Tuniq Potency 750 Watt Power Supply
The Tuniq Potency 80 Plus series of computer power supplies delivers the wattage you need for current top of the line gaming performance in a small well cooled package.
Ease of Use, Performance: 22/25
Look & Feel: 20/25
Features 20/25
How much I enjoy 20/25
Total: 82/100
Tuniq is a division of Sunbeamtech that has been in business since 2000 manufacturing modding components and other specialized computer parts with manufacturing in China. While the company is relatively new they have been working hard at providing some interesting and unique components to the computer field and continue to come out with new and useful components and modding parts.
The Tuniq Potency line of computer power supplies includes three different wattage rated power supplies from 550 watts up to the 750 watt model I received for reviewing. While I do not have the equipment to properly test a computer power supply adequately, few sites really do, I will review this one on how it was to install and performance while computing.
First I want to clarify something about power supplies; a real working tester for power supplies to check how well a power supply functions and works while a computer is running will cost in the tens of thousands of dollars and is not really needed for reviewing a power supply. More importantly for a review is how the power supply is to install and performance in regards to heat buildup and general operating characteristics.
An interesting article to read about testing a power supply is at Hardware Secrets, http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/410, Why 99% of Power Supply Reviews Are Wrong. This article goes into detail about actual testing of a PSU in a computer and how testers using simple loads do not really test a power supplies actual capabilities.
The power supply that is certified for use with SLI will have had testing done on production models that come out of the factory by NVIDIA for being able to run two or more video cards at the same time. This NVIDIA SLI certification means that NVIDIA has already done the testing and the power supplies have performed well in their testing by methods they use for every company that wants to be certified.
Not all power supplies are created equal and having a good one means a few things when talking about computers and good power supplies. First you need to have the required power for use in your system for those times when peak power is going to be required such as gaming performance which has been tested by NVIDIA in this case and certified for use in SLI systems.
You also want to make sure you have sufficient cooling through the power supply to not add heat to your system as well as to keep the components cool to give them a decent life span. Another part of performance is how loud the supply is while running and how the internal fans run to keep the supply cool even when not at peak loads.
The Tuniq Potency does a great job from installation to the end result of having a quiet and cool running power supply to give your system all the power it needs. The Tuniq Potency 750 watt PSU does a great job of supplying my system with power and keeping itself cool and quiet.
The Tuniq power supply has four twelve volt rails to ensure you have plenty of wattage for each system in your computer with each separate rail rated at 18 amps of current. The Tuniq Potency has full time connectors and cabling instead of a modular system which is fine and has plenty of connectors for the modern computers with SLI or Crossfire systems.
1 20+4 pin Mainboard connector
4 PCI Express connectors(2 6 Pin and 2 6+2 Pin)
6 4 Pin Molex
1 4 Pin Floppy Disc Drive
6 SATA Power Connectors
1 * Pin EPS 12 Volt Connector
1 4 Pin P4 12 Volt Connector
The two SATA cables have three of the SATA connectors on it and the 4 Pin Molex are split between two cables with one of them having the floppy drive connector. The power cables with the various connectors reach well inside my large full tower setup and I only had to do a little rearranging due to how my drives were setup before installing this system.
I previously had a modular system and each drive had a cable to its own before but with the Tuniq I had to use one cable for the SATA drives and another for the DVD drive and fans. With this setup I actually have less cabling inside the case for a better and less tangled look and much better air flow which might be a benefit for smaller cases.
The Tuniq Potency power supply is 160 x 150 x 86 mm or about 5.5 x 3.25 x 6 inches in size with the fan placed on the top of the supply with air blowing inward. The fan has a plastic guard over almost half of it toward the inside of the supply to create an airflow pattern through the supply for better cooling.
The insides of the power supply look neat and well arranged with a large capacitor for the power and some decent sized aluminum plate heat sinks for the power transistors. While I have seen better cooling heat sinks in other power supplies these are large and provide some good cooling to internal components with an overall well designed layout.
The power supply does not get too hot to the touch and readings from a surface temperature probe from Scythe was only reading about 20 to 25 degrees Celsius on the case. Doing some internal readings while the computer was running Prime95 I was only getting readings from components in the 30’s to 40 degrees.
The fan is on a system to run continuously whether the computer is on so that cooling still occurs to prolong the life of the power supply components. The fan runs after shut down for a time if a sensor reads over 50 degrees Celsius so do not be surprised if you shut down your system and the fan still runs.
The power supply is quiet and I had trouble distinguishing if the fans from my case where louder than the fan from the power supply so I tested. I could not tell really which fans were louder on my system but I do have some that I know are louder than the Tuniq Potency. I tried unplugging fans from other components and the case fans are louder than the power supply fan according to some readings I took with a Scosche sound meter reading in DBc weighted sound levels.
The Tuniq power supply is a nice quiet and cool running power supply with plenty of power to run a two or three video card system and I have not had any problems with it in testing for a month. The power supply is very easy to install and comes with the supply itself, a power cord and a Molex adapter cable, a manual and accompanying screws as well as plenty of cable ties to help in arranging cabling.
I recommend the Tuniq Potency 750 Watt Power Supply as a great SLI Certified power supply for plenty of power for your high performance gaming systems. The Tuniq Potency 750 Watt PSU can be found at NewEgg and other computer sites for about $120 and does have a 3 year warranty.