Kingwin 600w Mach 1 Modular Power Supply

Introduction:

   Today in the VH Labs I have for you the Kingwin 600w Mach 1 Modular Power Supply. As you can see in the shot above, it's no slouch in the looks dept. It's a stunner when lit and everyone's first reaction to the picture above is "OMFG!". However, does 600 watts of power, SLI and Crossfire ready, unique rounded modular cabling, and a enough lighting to get a job on the Vegas strip really all it's cracked up to be? Read on young padawans...

Specifications:

Features:

A Closer Look:

Retail Box	Retail Box Side	Opening the Box
Behind the Manual	Under the Cabling	Cabling Close-Up

   The retail box, although full of pictures, was nothing to write home about. Inside the box we see the manual sitting on top of a plastic storage box with the 5 sets of cables...erm wait, only 5? Yes even though we see 6 plugs on the back of the Mach 1 in the picture on the box, there is only 5 sets of cables. We'll have to investigate this more...

   The Mach 1 power supply itself was nicely bubble wrapped for protection with 2 cables sticking out of the unit. We'll check them out in detail when we unwrap the unit.

   Looking at the plastic rack of 5 sets of modular cables, I see some interesting things. The first thing that catches my eye is the bright red dual PCI-e connections which are located on one line. o_0. So, that's one connection to the power supply unit and both PCI-e connections (for dual video cards) on the other end. Hmmm, that's good if you have an SLI setup, but if not, now you have another connection dangling in the case. Though I guess if you don't have a super computer with SLI, you probably don't need 600 watts anyway :)

   The next thing I noticed were the nice EZ-Plug Molex connections. However then I realized there is only 2 SATA connections. o_0. 600 watts, SLI and Crossfire ready, and only 2 SATA connections? Honestly there isn't that many connections altogether. I've reviewed a ton of high-end power supplies lately and this Mach 1 seems the lightest in the cabling department. More on this scenario in the "missing cable" section.

   Most modular units have no, or 1, cable permanently attached to the main unit. Kingwin decided to go with 2 permanently mounted cables, one for main 20/24 pin ATX connection, and the other one is a dual 8-pin/4-pin connection. Although "odd", it's not necessarily right or wrong. It's just the way Kingwin decided to do this one.

   Judging by my initial impressions of the cabling supplied with the Mach 1, it seems Kingwin took the "less single cables, more dual purpose cables" approach. That can be good, but it can also come back to bite you. Since I've only ever had systems utilizing the 4-pin ATX plug, the 8-pin that's attached to the 4-pin will just be in the way for me. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

   The main 24-pin/20-pin ATX connection is also a unique one for me. Typically the 4-pin pops right off to leave the remaining 20-pins to be clear to plug into your motherboard. However Kingwin went with a design that only un-snaps one side of the 4-pin and leaves it there very close to the 20-pin. I found this way to be a bit of a hassle when plugging just the 20-pin in.

   If it's not broke, don't fix it. There is nothing wrong with the normal way of a snap off 4-pin so you can just disconnect it and forget about it. With this system, it's just plain in the way in my opinion. You literally have to fold back the 4-pin and hold it in order to connect just the 20-pin.   

Main Unit	8-pin/4-pin Dual
24-pin	20-pin (plus a hitchhiker)