Aerocool V12XT-800 PSU Review

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Product: V12XT-800
Manufacturer: Aerocool
Supplied by: Aerocool
Price: 190USD/RM660
Launch Date: TBD

A month ago we have just reviewed Aerocool Touch 1000 which is an awesome fan speed controller with touch screen feature but today let us introduce you the latest PSU of Aerocool; V12XT series. Some of the highlighted features of Aerocool V12XT are 14cm transparent fan & round power switch with blue lightning, modular smart cabling, carbon fiber finishing and etc. Let us deep dive this PSU in detail.

Company Profile

AeroCool Advanced Technologies (AAT) was founded in 2001. At the earlier stage of operation we were committed to share our technical expertise and innovative design in providing total-solution for thermal management in industrial and personal computers.

Our unique and innovative design also made "AEROCOOL" as one of the favorite brand name in over-clocking and PC DIY (Do-It-Yourself) market. With this successful experience in thermal products, AAT has expanded its product lines to computer peripherals such as computer case, fan, mutli-function control panel and power supply etc.

Features

- High Performance Gaming PSU with "Carbon Fiber" finishing
- Powerful six +12V rails with combined power of 780W to support the high-end VGA cards and PC Systems
- Compatible with ATX 12V 2.3 and EPS 12V 2.92
- Low Noise 13.9cm Quad Blue LED Fan with intelligent fan speed control
- High-Efficiency (up to 85%) - 80+ Bronze Certified
- Modular Cable w/ Black Sleeving to reduce the cable mess inside your chassis and improves the air flow of your system
- Blue and Red LED connectors to light up your PSU
- Supports Dual Core CPU, ATI CrossFire, NVIDIA SLi and all Multi-Core GPU technologies
- Built in next generation 6+2 pin PCI-Express graphic card connector
- Active Power Factor Correction (PF>0.99)
- Extremely good voltage regulation (±5%): provides steady power input
- High reliability: MTBF>120,000 hours
- Green power design that meets energy star, blue angel requirements
- Protections: Over Current, Over Voltage, and Short-Circuit protection
- Safety / EMI Approvals: CE, CB, TUV, FCC, UL and CUL

Specifications

Package & Contents

Aerocool V12XT-800 is packed inside a sturdy black cardboard box and all its modular cables length and quantity are shown clearly on the outer packaging which is pretty important as nowadays there are plenty of tower cases and multiple of devices which require longer cables and plenty of connectors.

Inside the cardboard, Aerocool V12XT-800 is packed by a soft cotton bag to avoid scratches and basically no foam is used to protect the PSU but it comes with some sturdy cardboard which is good enough to protect it. Anyway no fancy or unique accessory is bundled for Aerocool V12XT-800 except some installation screws and a power cord.

A Closer Look: Aerocool V12XT-800

Before we start to talk about Aerocool V12XT-800 in detail, now let us just briefly go through the overall PSU series and models that Aerocool is having now; V-Ultimate gaming series for maximum power system (600/700/800/1000W with 80PLUS Bronze qualification) and E-Eco-Friendly series for value and environment friendly usages (standard 430/530/530W and Professional 550/700W with 80PLUS Bronze qualification).

Since Aerocool V12XT-800 is one of the lately launched PSU, it supports the latest PSU requirements and specifications of latest PSU should have such as ATX 12V 2.3, EPS 12V 2.92. While in term of efficiency, Aerocool V12XT-800 is 80PLUS Bronze certified up to 85% and greater than 0.99 active power factor correction to minimal the power lose during the operation.

Dual or quad +12V rails are pretty standard for nowadays high end PSUs as it provides better reliability and stability especially for a powerful rig. However Aerocool V12XT-800 is much advanced that it as it comes with six +12V rails which is extremely fantastic and PC enthusiasts will be drooling over this product. Aerocool V12XT-800 is a true power PSU and hence its total power output is close to 800W after excluded the power wastage (reactance power).

Besides that Aerocool V12XT-800 is also certified to meet energy star and blue angel requirements. The overall dimension of Aerocool V12XT-800 is exactly same with other PSUs (180 x 86 x 150 mm) since 800W PSU doesn't requires any extra room to store the additional bulky electronic components. One of the nice to have features of Aerocool V12XT-800 is the PSU' casing is semi-coated with carbon fiber which is finger print-free surface treatment; we like it very much.

For the rear portion of Aerocool V12XT-800, it is structured by plenty of tiny honey comb air vents which are the ideal shape for better heat ventilation. Low noise 13.9cm cooling fan is integrated within the PSU to ensure the components inside are well cooled down. Both of the power switch and cooling fan of Aerocool V12XT-800 are lighten up by blue LED lightning; something must have for a PC modder.

Most of the high end PSUs nowadays are come with modular cable management and this is same for Aerocool V12XT-800 where there are certain of peripheral cables are modular cables so that the cables can be managed in a more proper way. There are total eight modular connectors where four of them are for VGA (red) while another four of them (white) for peripheral hardware (Molex & SATA). All these modular connectors will be lighted up when the modular cable is attached on it; let us show you in later chapter for better understanding.

Here are the modular cables of Aerocool V12XT-800 where they are total six cables; two 6/6+2 pins PCI-E cables, two Molex cables (3 connectors + 1 FDD* per cable), and two SATA cables (4 connectors per cable). Both of the 6/6+2 pins PCI-E cables are sleeved with pink sleeving for easier identification purpose as the rest of the cables are sleeved in black; a useful nice to have feature.

Here the rest of the modular cables besides the 6+2 pins PCI-E cable. With all these modular cables, Aerocool V12XT-800 is able to support 1 FDD, 6 Molex peripheral (control panel, controller, cooling fan) and 8 SATA peripherals (hard drive, optical drive). All these modular cables are sleeved very tidy and firmly which is not only good for cable management but also better ventilation for an enclosed system.

Besides the modular cables, Aerocool V12XT-800 is still come with certain of fixed cables; one 20+4 pins cable, one 4+4 pins ATX cable and two 6/6+2 pins PCI-E cables. Basically Aerocool V12XT-800 comes with four PCI-E cables where two of them are fixed cables while two of them are modular cables and we prefer to have all 6+2 pins PCI-E cables rather than 2 cables are 6-pin while the rest are 6+2 pins cables.

Let's us touch a bit on the internal structure of Aerocool V12XT-800 before we proceed with the testing and benchmarking about this Product. We are really impressed by Aerocool V12XT-800 as its internal structure is really well designed and organized; super tidy and not crowded at all for such high end 800W true power PSU.

For the major electronic components, there is a big quality capacitor; 420V 560uF, inductors as well as some transformers. Comparing Aerocool V12XT-800 with other PSUs, it comes with much smaller heatsink which is pretty amazing as we don't encounter any overheating issue during our 24/7 loading. Anyway other PCBs are segregate by some plastic protectors to avoid short circuit.

The PSU's cooling fan is a 12V DC fan with 0.25A and total 3W output. There are total four blue LEDs which are located at the corner of the fan and in order to make the lightning effect as charming as it possible, all the fan blades are transparent so that they are reflective enough. 14cm fan is not as common as 12cm fan but in case the fan dies after warranty period, it is still can be replaced (some technical knowledges).

In term of efficiency of Aerocool V12XT-800, it is able to maintain the efficiency at 81%, 84% and 83% during 25%, 50% and 100% loadings. Aerocool has attached some other supporting data to explain the functional specifications of Aerocool V12XT-800 in detail. The maximum noise level of Aerocool V12XT-800 is around 30dBA during full load and 17dBA during idle load. Another great feature of Aerocool V12XT-800 is the VRM which is the better method to provide regulation for 3.3V and 5V with higher efficiency compares with traditional way by using choke.

Installation, Testing & Performance

For the installation and testing, we have installed Aerocool V12XT-800 inside our Maelstrom full ATX tower case. One of the obvious advantages over our previous 750W PSU is the cable length where the 8-pins ATX cable of Aerocool V12XT-800 is much longer. As a result, we are no longer needed to route this cable underneath the graphic card to solve the short cable issue; this solves one of the PSU common issues instantly.

As we mentioned before, Aerocool V12XT-800 comes with lightning effect and here are some of the photos. Besides the cooling fan is lighted up during power on stage, the core power switch and all the modular connectors will be lighted up as well for those modular connectors that are connected by a modular cable no matter (regardly whether is there any hardware attached to it or not). Overall the lightning effect of Aerocool V12XT-800 is pretty attractive which is suitable for those PC cases that come with transparent side panel.

Test Bed:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 (Gigabyte G31M-ES2L)
Heatsink: Noctua NH-C12P
Memory: Kingston HyperX DDR2 8500
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX260+
Casing: In Win Maelstrom
PSU: Aerocool V12XT-800
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Optical Drive: DVD RW
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Mouse: SteelSeries Ikari Laser
Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK+
HeadSet: SteelSeries 3H
Operating System: Microsoft XP Pro SP2/Vista Home Premium
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

Here are the overall benchmarking results of Aerocool V12XT-800 during idle and full loads. As you can see, all the voltage rails of Aerocool V12XT-800 are pretty close to the expected values and they are pretty stable during idle and full load as well. Both of the +12V5/6 are not much different due to no hardware are connected to them since we are just using a single GeForce GTX260+ graphic card. Anyway during the whole 24/7 testing, we didn't any encounter any stability or reliability issue at all.

In term of noise and lightning, Aerocool V12XT-800 did a job here as the PSU is pretty silent till it is not noticeable at all unless you place your ear beside it closely. The lightning of Aerocool V12XT-800 is super awesome with its bright solo blue lightning; PC modders will like it very much.

Verdicts

After we have gone through the review of this product from Aerocool, we are absolutely fascinating with it; Aerocool V12XT-800. This is because Aerocool V12XT-800 is not only a charming PSU in term of physical layout and design but it also comes with decent specifications and many other great & considering features that are always forgotten by most of the PSU makers. However the most important factor for purchasing Aerocool V12XT-800 is the price where it is definitely value for money in all kind of aspects for such high end and rich features PSU.

Pros:

+ Modular cable management
+ Six +12V rails; solid & reliable performance
+ Quality & up-to-date PSU with reasonable price
+ Sleeved & long cables
+ Blue LED lightning & 14cm fan
+ Comes with four PCI-E VGA cables
+ Carbon fiber coated

Cons:

- None

Thanks to Aerocool for providing this sample for us to review.