INTRODUCTION

    If you're building a brand new system or upgrading to one of the latest graphics cards released by either AMD or NVIDIA choosing a quality and high performance PCIe 5.0 & ATX 3.0 power supply unit is always a good idea. Now even though the good news is that most PCIe 5.0 & ATX 3.0 compliant PSUs I’ve used and/or reviewed ended up doing very well not all are equal in quality and performance and so i always welcome getting to use/test more. Montech may not be a name that comes to mind when talking about high quality and performance PSUs but they've been trying to change that with their Titan Gold series and so today I’ll be testing the 1000W output model.

    Telon Co., Ltd. has been engaged in Taiwan's PC industry for more than 30 years. And its team includes experienced engineers & designers and after-sales personnel. MONTECH was established by Telon in 2016, which focuses in the PC gaming market. MONTECH is quite successful in the Taiwanese market. It is now seeking to expand to the world. There are four pillars of our core values, we abbreviate them to four simple letters, SSEC. <Simplicity>, <Safety>, <Easy To Use> and <Customer-Trust>. SSEC is how we do everything, like designing products, manufacturing, communicating with customers, it is our deepest values here in Montech.

    The Titan Gold line of ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 power supply units by Montech currently includes 4 different power output models (750/850/1000/1200W) all of which are fully modular and sport the 80 PLUS Gold certification (up to 92% electrical efficiency). The 1000W unit which found its way to the lab roughly a month ago features a single 12VHPWR power connector (600W), five 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors, single strong +12V rail (83.33A) capable of delivering 100% of the units’ total power output (1000W) and a peak power output of no less than 1138W (peak should now be up to 2.277KW for up to 100ms - once again however this is not something i can test). The Titan Gold line also sports half-bridge LLC and Synchronous Rectifier (SR) with DC to DC design, Zero RPM fan mode (fan starts spinning after 15-20% load), high-quality Japanese capacitors certified for use up to 105 degrees Celsius and a full array of electrical protections including over-current (OCP), over-voltage (OVP), under-voltage (UVP), short-circuit (SCP), over-temperature (OTP) and over-power (OPP). Finally, Montech shows their confidence by covering the Titan Gold line with a 10-year limited warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Montech uses a blue and white box the front of which has a large product picture and their logo.

Three graphs showcasing the strong points of the Titan Gold are printed on the left side.

On the right side we find the specifications table for the Titan Gold 1000W.

At the rear Montech has printed the main features of the Titan Gold.

The unit is wrapped inside a plastic bag and placed between two foam spacers.

Along with the Titan Gold 1000W and its power cord inside the box you'll find the modular cables, storage pouch, 4 mounting screws, quality/warranty information paper and the user manual.

THE TITAN GOLD 1000W EXTERIOR

Only the motherboard and 12VHPWR modular cables are braided, all else are low profile/slim ones.

Just like most similar models the Titan Gold 1000W measures 160mm in length, 150mm in width and 86mm in height.

Montech has used an 135mm fluid-dynamic bearing fan for the Titan Gold 1000W.

The company name and logo are engraved on both sides of the enclosure.

Typically, the electrical table sticker is located at the base of the enclosure.

All 11 modular cable ports are different in size and tagged.

At the rear of the enclosure, we find the on/off power switch, on/off smart zero fan switch and the power port.

THE TITAN GOLD 1000W INTERIOR

The 135mm fluid dynamic bearing fan is manufactured by Hong Hua and can reach speeds of up to 2300RPM.

Channel Well Technology seems to be behind the Titan Gold 1000W and once again they do not disappoint.

Primary capacitors are manufactured by nichicon and are certified for use up to 105 degrees Celsius.

Secondary capacitors are manufactured by both Nippon Chemi-Con and nichicon and are again certified for use up to 105 degrees Celsius.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

     Using a dedicated measurement instrument such as a Chroma or a SunMoon to test power supply units is without doubt the most ideal and accurate way (not to mention the fastest) to do that currently. However, it's certainly not the only way there is and so pretty much anyone can test a power supply unit just by using a test rig. Certainly, limitations do apply and so you can't really push a 1000W power supply to its limits if your system only uses 500W at peak loads and that's why over the years we saved certain hardware components for the purpose of building a dedicated PSU test rig. True it may not be as accurate as the above mentioned solutions but it comes really close and is in fact much closer to real world usage. So as always, we ran several games with maximum graphic options enabled at a resolution of 2560x1600 in order to stress every hardware component and increase the overall power demands of the system. The Passmark BurnIn Test was also used to overstress the components in an effort to provide the most accurate results possible. As a final test we also used the latest OCCT 4.4 software and its dedicated PSU testing suite since it can really bring a power supply to its knees after inside a few minutes.

   Rail stability was checked/measured with the CPUID Hardware monitor and a Metex multimeter which also recorded the system load in idle and in load. As always try to remember that the power consumption numbers listed in the graph are the highest (Peak) ones recorded during the entire duration of the tests and not the average ones. Noise levels coming from the fan were recorded using the high precision HD600 ExTech Sound dBA Meter from the rear of the unit and at a range of no more than 5-10cm. Readings under load are recorded the exact moment we manually switch the fans of all graphics cards from full speed to almost zero, that way the fan of the power supply does not have enough time to slow its RPM and so by doing this we get very accurate noise level readings. Needless to say, in order to get 100% accurate readings, you need to have a noise isolated room for that exact purpose, something which is quite impossible unless you are working inside a real lab (some people use very small noise insulated boxes but due to their size both heat and noise exceed normal levels and so the results can't really be considered to be 100% accurate, nor realistic for that matter). Also do take into account that since all noise measurements take place from just 5-10cm away the final noise levels to reach your ears will be considerably less.

* After well over 10 years of testing PSUs the Intel Core i7-920 CPU of this rig failed and so we replaced it with a Xeon X5660 (we also swapped the GA-X58A-UD7 for the G1. Assassin).

TEST RESULTS

CONCLUSION

    As I mentioned earlier Montech might not be one of the leading PSU manufacturers in the world but thanks to CWT their Titan Gold 1000W is a high quality and performance model. Yes, at just over full load the 135mm fluid dynamic bearing fan does get a bit loud (luckily it doesn’t reach 2300RPM even at that point) but once again if you manage to somehow max the output of your PSU chances are noise coming from your CPU/GPU coolers will mask noise coming from the PSU. I’d also like to see two 12VHPWR connectors since they may eventually be needed but I do understand why Montech went with just one.

    Retailing currently for just USD139.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 221.84Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the Titan Gold 1000W PCIe 5.0 & ATX 3.0 PSU by Montech should be very appealing to consumers living on the other side of the Atlantic. Overall, the Titan Gold 1000W packs everything most consumers would like to see in a current generation power supply unit and for that it deserves the Golden Award.

PROS

- Good Build Quality
- Solid Rail Stability
- ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 (600W 12VHPWR Connector)
- 80 PLUS Gold Certified
- Electrical Protections (OCP/OVP/SSP/OPP/UVP/OTP)
- Single Strong +12V Rail (83.33A)
- Smart Zero Fan Mode
- 10 Year Limited Warranty
- Price (USA)

CONS

- Price (EU)