Cougar G1050 – GX 1050W Review

 

Conclusion

To sum up what we’ve seen over the past few pages, the flagship Cougar GX 1050 is an attractive looking unit that separates its self from the rest of the crowd with some interesting styling choices. It may not be everyone’s cup of proverbial tea as far as the multi-coloured sleeved cables go, but it’s good to see that Cougar have picked a signature design and are sticking with it.

In terms of performance, the GX performs near the top of the pack in rail stability and efficiency, but doesn’t quite have what it takes to raise the bar. The 93% efficiency that Cougar quote on their packaging was _almost_ obtained by us during the testing, though you are only likely to see this kind of level if you are running the unit at around 500w.

Ripple results are top-notch, possibly testament to using only high grade Nippon Chemicon primary caps along with solid state secondaries. And from what we could hear over the whir of the OC3D PSU testing equipment, the unit managed to stay cool and fairly quiet throughout.

All that remains now is to mention the fact that the unit does not like being pushed outside of specifications. While most PSU’s we’ve tested in the past will happily chug along at 75-100w above their rated output, the Cougar GX 1050 simply refused to give us anything more than what we’d paid for and topped out at just under 1100w with some shoddy voltages. Of course, we can’t really hold this against the Cougar as it does exactly what it says on the tin, but being of German origin we’d have expected it to be significantly over-engineered.

Just to mix things up slightly we also have a video review by TTL who will cover his thoughts on the way the unit looks and also cover points that I have raised during the testing of this unit for all of you out there that are not big readers but have voyeur tendencies!

So just to recap in a way many of you football fans will understand now the season has just restarted, the Cougar very much deserves to be in the Premier League and would sit very firmly in the top half of the table. Its performance over the entire season wasn’t consistent enough to make it a title contender. Considering this is only their second season Cougar are definitely a team to watch because we have a feeling with a few changes in the transfer window that they could be back with their eyes firmly placed on getting that trophy!

 

The Good
– Stable voltages on all rails across all normal tests
– Ripple kept in check with some well spec’d Jap Caps!
– Unique looks
– Fairly silent (and cool) from what we could tell.

The Mediocre
– Doesn’t like being pushed beyond 1050w

The Bad
– Nowt

      

Thanks to Cougar for the sample on test today, you can discuss your shock and horror of Jims return in the forums.