Cougar CMX V3 850W Power Supply Overview
A Closer Look
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The marketing team at Cougar did a nice job on the graphics for the Cougar CMX V3 850W Power Supply. The design is elegant and not over the top. The front of the box clearly shows the power supply, while the back of the box lists out the specifications and certifications.
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The Cougar CMX V3 850W Power Supply’s design is well done and not over the top. The metallic orange and black color scheme should go well in most builds. Cougar made sure to put their name on each side of the power supply, but has printed them inverse of each other. This way no matter how the power supply is installed, either with the fan up or the fan down, their name will always be shown right side up.
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Over the last few years case modding has made a major resurgence; which means more and more cases are either being modded by the user or the cases come modded from the factory. Part of case modding is showing off the internal components. Component manufactures have taken notice of this and have started making the appearance of the components look cleaner and more refined. Cougar has done a nice job with the color scheme of the Cougar CMX V3 850W Power Supply.
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As a power supply converts 120 AC volts to 12 DC volts and delivers power to the components heat is generated by the internal parts of the power supply. An open mesh design on the back of the Cougar CMX V3 850W Power Supply ensures the heat generated can escape the power supply with the aid of the 140 mm fan. The fan grill on the Cougar CMX V3 850W Power Supply has a similar mesh in order to get the maximum amount of air into the power supply.
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The Cougar CMX V3 850W Power Supply is a semi-modular design. This means the peripherals and the PCI-E cables can be removed from the power supply. A fully modular power supply means the 24 pin motherboard cable and 8 pin CPU cable can be removed. There has been some discussion lately about which is more desirable; semi-modular or fully modular. Honestly, I can think of very few extreme cases where a fully modular power supply is needed. In the course of a normal installation, when do you NOT use the 24 pin and 8 pin connectors. The only gripe I have on this part of the power supply is the lack of a grommet on the hole for the main power lead. Even though the cable has a sleeve, I’d like to see added protection with a grommet.
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Finally, we come to the information sticker on the Cougar CMX V3 850W Power Supply. The 3.3 volt & 5 volt rails are capable of 25 amps each. This power supply is a dual 12 volt rail design. Each of the 12 volt rails has a max amperage rating of 50 amps.
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Internally the Cougar CMX V3 850W Power Supply’s component arrangement layout should maximize cooling. The heatsinks run parallel to each other. This helps to eliminate hot air getting trapped between components and maximizes airflow between components. The 140 mm fan is PWM controlled by the power supply and thankfully is not a sleeve bearing, but ball bearing. Ball bearing fans tend to last longer and run a bit quieter over time than sleeve bearing fans. When a power supply fan goes out, as I have seen a nasty shower of sparks and smoke can make for a interesting day when the power supply finally lets go.
I’m not sure what point using a Dr. Power II, an uncalibrated, unqualified low-resolution device, and the built-in voltage monitor has to do with showing if the PSU is in spec.
– No basic multimeter to show voltage under various loads? Cost for a tool capable of this is ~$20-50.
– No basic oscilloscope to view ripple on the lines? Cost for a tool capable of this is ~$50-100.
I don’t expect you to have a good ammeter or dummy loads – this isn’t a professional review after all, more a basic product overview – but how does the statement “I believe I was able to put a load on the power supply of 20-30%” inspire confidence in test results? Especially when, on the last page, the author states “According to the load test results, the Cougar CMX V3 850W Power Supply was able to deliver consistent clean power at 100% load” – but where was this 100% load test? And how did you determine the power is clean? (No, the motherboard voltage monitor won’t tell you this.) And besides, I thought the PSU only had a “believed” 20-30% load? (And if you mean “system” load, perhaps you should have written this…but it still confuses matters even mentioning 100% load).
Even the cheapest PSUs today can look like this between 0% and 40% load. These tests show nothing useful.
Reviewing a power supply isn’t as simple as plugging it in and saying “yup, it works.” It takes time, test equipment, and skills to use said equipment. As for review vs overview, the test results push this into “review” territory, and the results are utterly pointless. Perhaps the tests are best left omitted. However, if the reviewer is wanting to test PSUs and needs guidelines on how to write a quality power supply review, he should look at jonnyguru or HardOCP PSU reviews…and actually read them, as the sites are mentioned in the article!
Thanks for the reply and we appreciate any feedback to see how we can approve our reviews. I can see that you are a fan of power supplies and reviews. I agree that other sites that have the ability to load test the units and do a great job with the reviews. I would point towards http://www.jonnyguru.com as the place to go, and btw I know both Jon and Tony (Tazz) who run the site. Tony is actually a founding member here at Modders-Inc.
I would like to point out one item that is we do state at the beginning of our psu reviews that…”Our power supply reviews are intended to only cover the features of the power supply, thus we call them a Power Supply Overview. This is due to the fact of not having the appropriate equipment to test them to our and your standards. Because of this you will not see any load or performance testing sections, but we will give you our best thoughts about the product. Thank you~ Modders-Inc”
Showing a few voltages and some OCCT screen shots in my option does not make this a full on testing review. Were as still trying to supply some information about the product and at least try to make it more interesting to the readers.
Your statement of “the author states “According to the load test results, the Cougar CMX V3 850W Power Supply was able to deliver consistent clean power at 100% load” – but where was this 100% load test? And how did you determine the power is clean?” The answer to this is listed in plan view. The author clearly states…”According to the load test results (@JonnyGuru), the Cougar CMX V3 850W Power Supply was able to deliver consistent clean power at 100% load and remain within ATX specification and in some cases was able to exceed the 80-plus bronze certification and break into the 80-plus silver arena.”
We are always looking to improve our reviews and your comments will be taken and talked about within the group to see if and how we can make changes.
Thank you, Dewayne