INTRODUCTION

    Growing up in the 90's power supply units weren't something people put much weight on because there were none. Sure, there were some brands around but most of them only offered their models to system integrators/builders and since power demands back there were minimal power supply units failing was very rare (at least I hardly ever see one fail). Fast forward to today and largely due to graphics cards power demands have skyrocketed and so owning a high quality and performance power supply unit has never been more important. The TITAN PLA line by MONTECH is their best one to date and today I am testing the 1200W 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 PLA line is currently available in white color (used to also be available in black, from what I see that's no longer available) and includes 4 different output models (750/850/1000/1200W) all of which are fully modular, ATX 3.1 & PCIe 5.1 compliant and 80 PLUS Platinum certified. The 1200W unit which I've been testing for quite a while now features a single 12V-2x6 power connector (600W), three 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors, single strong +12V rail (100A) capable of delivering 100% of the units’ total power output (1200W) and a peak power output of no less than 1338W (peak should now be up to around 2.5KW for up to 100ms - once again however this is not something i can test). The TITAN PLA line also sports full-bridge LLC with DC to DC design, active PFC, zero fan mode for its 135mm fan (starts spinning after 15-20% load), embossed modular cables, 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). As for warranty MONTECH once again shows their confidence in their products by covering the entire TITAN PLA line with a 10-year limited one.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The TITAN PLA 1200W power supply unit arrived inside a black box that has a product picture at the front along with the company logo, output, OEM manufacturer (Seasonic) and main features.

3 graphs showcasing efficiency noise and input/output power are available on the right side.

MONTECH has also printed the product features on the base of the box in 10 languages.

Packing is standard with the unit wrapped inside a synthetic cover (as with its modular cables) and placed between 2 pieces of foam.

Inside the box MONTECH has placed the TITAN PLA 1200W power supply unit with its power cable, modular cables,  11 white cable ties, 5 cable straps, white cable routing mounts, 4 mounting screws, PSU tester and the quick start guide.

THE TITAN PLA 1200W EXTERIOR

The TITAN PLA 1200W follows the typical form factor currently and so it measures just 160mm in width, 150mm in length and 86mm in height.

All cables in the TITAN PLA line currently are white and individually braided.

MONTECH has used an 135mm fluid dynamic bearing fan which is located under a silver grille.

Both the model name and company logo are printed on the sides of the housing.

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

All 13 available power ports at the front are tagged and grouped.

At the rear we find the on/off power switch, zero RPM button and the power port.

THE TITAN PLA 1200W INTERIOR

Hong Hua is once again the fan manufacturer MONTECH has used (135mm/2300RPM).

Internal layout may not be wire free but it's quite clean, typical of Seasonic (OEM).

Both primary capacitors are manufactured by Rubycon and are certified for up to 105 degrees Celsius.

Secondary capacitors on the other hand are manufactured by nichicon and Nippon Chemi-Con and are again certified for use up to 105 degrees.

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 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

    The OEM behind the TITAN PLA line is Seasonic and well, that’s always a great start. Build quality is very good and the same goes for performance with rail stability being very good (alas the 5V rail could be better). Efficiency is also good although I must admit that for a Platinum certified model I was expecting slightly more. I was slightly surprised to see that MONTECH has dropped the black variant, but I didn’t really look into that, so I don’t know why they decided to take this route. As for available output models (750/850/1000/1200W) and warranty not much to say here, these should be more than plenty for every user out there.

    With a current price tag set at USD239 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and at around 239Euros inside the EU the TITAN PLA 1200W 80 PLUS Platinum power supply unit by Montech is priced well. Yes, I still don’t like the lack of available colors (black and white should be the standard for any PSU by now so this doesn’t apply just to MONTECH) but the TITAN PLA 1200W performed very well during the 2 weeks I spent testing/using it and for that it deserves the Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Build Quality
- Solid Rail Stability
- ATX 3.1 & PCIe 5.1 Compliant
- 12V2X6 600W Connector
- Strong Single Rail (100A)
- 80 PLUS Platinum Certified
- Electrical Protections (OCP/OVP/OPP/UVP/SCP/OTP)
- Noise Levels
- 10 Year Limited Warranty

CONS

- Only Available In White Color
- Overall Availability