700W to 850W PSU Group Test

Tagan Easycon X1 700W

Manufacturer: Tagan
Price (as reviewed): £109.22 (inc VAT)

Tagan is a very popular brand of PSU, and with good reason. Previously the company has offered very solid products at a good price, making it very popular with enthusiasts.

This latest 700W Modular Tagan PSU comes with yet another funky box that would sit well in a variety of situations other than holding cables for a PSU. It does appear a bit of "your Gran's knitting draw", but it's also cool in that it's not yet-another-cardboard-box. The build quality is actually very good, although it does pick up nicks and cuts quite easily, especially at the corners.

The drawers are also not that smooth to get in and out, especially if you're trying to pack cables into it, but it's certainly a universal product. You could even mod it to provide sections for other cables or computer tat you've no doubt also got strewn over your desk. Tagan should probably sell it on its own, but with more draws and customisable dividers like you get in good camera bags.

Alternative uses aside, in addition to the bubble wrap, the box is designed to protect your PSU during transport and also keep your extra cables neat and tidy, too.

The black painted PSU is the same size as the Seasonic and Enermax at just 16x15x8.5cm, and weighs in at just 2.3kg with the ATX and 8-pin 12V cables attached. It has a very large 13.5cm clear fan on the top, with Tagan branding in the centre and a honeycomb exhaust grill in the back.

Accessories:

• High quality power cable with a gunmetal braiding and clear plastic covering;
  
• Five black Velcro cable ties;
  
• Two black plastic zip ties;
  
• Four case screws;
  
• Multi-language manual with installation guide and rail listing;

Overall the additional contents are pretty good. The extra Velcro cable ties are a nice touch as they allow re-usability in the future. The power cable fits with the design of the other PSU cables and looks great, a nice addition compared to standard black plastic.

Supplied Cables

• Two sets of 35cm, black braided two port SATA cables;
  
• Two sets of 50cm, black braided two port Molex cables;
  
• Two sets of 50cm, black braided two port SATA cables;
  
• One 35cm, black braided two port Molex;
  
• Two 60cm, gunmetal braided with clear plastic covered 6-pin PCI-Express connectors;
  
• One 60cm, gunmetal braided with clear plastic covered single Molex;
  
• One 50cm, black braided 20+4pin ATX connector;
  
• One 50cm, gunmetal braided with clear plastic covered 4+4pin 12V connector;
  
• One Molex to two floppy adapter;
  
• Additional grounding cable.

Not only are quite a few cables supplied, Tagan also provided varying lengths which means you can minimise cable mess in your case. The cables are split between two styles -- black braided (which look good) or gunmetal braiding and clear plastic covering combination (which looks fantastic and are our preference). Unfortunately, only the PCI-Express and 4+4-pin 12V cables are sheathed in this way, but better just that than nothing.

Tagan has really thought of everything as both the ATX connector and 12V connectors have inbuilt backward compatibility using simple clip on/off 4-pin connectors. While graphics cards no longer use the Molex, nearly all high end motherboards now do, and having a dedicated cable certainly helps minimise mess. It also means that you don't lose two or three Molexes, as often you have to drag a string of them on one cable to the other side of your motherboard for this purpose.

The modular connectors sit flush to the unit, which looks better than the Enermax, and the PCI-Express connectors and cables are differentiated by their blue colouring. The only problem is the chunky ends are hard to unclip, and this combined with the fact there is nothing holding the female sockets into the PSU means you just end up pulling the whole connector out like we did in the picture above.

It's easy to slide them back in, but it's also annoying to have to pull off and replace most times you remove a connector. When this (inevitably) happens, thankfully the connectors can only be replaced in a single orientation.