14 DAY TRIAL // You can say a lot about a power supply just by looking at its connector loadout. Some might say it's even more important than the actual Wattage. The new Cooler Master GX II could be taken as evidence for that. One might find it hard to believe, but the Watt output of power supplies isn't as revealing as it used to be half a decade ago.
After all, a 400W PSU with a high energy efficiency (Say, 80 Plus Gold rated) can handle more hardware than a 500-600W PSU whose efficiency is low.
The new power supplies from Cooler Master, called GX series, aren't as efficient, but they do have a good enough grasp of power saving that they earned the 80 Plus Bronze label.
In fact, the GX II 450W is the only one that cannot be used for high-performance gaming PCs, because it boasts a single 6+2-pin PCI Express connector.
That means it can handle a single graphics card, and even that can't be one of the stronger ones, because those have two power inputs.
Still, the PSU does have four SATA ports, two Molex connectors and a Berg output, besides the standard 24-pin ATX and 4+4-pin EPS. And since even a “modest” NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 can run the latest games in high quality, that will make the GX II 450W sufficient for many.
The GX II 550 has two 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors, six SATA power, three Molex, and one Berg. Clearly, it is ready for the better boards out there.
The GX II 650W only has the extra 100W to show for itself. No extra ports or modularity, and no extra protections.
All three GX II Series Cooler Master PSUs have a unique "always-on" USB header (puts out power even with the system shut down into ErP-compliant deep S5 sleep mode) and 120 mm fans.
They measure 150 x 140 x 86 mm / 5.90 x 5.51 x 3.38 inches and have prices of $79 / €58 to $109 / €80.