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Published: June 10, 2009 | Source: BFG Technology | Author: James Napier

BFG EX-1200 (1200W) Modular PSU

Introduction
 
Lake Forest, Illinois, USA – 2002, a small company going by the name of BFG Technologies emerges offering tweaked out versions of Nvidia’s latest and greatest graphics cards. Speculation rises on whether the name BFG is a tribute to the “Big Fucking Gun” 9000 found in DOOM, a clever acronym of Best For Games or maybe even a blast from the past of someone’s favourite ’80’s bedtime story, the Big Friendly Giant! Regardless, the combination of heavily overclocked graphics cards along with lifetime warranties and a ‘twitching’ mascot brandashing an extremely large plasma gun certainly goes down well with the gaming crowd and quickly makes BFG one of the most recommended manufacturers in the industry.
 
Fast forwarding to more recent times and natural progression has seen BFG branch out into new areas. While still remaining true to their gaming roots, the BFG repertoire now contains Motherboards, Power Supplies and even pre-built Gaming Systems. Of course, I’d like to tell you that today I’m going to be reviewing one of their Phobos Elite $8000 base units, but unfortunately I’ve never been quite that lucky. Instead on the table today we have one of BFG’s latest PSU’s to hit the market; the EX-1200. Here’s what BFG have to say about their latest powerhouse…
 
Introducing The Modular, Frequency Conversion Power Supply: The EX Series

BFG Tech has taken a whole new approach to computer power supplies with the EX Series. Most power supplies are inefficient at lower loads, making it difficult to plan for future expansion while maintaining a green initiative. By using Frequency Conversion technology, the EX power supply can actually emulate virtually any size power supply and therefore be at least 80% efficient, even with loads as low as 10% of the unit’s maximum capability. EX power supplies have the lowest minimum load requirements and the best +5VSB efficiency on the market. BFG Tech uses all Japanese capacitors for longer life and gold-plated pins for improved conductivity.

• Includes six PCI Express® Connectors for Multi Graphics Card Support
• Features new 8-Pin PCI Express® Connectors
• Quad 12V Rails
• Lifetime Warranty* and 24/7 Tech Support

Specifications

• ATX12V 2.2/EPS12V 2.91
• Quad +12V Rails
• Silent 135mm Intake Fan
• Efficiency: > 80% Typical
• MTBF: > 100,000 Hours at 25°C, > 20,000 Hours at 40°C
• 1200W Continuous Rated at 40°
• PCI Express Ready
• Safety Approval: UL, CB, TUV, CE and FCC
• Dimensions: 15cm x 8.6cm x 16.5cm (5.9″ x 3.4″ x 6.5″)

 
Efficiency appears to be main buzzword in the EX-1200’s specs with BFG quoting that the unit can maintain at least 80% efficiency regardless of load level. This is certainly good in comparison to most other PSU’s which tend to only start delivering 80%+ efficiency once the load is increased past 150-200w. Of course, anybody using a 1200w PSU to power a 150w PC should probably be slapped, but with massive improvements in power consumption of components such as CPU’s and Graphics card while running in an idle state, its good to see that BFG are taking initiative into what could be our future power requirements.
 
BFG have seen fit to provide their EX-1200 unit with a lifetime warranty (USA & Canada only) and impressive 24/7 support providing that you register your purchase within 30 days. Unfortunately the EU isn’t eligible for the Lifetime Warranty due to legal restrictions, but to counter this BFG are offering a massive 10yr warranty instead. Should you miss the 30 day registration deadline the warranty period is reduced to only 1 year, so it’s certainly worth taking the time to fill out the necessary forms after purchase!
  
BFG EX-1200 1.2KW Rail Layout DC Output +3.3V +5V +12V1 +12V2 +12V3 +12V4 +12V5 +12V6 -12V +5VSB 30A 30A 40A 40A 40A 40A – – 0.5A 3A Max Power 170W 1180W 6W 15W 1200W
 
Moving on to the rail layout we can see that the EX-1200 is heavily weighted towards the +12v rails which is certainly what we’d expect for a PSU designed to cope with multiple GPU’s. Thankfully BFG has kept the number of +12v rails to four which has allowed them to set the max load of each rail to a fairly high 40A with a combined load across all rails of 98A (1180w). The +3.3v and +5v rails are also equally well equipped with a max load set at 30A on each and a combined output of 170w.
 
Now let’s check out just how the PSU arrived at the OC3D labs…    

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