Cougar Power X 550W Non-Modular Power Supply Review

Cougar aren't exactly the first brand name you think of when we mention power supplies. Cougar have made a name for themselves with some uniquely styled cases and fans at affordable price points but their involvement in the power supply market is certainly something relatively new. Cougar's Power X 550W power supply that we have with us today is one of these brand new power supplies from Cougar. Like a lot of companies selling power supplies Cougar are not actively involved in producing these power supplies as they are produced by HEC/Compucase. That said Cougar are one of the few brands that I know of who actually bring HEC/Compucase OEM power supplies to market (most use Seasonic, FSP, etc) so I am very interested to have a look at this power supply, so without any further ado let us do exactly that! The front of the box points out the key features of the product. The back gives more specifications, features, cable information, a fan speed graph, an efficiency graph and power information. Included with the unit is a user's manual,power chord (connector will vary by region), cable ties and silver mounting screws. The top features a bold red colour scheme, 120mm fan and Cougar logo. The side of the unit features a Cougar emblem crafted into the casing. The other side features the power label which details wattage and amp breakdown across each of the voltage rails. The base is plain black. The rear uses a standard kettle lead, has an on/off switch and hexagonal ventilation mesh. The cabling design is totally non-modular so all cables come fixed. The cabling is all sleeved but it doesn't obscure the colours from the cables totally. The first cables we have are a 20+4 pin motherboard cable, 4+4 pin CPU cable and two PCIe 6+2 pin cables. The we have six SATA, three Molex and a single FDD connector. Internally the unit is based off of a HEC/Compucase OEM design. The cooling is provided by a 120mm DFS122512M Young Lin Tech fan that can do up to 2000RPM/77.7CFM/32.95 dBA. The rear features the AC line filtering with a CM choke, two Y caps and an X cap. The far right features a single bridge rectifier with a dedicated heatsink. Each rail is rectified and filter by a variety of "Teapo" capacitors rated for up to 105 degrees. They are a cost effective compromise between Chinese and Japanese capacitors. The single hold up capacitor is a Panasonic 400 V, 330 μF, 105°C capacitor and is the only Japanese capacitor inside the power supply. At eTeknix we take the power supply testing procedure very seriously. For all power supply reviews we used a variety of Chroma machines and other digital power machinery provided by Enermax in their European test labs. We would like to say a huge thank you to Enermax for making this power supply testing possible. The test machinery included the following: A Chroma 6314A power supply load tester with two add on 6314 modules to support up to six 12 volt rails. A Chroma Digital Power Meter Model 66202 A Custom-made Enermax PCB circuit board to connect all the appropriate power supply cables A Tektronix TDS 3014C Digital Phosphor Oscilloscope A Voltcraft DT-10L Laser Tachometer The eTeknix test procedure involves: Testing each power supply at 20/40/60/80/100% load (with balanced load across all rails) and measuring PFC (power factor correction), efficiency (actual power divided by power "pulled at the wall") and voltage regulation (deviance from expected voltages of 3.3/5/12). Measuring ripple and noise with an oscilloscope at 20/40/60/80/100% load. Measuring voltage regulation and ripple/noise at Maximum 12v loads and maximum 3.3/5v loads while keeping the -12v and 5vsb consistently at 0.1A and 1A on the rail(s) not being tested. For example under 12v crossload we would load the 12v rail to its maximum and place 0.1A on the -12v and 5vsb as well as 1A on the 3.3v and 5v rails. Measuring fan speed after a stabilisation period of five minutes at each load scenario using the Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer and a reflective strip on the fan. Other things to consider are that We recognise that a single yellow 12 volt cable can provide only 6 Amps before overheating (which corrupts voltage regulation and efficiency) and so we used an adequate number of cables for each power supply. Our power supply tester was capable of only 50 Amps on the 12 volt 1 rail, 50 Amps on the 12 volt 2 rail and 25 Amps on rails 3-6. This meant that for single 12 volt power supplies with rail Amps above 50 we had to split them virtually over two rails to maximise their load. There are no power supplies that we tested that have more than 50 Amps over two rails so this was only an issue for single 12 volt rail power supplies. We use the same time scale and horizontal millivolt scale on our oscilloscope for all noise and ripple tests. Deviance is the terminology used to represent the way voltages diverge from their expected values. Voltage Regulation To test voltage regulation we load the power supply to five different load scenarios that give an equal spread of load across every single rail. So that means 20% on all rails, 40% on all rails and so on. We then calculate the average deviance of each rail from its expected voltage. Voltage regulation on this power supply is pretty darn stellar and was within +-1.65% on all rails. Power Efficiency Power efficiency is measured by calculating actual supplied wattage divided by the wattage drawn at the wall/plug, multiplied by 100 to give a percentage. We then compare that to the particular 80 Plus certification the company claims to see if it meets that. You can see the 80 Plus certifications below, we always test 230v power supplies. Efficiency meets and is slightly better than the 80 Plus Bronze certification this unit has. Power Factor Correction Power Factor Correction is the ratio of the real power flowing to the load, to the apparent power in the circuit. The aim of PFC is to make the load circuitry that is power factor corrected appear purely resistive (apparent power equal to real power). In this case, the voltage and current are in phase and the reactive power consumption is zero. The closer the number to one the better as this allows the most efficient delivery of electrical power (Source - Wikipedia). PFC wasn't the strongest we've seen but was by no means bad, this is still an above average power supply. Noise and Ripple can easily be measured by an oscilloscope. These show how much voltage fluctuation there is on a particular rail. We tested the rail stability of the 3.3 volt, 5 volt and 12 volt rails using an identical time and millivolt scale for all graphs. The latest ATX 12 volt version 2.3 specifications state that ripple from peak to peak must be no higher than 50 millivolts for the 3.3 volt and 5 volt rails, while the 12 volt rail is allowed up to 120 millivolts peak to peak to stay within specifications. Load (%) 3.3V Ripple 5V Ripple 12V Ripple 20 40 60 80 100 Noise and ripple suppression was suprisingly strong and consistent across all rails on the Cougar Power X 550W power supply. Our cross loading procedure is designed to rigorously test the stability of the main two rail combinations. We push the maximum rated current and wattage through the 12 volt rail(s), and then through the 3.3 and 5 volt rails combined, and see if the power supply is capable of delivering its specification for those. However, meeting the specification is not enough, the power supply must also maintain strong voltage regulation and noise/ripple to have "passed the cross load test. The cross load test is a "worst case scenario" for the two main power delivery rail mechanisms (12v and 3.3+5v) and so the power supply will always deliver slightly lower than realistic/expected results. However, this is not necessarily a realistic test and it is just a case of pushing a power supply's rails right to their rated limits to see how well they can hold up. 12 Volt Cross Loading 12 volt cross loading was handled with relative ease though 5 volt regulation did start to slack a bit at 4.2%. 5 and 3.3 Volt Cross Loading 5 volt and 3.3 volt cross loading was reasonably strong for such an affordable unit, though the 5 volt regulation was this unit's weakness again.When testing in a power supply laboratory it is difficult to take fan noise readings as the noise from the Chroma corrupts everything. The next best thing in our circumstances was reading off the fan speed with a tachometer to get an idea for the noise. In the Enermax Europe PSU lab we had to do exactly that and we recorded the fan speed at each load scenario. The ambient temperature during testing held constant at 26 degrees, with 1 degree of variation. Each power supply had a consistent time period of 5 minutes to stabilise between each load scenario. In my experience the following general relationships apply between noise levels and fan speeds, though it can vary greatly between the type of fan used. Below 800 RPM - Inaudible/Silent 800 to 1000 RPM - Barely audible 1000 - 1200 RPM - Audible but still quiet 1200 - 1400 RPM - Moderately noisy 1400 - 1800 RPM - Noisy 1800 RPM or higher - Intolerable The Cougar Power X 550W maintained quiet acoustics between 0-60% load. At 80-100% load things started to get noisy but were by no means intolerable. Trying to find the Cougar Power X 550W listed on UK and American retailers was a bit of a nightmare. We know that the Cougar Power X 550W power supply has a MSRP of $69.99 in the USA which is really excellent pricing when you consider MSRPs are often much higher than actual selling prices (You can currently find the 700W model listed for $75.99 on Newegg). In the UK we would thus expect to see around £60-70 (based on how companies tend to forget about exchange rates when sending products across the Atlantic). Indeed on Amazon.co.uk we could find the Cougar Power X 550W, but only for a cheapest price of £73.90. That said UK pricing is a bit rubbish right now but when we see proper availability and proper pricing I would hope to see the unit made available for around £60 if it is to be made competitive with existing units currently on the market. Cougar's Power X 550W power supply is another excellent addition to the budget power supply market. We've seen it has top-notch voltage regulation, very consistent and strong noise/ripple suppression, above average PFC and 80 Plus Bronze efficiency. It is even relatively quiet at most usage scenarios. The unit is let down slightly by the non-modular design and a fan that can get noisy at higher loads. The quality of the coloured finish is also a bit hit and miss and can be easily scratched especially if you do not have a case with a padded power supply mounting area. Pros Affordable price Voltage regulation PFC and efficiency Good noise/ripple suppresion Slightly above certified efficiency Bold Aesthetics Cons Non-modular Poor paint finish Can get noisy Cables not fully sleeved or black eTeknix says: "Cougar aren't the first name that come to mind when we think of power supplies but their Power X 550W power supply shows us that they really are strong contenders and a force to be reckoned with in this market. If you are looking for a clean and stable power supply and aren't too worried about noise or attention to detail then the Cougar Power X 550W power supply is one of the best options on the market. Sure the product could benefit from some refinement but then again if you are a gamer or just a value-orientated system builder then the Cougar Power X 550W fits the bill perfectly." Thank you to Cougar for providing this review sample.

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