Digital PSU, CapXon caps,

[Erenhardt]

So my old Chieftec gave up after all those years.

I was looking for a new PSU and found a Cougar 600W CMD PSU for a price of XFX XTR 550W.

I don't know much about PSU's. Cougar is marketed as digital PSU. From my understanding digital should be better than traditional electric PSU.

Here is the only review of this cougar I found:
http://www.ozeros.com/2015/04/review-fuente-de-poder-cougar-cmd-600w/

It says its using Japan caps and CapXon caps (400V big one).

Can anyone give his opinion on the quality and reliability of such a combo?
Is it possible to say for the pictures if the Chinese caps are used in the critical areas of the PSU. What effect on reliability does 'digital' PSU have compared to traditional one?

What is you opinion?
Should I cancel my order and get something else?

 

[Erenhardt]

This is what I managed to gather from Corsair RMi 'digital' PSU review:
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Corsair/RM1000i/4.html

This PSU's platform is controlled by analog components; however, it also features a digital interface to transmit data about its state. The digital interface even allows you to control the cooling fan. The Corsair Link software provides interesting options as it can be used to monitor and log fan speed and current or +3.3V, +5V, and +12V voltages. You can also monitor power-out, check power-in and efficiency or enable and disable OCP on the +12V rails.

So, really it is just a regular PSU that is self aware and can be possibly adjusted to fit the needs. I expect the cougar is the same but worse?

 

[Deders]

This is what I managed to gather from Corsair RMi 'digital' PSU review:
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Corsair/RM1000i/4.html



So, really it is just a regular PSU that is self aware and can be possibly adjusted to fit the needs. I expect the cougar is the same but worse?

The RMi and HXi are like you say but the AXi is digitally controlled.

That being said, whether it is digitally controlled or not it, the voltage regulation looks well controlled and the ripple looks good so it looks like a good model.

 

[MrTeal]

Yeah, there's two main uses of the term digital when it comes to PSUs and motherboard VRMs. The first is what you describe here, where it is for all intents and purposes a standard PSU with some monitoring information built in.

The second use of digital refers to the controller in the PSU itself. You commonly see this on motherboards now, advertising DigiVRM and the like. In this case, the controller itself is digital. In a standard analog VRM, the decision of when to turn on and off the mosfets is handled by analog control loops. With a digital one, the output voltage and phase currents are sampled at very high speed by an analog to digital convertor (ADC) and the digital filters are used to control switching.

As far as I've ever seen, there aren't any ATX PSUs with a digital controller on the market, but I've never really looked for one. I'd love to see one if someone would like to link it.

 

[Deders]

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=317

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=300

 

[MrTeal]

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=317

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=300

Cool, thanks.

 

[Erenhardt]

So, the cougar CMD PSU arrived.
It gives you a live data about what it is doing:

Efficiency, power in, power out, voltages, amps etc.
It lets you adjust voltages on 3.3V 5V and 12V rails. Didn't check if there is a limit

But my unit is missing 2 out of 4 PCI sockets.
Here, clearly you can see 4 PCI red sockets:

Mine has only 2.

4 PCI power connectors was the most important thing for me as I plan to go dual GPU. I don't know If I should return it because product is not as advertised... Not sure if they will even accept that as valid reason.

 

[thilanliyan]

^I'd definitely return it if it doesn't have as many PCI-e connectors as you need.

You sure you got the same model as you linked to?

 

[Deders]

Are there 1 or 2 PCIe connectors per lead?

Also what exactly can you adjust on the different rails? the components should draw exactly what they need, no more.

 

[Erenhardt]

I can change voltages up and down with a staps of 0.02 Volts on each rail separately (3,3V 5V and 12V). Not sure what benefit it gives, as every part has its own power delivery system that changes the input voltages to its needs (GPU, CPU, etc).
I guess you can increase supply voltage to reduce the current (amps) for a fixed power requirement (watts). But I feel like it is a quickest way to burn something in your PC.

There is only one 6+2 connector on each PCIe cable. 2 cables included in the box. PSU unit has only 2 slots for PCIe cables. I have the exact same model (cmd 600Watt - the biggest one) but it only has 2 slots for PCIe cables.

I filled RMA and am waiting for the retailers response.
There are many 600 PSUs that feature 4x 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors. Quite a big deal really. I am not going to use molex-6pin no way.

 

[Erenhardt]

You can see on the screenshot above it says my 12V rail is running 12,14 volts and 30,41 amps. I have change the voltage to my liking. Power consumption my change due to lower amperage in cables etc (higer voltage = less amps for the same power = less heat due to resistance).

It has some neat features, like live monitoring, dedicated temperature sensor you can place anywhere you want and tie it to up to 2 fans that can be plugged to the PSU and adjusted in the cougar app.

 

[lehtv]

Tbh I would consider 600w too little for SLI requiring 4x4 PCIe. If each card just barely uses enough to require two connectors, you have the (IMO better) option on running a single high end GPU. And if we're talking about properly power hungry GPU's, you'd want 750w or even 850w (e.g. 980 ti SLI).

 

[Erenhardt]

Tbh I would consider 600w too little for SLI requiring 4x4 PCIe. If each card just barely uses enough to require two connectors, you have the (IMO better) option on running a single high end GPU. And if we're talking about properly power hungry GPU's, you'd want 750w or even 850w (e.g. 980 ti SLI).

It sure as hell should handle second 7950.

I feel like I should have gone with Super Flower Leadex Gold 650W. As it seems to be able to handle about anything you can throw at it and them some:
http://www.eteknix.com/super-flower-leadex-gold-650w-modular-power-supply-review/7/
It won't even sweat when feeding max capacity on all lanes. And it doesn't cost much more than this cougar. But then, their 9-pin connectors on the PSU side... :/

I think it is highly misleading to show a picture with 4 pcie slots, while the product actually has 2.

Imagine you buy a motherboard and it has 4 dimm slots on pictures, comes in and bam, only 2 slots. Or VRMs, 6+2 on the picture, comes with 3+1 IRL.

 

[Deders]

If you can adjust the voltage then it is a fully digital PSU.

 

[lehtv]

It sure as hell should handle second 7950.

Just barely. At stock, 7950 CF peaks at 375W in-game, plus 100W for the rest of the PC. 475W is 80% of 600W which is basically the maximum that I would want my PSU to peak at daily.

Besides, my point was that you'd be better off with one fast GPU than two slow GPU's. E.g. 290X/390 over 7950 CF.

 

[MrTeal]

If you can adjust the voltage then it is a fully digital PSU.

Not necessarily true, depending on your definition of fully digital. You can adjust the setpoints of a power supply while the control of the loop is still analog, similar to how you've been able to adjust your CPU voltage for decades using analog VRMs. Some server PSUs have allowed trimming voltage through PMBUS for quite awhile without needing a full digital control loop like the Corsair's AX seem to use.

From the end user's POV it won't make a big difference though, many of the benefits of a digital controller are to the designer of the power supply.

 

[MrTeal]

It sure as hell should handle second 7950.

I feel like I should have gone with Super Flower Leadex Gold 650W. As it seems to be able to handle about anything you can throw at it and them some:
http://www.eteknix.com/super-flower-leadex-gold-650w-modular-power-supply-review/7/
It won't even sweat when feeding max capacity on all lanes. And it doesn't cost much more than this cougar. But then, their 9-pin connectors on the PSU side... :/

I think it is highly misleading to show a picture with 4 pcie slots, while the product actually has 2.

Imagine you buy a motherboard and it has 4 dimm slots on pictures, comes in and bam, only 2 slots. Or VRMs, 6+2 on the picture, comes with 3+1 IRL.

I wonder if that might have been an early sample sent out for review? Another foreign language site has a review up, and it only shows two.
http://www.overclockzone.com/reviews/pom/2015/09/cougar-cmd/index2.html

 

[Erenhardt]

I wonder if that might have been an early sample sent out for review? Another foreign language site has a review up, and it only shows two.
http://www.overclockzone.com/reviews/pom/2015/09/cougar-cmd/index2.html

Nice find. In the review linked in the first post (http://www.ozeros.com/2015/04/review-fuente-de-poder-cougar-cmd-600w/) there are clearly for of those. This is very strange... Look at the picture of the box and you see only 2, yet there are 4. :hmm: