CoolMax CUL-950 950 Watt Modular Power Supply

Coolmax Technology, Inc. is a rapidly growing company that was founded in the year 1997. Our initial task of providing cooling solutions for electrical and industrial applications using AC and DC voltage fans is our solid foundation. Our commitment to excellence in both products and service had earned for us the reputation as a leading thermal solutions provider in the industry. We strive to work hard, hand in hand with our clients, from the biggest to the smallest. They rely on our company's ability to provide quick and professional responses to inquiries and production demands. Our factories are located in China and are ISO9000 and 14001 certified, all our products are UL, TUV, CSA, CE approved. Coolmax is dedicated to providing the best cooling solutions engineered for a high-tech world while maintaining long-term customer relationships. Source: Coolmaxusa.com 

Today, we will be looking at the CoolMax CUL-950 950 Watt power supply.  Previously, we have reviewed the CU, CUG, and RM series of power supplies from CoolMax.  All of them performed alright, but none have even come close to competing in terms of performance, efficiency and value with the bigger brand names in the power supply market.   Let's see what the CUL series from CoolMax has to offer.  This power supply features both hardwired and modular connections.  It does not feature any SLi Ready, Crossfire, or 80Plus certifications, which is pretty much the standard in power supplies these days.

Upon opening the box, you will find a power cord and the modular cables.  I was very disappointed to see that there were no manual or screws to be found, two items that are usually always included with a power supply.  If I were building a system from scratch, I would have no documentation or screws to install the power supply with.  This is a terrible and I will definitely subtract some points for this.  Keep in mind that the box was sealed from the factory.  The power cable is also embarrassingly short and it feels cheap.

Here are some of the main features and specifications from CoolMax's Website:

The Power Supply:

The power supply features a matte black housing and a silver fan grill, which is standard these days.

One side of the power supply features the CoolMax logo.

Looking at the side of the power supply, there is a label with CoolMax's logo on it, the model number and a condensed specification list.  Note that there are five +12v rails, with +12v 1 through 4 supplying up to 16 Amps each and +12v5 supplying up to 12 Amps, for a total of 76 Amps. The 3.3v supplies up to 24 Amps and the +5v supplies up to 30 Amps.  The efficiency of this power supply is unknown and unlisted on the box.  It is not 80Plus certified, so the efficiency can't be that great.

There is an large honeycomb style grill on the back which allows the 140 mm fan to exhaust hot air, an on/off switch and AC Power Input.  This power supply does feature Active PFC, so there is no need for a switch to select the input voltage.

This power supply features the following cables:

The hardwired cables are a tad short, a common problem on CoolMax's newer power supplies.

The modular sockets on the CUL-950.  The red sockets are for the PCI-e connectors and the black sockets are for the Molex, Floppy and SATA power connectors.

-A 24-pin ATX power connector

-A 4+4-pin +12v CPU Power Connector

-2x  6+2-Pin PCI-Express Power Connectors and 2x 6-Pin PCI-e connectors.

-6x Molex Power Connectors, with a grip for easy removal.

-6x Serial ATA Power Connectors

-1x Floppy Power Connector

Cooling:

There is a 140mm fan on the bottom of this power supply, which glows blue, thanks to its LED's.  During testing, at idle loads, this fan is somewhat quiet, making a quiet motor clicking sound along with a whirring sound when the computer first boots up.  With loads, the fan sped up a lot, making a turbulent whirring sound.  It was loud enough to be heard over the test system's cooling fans.

Inside the Power Supply:

* Taking this power supply apart will void the warranty. 

Inside the power supply,  there are two large silver heat sinks, used to cool down the voltage rectifiers.  The main transformer is in the middle right of the image, while the smaller transformer is to the left of it.  The primary capacitors are of an unknown brand and rated at 105c, while the secondary capacitors are also a unknown brand. The PCB layout and board quality is average.  Lots of hot glue is used to hold down the power input, which is concerning.  The soldering job is not too great either.

The two unknown "CS or SC" branded primary capacitors.

The secondary capacitors are "GL" branded.

The fan inside is a CoolMax branded fan.  It has the model number 13525M12B OD2 with a maximum draw of 0.35 Amps.

Testing:

For this power supply, the test system consists of the following:

-Antec Nine Hundred Two Case

-Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor @ 3.4 GHz (1.40v)

-Xigmatek Dark Knight Heatsink w/120mm Thermaltake ISGC Fan

-eVGA nForce 780i SLi FTW Motherboard

-4GB (2GB x 2) of OCZ Platinum DDRII-1066 Memory

-640GB x 4 Western Digital 7200RPM 32MB Cache Hard Drives

-2x nVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 (55nm) Video Cards @ 667MHz Core / 1053 MHz Memory

-Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card

-Lite-On 6x BD-ROM / 18x Asus DVD-RAM Drives

-4x 120MM fans, 1x 200mm fan

-2x CCFL Lights

(Multimeter Results)

*For additional / larger pictures of the CoolMax CUL-950 , Click Here

*Voltages are at a 'Max Load' for a typical gaming computer, running Orthos, Sisoft Sandra Hard Drive benchmark and 3DMark06 CPU Test 1 and 2 / Deep Freeze HDR test, and read with a Multi-Meter.

Capacitor Brands (subjective rating):

Primary: Unknown / Poor

Secondary: Unknown/ Poor

Primary: "CS or SC"

Secondary: "GL"

Voltage Results:

-The results were about average for this power supply.  The voltages did fluctuate quite a bit when a load was applied to the power supply.  They did stay within specifications though.

Stability Results:

+Everything ran fine during testing, the system was stable and performed the tests as expected. 

Fan Speed Impressions:

+During the tests, the fan was not very quiet with idle loads and only produced a loader whirring sound with loads.  The noise generated is still acceptable though.  Exhaust temperatures were quite warm, leading me to think that the efficiency on this power supply is not the best.

Installation:

- No screws or manual were included with this power supply.  Meaning that I had to supply my own screws to install this power supply.  This is not acceptable.  Also, the included power cord was too short to reach from the surge strip to the computer.  The power supply cables were a little short, leaving very little slack in the cabling and an overall tight fit.   After supplying my own screws and power cord, the installation went fine.  

Conclusion:

This power supply would be ideal for anyone looking to build multi CPU core gaming / workstation system with two or more moderately powered video cards.  The CUL-950 from CoolMax lacks features that are becoming the standard in power supplies, such as SLi / Crossfire Readiness and the 80Plus certification.  The lack of any of these features concerns me, especially for a 950 Watt class power supply.  At around $120 without rebates and around $100 with rebates, this power supply is priced well for its wattage rating, but the low quality and average performance of this power supply justifies the lower than average price.  Overall, this is a lackluster 950 watt class power supply.  I do not recommend purchasing this power supply.

Pros +

-Acceptable power output

-Three Year Warranty

Cons -

-Noisy fan under loads

-Lacks users manual and screws

-Cheap internal components

-Short Power Cord

-Short power connectors

-Is not SLi / Crossfire Ready

-Is not 80Plus certified

Techaddicts.net would like to give this power supply a Poor rating.

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