HEC Compucase Cougar 1000CM Modular PSU
Cables, Connectors & Internal Components
Published: 23rd October 2009 | Source: HEC | Price: £147.08 |
Cables & Connectors
With the exception of a few manufacturers, most modular PSU's available these days are what I'd call hybrid-modular. That is, most - but not all of the cables on the unit are modular. This is exactly the approach that HEC have taken with the Cougar 1000CM, hard-wiring the cables you are most likely to use into the unit, while providing the rest as modular cables.
A total of eight modular plugs protrude from the front of the unit, with four dedicated to graphics card power (Red) and the remaining four (black) for use with the SATA/Molex modular cables. Interestingly HEC have used 8-Pin PCI-E style connectors for all of the plugs which could potentially lead to cables being inserted into the wrong connectors. Of course, all plugs on the cables are colour coded, but as I can attest to myself, when inserting new cables into a PSU that is already installed in a chassis it can be hard to see exactly what goes where.
I've desperately wanted to make comment on the sleeving used on the cables, and now we're finally at the right section of the review I can. THEY LOOK AWESOME! Maybe it's a Marmite thing, but the combination of orange, white and black in an almost milk snake like arrangement really looks unique and would suite a wide range of modified PC themes. Additionally the quality of the sleeving is also extremely good with the very tightly woven mesh completely hiding the wires beneath while also extending as far up the cables as possible.
Hard-wired into the unit are two PCI-E graphics card cables (one 6-Pin, the other 6+2Pin), an 8-Pin EPS-12v connector (with a 4-Pin P412v connector piggy backed) and of course a 20+4Pin ATX connector. This pretty much ensures that the Cougar 1000CM will work with any system both old and new with the exception of some server/high-end motherboards that require two EPS-12v connectors.
| HEC Cougar 1000CM Connectors | ||
| ATX Connector | Native | 1x 20+4 Pin |
| EPS-12v / P4-12v Connector(s) | Native | 1x 4 Pin / 1x 8 Pin |
| Molex Connectors | Modular | 7x |
| Floppy Disk Connectors | Modular | 1x |
| SATA Connectors | Modular | 8x |
| PCI-E Connectors | Native / Modular | 3x 6 Pin / 3x 6+2 Pin |
The total number of modular plugs is quite evenly weighted with a eight SATA connectors and seven Molex connectors both of which are spread over a total of four cables. While this means that you can indeed have every cable provided with the unit all plugged in at the same time, it could potentially hinder any cable routing attempts where having more cables allows you to route them individually to the components you need to power.
Internal Components
Moving on to the internals now and at first glance, the internals of the Cougar 1000CM look quite neatly arranged. Very few cables can be seen running wild around the unit, and all cables entering the unit from the hard-wired connectors are bunched tightly together. The only thing which is a bit of an eyesore is the large quantities of white glue used to make sure than none of the components touch.
The first thing to notice here is obviously the two large transformers. These each service three of the six +12v rails inside the unit making the 1000CM one of very few dual transformer designs we've had the opportunity of reviewing. Over to the left of these and hidden beneath an angled black heatsink is yet another transformer, only smaller and responsible for powering the +5vSB rail.
Two DC-DC daughter-boards positioned right at the edge of the PCB are responsible for stepping down the main +12v output into +3.3v and +5v outputs for the rest of the rails. It has to be said that these don't look quite as impressive as those used on some other high-end units (such as the HX850w) which also feature several solid state capacitors. Also in the image above-right we can see the mains filtering circuit which consists mainly of a ferrite inductor.
A single, fairly small capacitor manufactured by Taiwanese company Teapo with specs 420v / 560uF / 85c has been installed on the primary side of the unit. Over on the secondary side I had absolutely no joy identifying the origin of the capacitors, but at the very least from the pictures we can see that they are rated at 105c. In all honesty the quantity of (or lack of) caps inside the unit is a tad on the worrying side, but obviously we'll find out exactly how it performs over on the next page.
Although the label would have you believe that the installed fan is manufactured by HEC, the model number DFS132512H actually relates to a model manufactured by Young Lin Tech. Even more interesting is that this fan isn't 14cm in size as indicated in all of HEC's specifications, it's actually 13.5cm just like most other recent PSU's. The rest of the specs are as follows:
• Weight: 175
• Size (mm): 135x135x25
• Blades: 7
• Noise Output: 36 dBA
• Airflow (CFM): 91.16cfm (154.98 m³/h)
• Power: 3 Watt (0.25A)
• Size (mm): 135x135x25
• Blades: 7
• Noise Output: 36 dBA
• Airflow (CFM): 91.16cfm (154.98 m³/h)
• Power: 3 Watt (0.25A)
Now on to the testing!
Most Recent Comments
shame he didnt destroy it... Horrible results for such a costly piece of hardware...Quote
It's a shame that peformance wasn't better. I would definately have bought one of these units for my rig otherwise. Maybe if they sort out some issues I might get one when I get around to painting my case orange.Quote
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='Socks'
shame he didnt destroy it... Horrible results for such a costly piece of hardware...
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Luckily the OCP/OPP kicked in before anything went "POP" every time. So at least the safety is there.Quote
still... no match for corsair or cm psus.. especially for the money...its like buying thermal take watercooling kit cos it "looks nice"....
looks over performance = FAIL!Quote
looks over performance = FAIL!Quote
Compucase have responded to the review with the following statement:
Furthermore, Compucase have also agreed to send us a revised unit when they are available.Quote
Dear James,
Firstly I would like to thank you and Overclock3d for reviewing our Cougar power supply posted 23rd October 2009. Admittedly it was not the kind of review that we were hoping for nor expecting.
Action had to be taken by Compucase HEC, this industry relies heavily on reviews and word of mouth, for us to not do anything was unthinkable, therefore the review went directly to our R&D department and the product manager in Taiwan where they took the review apart paragraph by paragraph.
The good news is a revised version will be going into production next week of the 1000w, that will address the ripple issue that you highlighted as well as some other smaller points you brought to our attention.
I firmly believe this has been a worthwhile exercise that has allowed us to revisit, review and correct the issues you highlighted, we wanted to demonstrate the level of support you could expect from Compucase HEC, being the “new kid on the block” (excuse the pun) we have to work that little bit harder to prove ourselves.
Mark Szachno
Compucase UK Ltd.
Furthermore, Compucase have also agreed to send us a revised unit when they are available.Quote
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