Upon opening the box, the first thing we noticed was the sheer size of the fan on this psu. It’s huge! A 140mm fan is impressive all by itself. Give the fan clear blades and cover it with a nice gold grill and it is almost a shame to hide it inside you case. Almost. Truth is, this psu is built rock solid.
It comes with all the wires and attachments required to run on either AMD or Intel motherboards and all the cables required to hook up your various devices. These include 6 molex , 1 four pin P4, the 20 pin motherboard connector, 2 floppy and 1 accessory connector. While it was nice to see the 20 pin motherboard cable sleeved, it got us to thinking about how nice it would have been to have all the cables sleeved. This is nitpicking though since most other psu manufacturers don’t bother to sleeve ANY of their cables.
So let’s take a good look at this psu. While the fan itself is very impressive (did we mention 140mm fan!) the unit itself is no slouch either. The back has a nice grill structure that looks like it should allow the heat to dissipate but the real eye catcher is the heavy-duty fan control dial. Gone are the days of the small fan-speed switch. This dial is large enough to easily get your fingers around, has low, medium, high and auto settings and turns with a satisfying click.
Testing:
It is always nice to see fan speed controllers for those of us who don’t want our computers to be roaring beside us at all times. One thing to point out is that even when this psu was set to high, it made no more noise than many of the 120mm units we have seen. Add to that the ability to turn the fan down as you wish and you end up with all the performance of a 140mm fan without the noise. Add to that the fact that the Taurus has over voltage protection to help prevent short circuits on all output levels and you have a psu built with the cautious in mind. Speaking as one of the cautious, that feature gives much needed peace of mind!
We at Hardware hounds have been monitoring this unit for the past week and keeping track of the voltage readings on a regular basis each day. When the week was finished, we averaged out the results and here are the results:
+12 volt: 12.416
+5 volt: 5.09
+3.3 volt: 3.392
Nice solid readings that are right up to specs.
Conclusion:
The Coolmax Taurus 140mm Silent Switching power supply has really raised the bar for the rest of the psu world. It is a well built powerful unit. Add to that the giant fan and the ability to control fan speed and you have a winner in our books.
Pros:
• 140mm fan
• Over-voltage protection
• Solid fan-speed controller
• Quiet for it’s size
• Good, solid performer
Cons:
• none
For the first time, we here at Hardware hounds feel this product deserves:
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