E-Power Silent Engine 550W Power Supply (PSU)

Final Thoughts

Yves Thoughts:

I have been an overclocker for a long time now, and a hardware junky for even longer. If there is one thing I have come to understand over the years, quality matters. I always have to spend at least an hour a week explaining to someone how a $20 power supply will put their $2,000 SLI based dual-core system at risk. It takes a little while and then they start to see what I am saying. The contention always seems to be based around money. The cost of a truly good power supply is generally at least $100 these days. Is it worth the money?

It most certainly is. Not only is this the component that is going to be the heart or life blood of your system, but it also helps determine how long your computer will last. Right now the E-Power Tiger 550w Silent Engine power supply can be found for around $104 to $117 shipped. At that price you get a lot but you loose a lot too. For the case mod crowd and those that do some overclocking this power supply offers not only good looks, and functionality with strong voltage rails and plenty of wattage. It is a good solution for 80% of people out there so long as they are willing to pay a little extra for some of its features.

There are still two things to hit on before wrapping this up, noise and the single 12v rail. First noise, using my sound pressure level meter in a very quiet room I was unable to get a reading, meaning that while running the PSU was under 35dBA which is considered very quiet. As to the ATX 2.01 and EPS 2.0 compliance — I really don’t have a problem with this unit not complying, I would still recommended it as a quality unit that comes with some very nice features for a reasonable price. My only requests is to the manufacture, please properly label and advertise your product correctly as compliance and compatibility do not mean the same thing.

Legit Bottom Line: Good looks, good wattage, quiet operation, and excellent features make the E-Power Tiger 550w Silent Engine power supply a good option for the modder and overclocker. This unit will have no problems running even the most power hungry modern CPU and GPU’s. The only downside is its average price and inability to meet the advertised ATX 2.01 and EPS 2.0 standards.