Caporegime
OcUK Product page - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cougar-vtx-650w-80-plus-bronze-power-supply-black-ca-02c-cu.html
Cougar VTX Page - http://cougargaming.com/products/psus/vtx/
Today I will be doing a brief overview of the Cougar VTX650W PSU. This PSU priced at £52.99 is at the lower price range of the PSU market and has strong competition from the likes of SuperFlower, XFX, Bequiet, EVGA etc which are all more recognisable brands.
Box and Accessories
This is all very standard stuff that is supplied. You get a UK mains lead and four silver coloured (should be black I reckon) and a multi-language leaflet covering the specs of the unit and the warranty.
The PSU body
It is not an ugly looking unit being finished in a dark matt grey.
At the rear is the power ON/OFF rocker switch.
This PSU has a single 12V rail with 52A available on it with Bronze rated efficiency certification.
A 120mm temperature controlled fan keeps the unit cool, this PSU does not feature any type of Hybrid fan ON/OFF mode which is not surprising given its price.
Cables
Even at this price range all the cables are braided and the wires within are all black so absolutely no colour showing anywhere.
Connectors include:
• 20+4pin ATX
• 8pin ATX for CPU
• 2 x 6+2pin PCI-E
• 5 X SATA
• 2 X Molex
Noise
Below is a video hopefully given an impression of the fan noise,
Overall it is kind of noticeable and I have certainly used quieter PSUs but again once it is within a case I believe you won't hear it.
Voltages
I do not have a proper test apparatus to accurately measure the voltages from PSU instead all i can do is use Windows based software to measure the rails.
Nothing untoward to report here.
Conclusion
Well it is cheap for a 650W PSU and the cables are finished off nicely, but two things worry me about this PSU and they are,
• The Cougar website makes no mention of this SKU, there are 400/450/500/600/700W versions listed but no 650W version, apparently this is because this SKU is for the UK market only.
• http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/PSUReviewDatabase.html also does not have it listed and thus there is no easy way of looking up who is the actual OEM of this unit (a long search suggests that it is HEC that is the OEM) and that might explain why the model number is HEC-650TC-5WX.
A 3 year warranty is provided for piece of mind and the PSU features a variety of protections such as OCP, SCP, OVP, UVP and OPP certifications to prevent any damage to your hardware, you can find out what these abbreviations mean here - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/power-supplies-101,review-33299-21.html
So in summing up my thoughts are that it is an affordable Bronze rated PSU for lower end/budget orientated systems for people with tight purse strings.