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Product: XG Duro 900 Manufacturer: MGE Company Retail Price: $149.99 US Date of Availability: Now Available Excessive power has never been considered a bad thing. Sometimes it can make the owners very vulnerable, like in the case of unchecked proliferation of car horsepower in the 1970s, but I doubt we are nearly anywhere as far in the computer domain; for now, more power is a good thing, and besides the electricity bill, won’t have any adverse effects.
This is probably the logic that MGE followed in developing its Duro900 power supply. Supplying an astounding 750W of continuous, and 900W of peak power (think of it! Your computer generates almost a kilowatt of power! In the olden days, you could probably run a small village just off it), and is designed with SLI/Crossfire systems in mind. The main selling point of it is 4 separate 12V rails to the CPU, the hard drive, the motherboard and PCI Express. Of note is that following the initial release as a “900W power supply” and some digging around by some enthusiasts, it became apparent that the power supply can only deliver 900W at peak, rather than continuous, and is only rated at 750W for continuous power. A little bit similar to what is done in car amplifiers and, particularly, subwoofers – where the RMS (i.e. commonly used) power can be 250 watts, but the quoted power is always the peak power, which can be easily 1,000W or more. I sincerely hope this was a one-time mistake and that we won’t get into the habit of seeing mis-branding like this, as the next time I need a power supply, I need to be sure it can power my devices, rather than start digging through a million different power ratings. That aside, the Duro900 (or 750?) is a solid device, the mis-naming notwithstanding. And to be fair, whether it is 750W or 900W, you are quite unlikely to use up all that power anytime soon (and if you are, the 150W of difference won’t be your problem – cooling will be), but it is nice to know that this much power is available, and at a very reasonable price.
The power supply comes with the following connectors: All that to say that it has pretty much every possible power connector to hook up all the equipment you’d need. The power supply is also very well-built: besides being flat black, all the connectors are sleeved nicely, and they channel well to keep your system clutter-free. The power supply is also reasonably quiet; while you’d have to replace the fan to build a true silent system, it is much quieter than many other power supplies I’ve used, and certainly very quiet for such a high-power unit. Furthermore, it does not heat excessively, which is also a pleasant surprise for a unit that is designed for high power output. Finally, the lifetime warranty is a very welcome addition; many power supplies fail with time, and you’re assured that if this one ever does, there’ll be someone around to replace it for you. I am somewhat unhappy with the power rating mislabeling, as I am afraid it will be the beginning of a dangerous precedent, but I am otherwise very happy with this power supply. It stood up to my tests, hasn’t failed on me, and has been able to power my four hard drives, my Athlon X2 and my Radeon, all while multitasking disk I/O and CPU load.
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