from quality power supplies in this capacity range. What we found, however, was a big goose egg at the time of writing as the Koolance 1300w was not SLI, CrossFire, or 80Plus certified. It is worth mentioning here that CF and SLI certification does not happen overnight and this is a very new product. Certainly though, a 1300w power supply should be capable of powering most any SLI or CrossFire configuration (and the CWT PUC platform this unit is based on is certified for SLI up to GTX 280 Tri-SLI) and we will see if this unit performs as other PUC based units have shortly. Also, while the Koolance 1300w is not 80Plus certified, the CWT PUC platform is with certain variants making it to the Bronze level of Climate Savers 2.
Finally, the warranty on the Koolance 1300w is stated as being 3 years as seen on Koolance's webpage. This warranty is certainly on the shorter end of what we have seen offered and for the price of the unit is certainly disappointing, though a longer warranty would not guarantee a quality product and this is an upgrade over the 2 year warranty that the 1200w model had.
The Koolance 1300w power supply is the second most powerful power supply we have seen to date trailing only the Ultra X3 1600w and would be the most powerful at 1700w if we were in a country that used 220v AC input. However, since we are in North America and only a small percentage of users would have the necessary and proper 220v connection for this unit we will be focusing on this unit as a 1300w product. One of the first things we notice about this unit is that its entire capacity could in theory be available on the 12v rails which is certainly an interesting application that we have seen from the Thermaltake Toughpower 1200w and the BFG ES-800. However, like the Thermaltake Toughpower 1200w this unit is based on the CWT PUC series and has a minimum load requirement so getting 1300w on the 12v rails alone would be unlikely for most users. Paired with this exceptional 12v capacity is 8, yes 8, PCI-Express connectors evenly split between 6-pin and 8-pin PCI-Express connectors. This places two of each on 12v3 and 12v4 leaving the 2 EPS connectors on 12v2 and the Molex/SATA connectors on 12v1. This arrangement should make this unit capable of physically supporting any SLI or CrossFire configuration on the market, and realistically should be sufficient for most to come in the near future even when coupled with an extremely overclocked processor, with ease.
Once we open the Koolance 1300w packaging we find the power supply, modular cables, power cord, temperature sensor cable, pass through bracket, mounting bracket, and mounting screws. However the unit DOES NOT ship with the nozzles necessary to connect the unit to your liquid cooling system (in our case an aged Exos-2 that has served us well for years). The obvious reason being that people use different diameters of tubing and Koolance would have to pack all the possible size nozzles in with the unit (although I am sure some sort of alternative could be worked out). For the majority of users this should not be an issue but if you are expecting to get everything you need to just hit the ground running you will find yourself short two critical parts unless you click the link under the unit that says "add nozzles." The included user manual is good and fills in most of the blanks that were previously left by the packaging. The manual weighs in at 10 pages and the installation portion is the complete and important to read. Obviously, this facet is necessitated by the unit’s unique nature and as such is more developed than in most user manuals. The manual revision we have is the v1.0 and so some of the information contained within is undergoing revision as indicated by the included addendum with our unit. While the manual gives us the cable count and power specifications for each rail it fails to indicate which 12v rails run to which connector on the modular interface, how the 12v rails are divided up, or what the cumulative 12v capacity is. Adding this in the user manual would cost little and would aid in clarifying the unit’s setup so users don’t overload one 12v rail as the 12v rail configuration is not easily determined and complex as seen above. We hope this will not be overlooked in the future.