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PHYSICAL DETAILS
In the bling department, the Taurus is fairly sedate, settling for a dark chrome
or titanium finish without any flashy colors or LEDs. The gold-plated fan grill
contrasts fairly well with the darker finish of the casing, giving it a polished
look that isn't over the top. Two other color options are supposed to be available,
but they seemed quite difficult to find.
Note the additional switch to the right of the voltage selection switch.
This is for controlling fan speed.
The underside of the unit. The wire fan grill should not restrict airflow
much.
Ever wanted advertising inside your case? Impress your LAN-partying
friends with the "Super Noise Killer" fan controller!
One thing that marred the appearance a little was the presence of marketing
on the external casing. A pair of stickers advertising the "quiet"
fan controller are conspicuously placed near the fan vent, while the power sockets
are surrounded by text outlining the "Special Features" of the power
supply, just in case you need reminding why you bought a power supply with detachable
cables. There's also two cautionary notes:
- PCI-Express sockets may slightly different one another, if the PCI-Express
cable connector cannot fit well at one end, please change to the other end
[sic].
- You MUST connect the 3-Pin sensor connector cable to avoid any possible
voltage drops!
Point 1 should not pose a problem for most users: Although there is a PCI-e
socket on the unit itself, even the 600W unit did not ship with the necessary
cable to make use of it.
Depending on how the internal circuitry is designed, point 2 may be of minor
or crucial importance. Almost all power supplies use a feedback circuit to regulate
the +5V line, although most designs keep this circuit within the confines of
the unit. The advantage of locating the voltage sensor at the end of the ATX
cable is that the feedback circuit does not have to compensate for the voltage
drop across the cables. Instead, the voltage is measured as close to the motherboard
as possible, hopefully leading to more accurate voltage regulation. The disadvantage,
especially in a unit with detachable cables, is that if the feedback sensor
in not plugged in, the power supply no longer has any means of regulating the
+5V line, which may lead to voltages far enough out of spec to damage the motherboard.
If the power supply has been intelligently designed, a secondary feedback circuit
should have been built into the unit that monitors the voltage internally and
does not require the user to plug it in. This would mitigate the disadvantage
of the first design. However, it is unknown exactly how CoolMax designed this
power supply, so make sure you follow CoolMax's instructions and install the
sensor cable!
Although there is a PCI-Express socket on the unit itself, no PCIe cable
was included with either of our test samples.
The rear grill is stamped in the unrestrictive honeycomb pattern that is typical
of 120mm fan power supplies, but the holes are slightly smaller than they could
be. A wider-spaced pattern would probably be less restrictive, but the point may be moot: The open vent area is large.
A number of switches — power, voltage, and fan — also occupy the
rear of the power supply. These also eat into the airflow path, introducing
further impedance.
The fan switch is a non-standard feature of this power supply, and has three
settings: H(igh), A(utomatic), and L(ow). High sets the fan to full speed, in
this case, 12.4V. This option will be immediately panned by any users interested
in managing noise levels, although it may find some use in the heavily overclocked
and poorly cooled systems of gaming newbies. According to the manual, Automatic
is the default and recommended option, and probably just hands control over
to a fan controller similar to the one found in most any power supply.
The Low option is the one that will probably interest most users, although
the manual notes that "when temperature increases fast, PSU switches automatically
to level A. It also points out that the Low setting should only be used
by professionals, by which they probably mean experienced users. (Wouldn't it
be nice to get paid for using a power supply?)
The three-speed fan switch takes up a bit of real estate for airflow.
(Ignore the yellow wire at the left — it's a wire hooked up for fan voltage monitoring in our review.)
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