Akasa PowerMax 1000W Gaming PSU

Results

The voltages are excellent and while we had to split both 12V rails into two because of the limitation of the test equipment (at 300W per channel) they still survived perfectly when we loaded both with a total of 35A they are rated to. The PFC is consistently above 97 percent and the efficiency is solidly over 84 percent and tops out at over 87 percent - this is another great result and for the most part users will be seeing nearer the 87 percent end of things at typical 50-75 percent load scenarios.

At 50 percent load the fan is generally really quiet although there was a slightly bearing ticking noise that wouldn't go away - Akasa claims just 17dB at "normal load", whatever that is. Both the air and sides/base were cool to touch too. Increasing to 75 percent load and the fan ticking becomes more of a whirr as it speeds up - the PSU is now clearly audible as the base and air become warm but the sides stay pretty cool.

At 100 percent load the fan is still quite slow spinning - especially lower than the Corsair HX1000W, but the bearing whirr has become clearly audible and there's some evident coil whine under 12V weighting to add into the mix now as well. The problem is that we found it got far too hot in places under load. The base was all over very warm to touch with several hotspots - notably under the transformer on the inside edge by the grill running under the cables. The air escaping from both grills was also particularly hot to touch as well - considering we test in a 25'C environment this doesn't bode well for far hotter cases.

Value and Conclusions

At £115 this is an incredible price for a 1,000W PSU, but we have to admit that originally alarm bells started ringing whether this was one of those "1,000W too good to be true" bargains. However, having tested it we know that it has stable voltages and good efficiency, even to 100 percent load.

Akasa throws in a three year warranty too which matches the likes of Nanopoint (Tagan, Seasonic etc) and Enermax, but it's lower than many others five year warranties like Cooler Master, Antec for example. The saving grace on this front is that Akasa has a UK RMA base should you need it.

Compared to even the great value ~£140 Corsair HX1000W the Akasa is impressively inexpensive, but you do get what you pay for. The Akasa suffers from a cheap, basic look, very few cables, coil whine, hot running and fan bearing noise, even if the fan itself isn't overly loud, and insufficient 12V rails - certainly not enough for a true 1,000W PSU.

So good efficiency and solid voltages aren't everything.

This is a clear bandwagon jumper - there's no way this is a true gaming PSU with only four PCI-Express cables, and unless you've got an exceedingly tall case like the Lian Li Tyr PC-X2000, then we'd opt to buy something else.

Akasa will rely on people never hitting anywhere close to 1,000W and with the amount of cables provided it's unlikely anyone will, so in that regard it'll probably suffice for many that buy it, but that also makes it expensive considering you can get an excellent Corsair TX750W for a fraction of the price. Unfortunately, "750" versus "1000" doesn't satisfy the e-peen factor though.

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What do these scores mean?