We always like to see a nice colourful box, even in todays market where such items are usually bought online. At large PC stores it can be very daunting to see row after row of shelves stacked with white boxes and having to examine them closely to see what they are. The box the GX1050 comes in is strong and well built with extra sections inside to protect the PSU body. Incidentally, the box is the largest and heaviest PSU we have handled. All the right certification is present along with a 5 year warranty so things are looking good so far.

The back of the box contains all the key data to make a purchasing decision and shows the connectors in graphical format. This is of particular benefit to those occasional (as opposed to hardcore or professional) PC builders who may not be able to name every connector type but would recognise them on sight. Also explained is the 14cm Hydro Dynamic Bearing fan.

Opening the box makes the quality evident.This is the best presented PSU we have reviewed and all adds up to create the impression of being the Rolls Royce of the power supply world.

PSU Build and Cabling  

As well as the obligatory cables, a lot of modular cables are provided. All are of a good length (suitable for full tower cases) and solidly braided. If this were not a modular design, it may well have overwhelmed the cable management system of any modern enclosure. Gold plated connectors are used throughout.

The PSU has a look of enormous quality and any PC owner would be proud to have this in their system.

The sticker shows the important details of power by voltage and rail and it is crucial in our opinion to understand the way the power is distributed (treating the 1050W as a lump sum could lead to problems if things are not carefully balanced in a heavy duty system). We recommend downloading and reading the detailed manual on Cougar's web site (we can’t post a direct link as its dynamic).

Every aspect of the design points to premium quality with embossed gold lettering. The finish is that of solid granite and not a thin metal shell.

Looking at the back we see the traditional rocker switch and mains connector and also that the rest of the plate is devoted to ventilation. We've seen some power supplies with less than half the back surface area making up the grill and this can lead to pockets of heat building up.

A closer look at the modular connectors shows how the rails are colour coded. Some vents allow air to escape into the case in return for providing better cooling of internal components.

The advanced HDB (HYDRO-Dynamic Bearing) fan provides the best lifespan and silent performance. The temperature-controlled design adapts its rotating speed to the PSU temperature. Even on its highest rotating level the fan is still quiet enough to be barely noticeable.

Looking inside a number of things spring to our attention. The capacitors are Japanese 105 degrees units which should last approximately 4 times as long as the 85 degrees units we see in most other high end power supplies. The CLC filter design reduces ripple/noise to less than 1%. Solid caps provide the best efficiency at 12V, 3.3V and 5V and the standby power rating is less than 0.3W meeting European Directives. Dynamic Multi-12V automatically routes spare power from unused lines to meet the requirements of high-end graphics cards.

PSU Performance

We tested the Cougar GX G1050 under a variety of different loads and configurations (including two Radeon HD 6990s in CF).

Efficiency varied from 93% at half load to 89% at full load.

At a room temperature of 25 degrees the exhaust temperature varied from 28 degrees at idle to 39 degrees at full load. Similarly, noise from the PSU went from 31dB at idle to a maximum of 44dB.

Temperatures are very good and no doubt helped by the clean and tidy layout of the main PCB. Noise levels are effectively silent and even at their loudest will probably be dwarfed by GPU and CPU cooler noise in a typical system.

There is a great deal of in-depth material on the features and capabilities of the Cougar GX range at the Cougar website.

Conclusion

We were very surprised at just how good the Cougar GX G1050 is and the sheer quality the product possesses. For a name we hadn't hear of a month ago, Cougar have a product that beats the biggest names in the industry. 93% efficiency is remarkable and we had no trouble running dual Radeon HD 6990s (4 GPUs) in overclocked mode.

For superb build quality, price/performance and the use of exceptional quality components, we award the Cougar GX G1050 PSU our Gold Award:

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