The attention to detail ePower Technology has put into this power supply is obvious with many aspects such as the individual drive/accessory power leads. Care and time have been spent to twist each of the four wires into an almost loom like pattern to try and keep cable clutter to a minimum. To further reduce clutter, The Cheetah has a reduced number of power connectors to meet the most popular demands of the modern enthusiast. There are only two main power leads with three Molex connectors and two floppy style connectors on each, for a total of six Molex and two floppy.

     Since Serial ATA hard drives have become so popular, most modern power supplies now feature dedicated power connectors for those drives. Placing these connectors on their own power lead helps to reduce wire routing and length problems. The fact that there are only two connectors is somewhat disappointing, but then again not many computers have more than two SATA drives installed in them anyway. From the cable clutter issue, wires you're not using have to be stowed and by only including enough to use, you won't be stowing any. Speaking of wires that AREN'T included, the old set of 12Volt Auxiliary connectors (the long flat one) that were re-introduced on some Pentium-4 board (RDRAM capable) are not included with this power supply either. If you're still using a motherboard with that kind of connector, it is time to consider an upgrade anyway!

     Most power supplies do offer some type of loom wrap over the large ATX connector but ignore the 4-pin auxiliary line. ePower has taken the time to include the same attractive UV reactive wrap over this connector as well. The other connectors seen in the above picture are "FAN ONLY" power connectors meant to be connected to case fans. There are three Molex and three "3-pin" connectors for either/or case fan power connection. These fans connectors are part of the "Top Silent" technology set in place by ePower.

     Now this is just cool! A little redundant to call it a Hard Disk drive connector since the power supply also has SATA power connectors on it. Since most high-end video cards now have a Molex power connector, we know exactly where the enthusiast will be plugging this. Also wrapped in the reactive UV loom, this particular connector also has an iron loop around near the Molex connector to further reduce EMI emissions. I know I've already said it, but the attention to detail ePower has put into this power supply is outstanding.

TESTING

     Now that I've established that The Cheetah certainly looks cool, it's time to prove that its worth installing into your computer. To test this unit, I will be installing it into a Cooler Master ATC-201B-BXT enclosure. For those of you not familiar with it, it is a pre-mod case with a side panel window mod and a "blow hole" on top. Two  80mm fans up front, one 80mm out the rear and the top blow-hole has an 80mm fan in it also. All of these fans are STOCK and rated for approximately 36 CFM. The power supply will be bringing juice to an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard with an Intel Pentium-4 2.8"C" overclocked to 3.5GHz. A Sound Blaster Auidgy-2 sits in a PCI slot and an ATI Radeon 9800Pro will be connected to the power supplies "VGA" connector. A pair of Western Digital Raptor hard drives will utilize the SATA connectors with a Plextor: PlexWriter Premium and DVD multi-format PX-708A drive along with a TEAC DVD-ROM hogging up 3 more Molex connectors. Oh, let me not forget the 3.5 inch floppy drive too. To round off the case mod angle, I'll have a conservative light array plugged in that consists of 4 CCFL tubes along with a CCFL case badge.

     Taking a sample of the voltage sensor at idle reveals what I believe to be a little bit of Asus Fudge because the P4C800 series boards are known to have some voltage saturation issues. The -12V and -5V rails are WAY off course and the +12V rail is just a little low. The vCC voltage is set to 1.60 in the BIOS for the overclock and comes in at .03 volts over.

     Using the Hi-Lo feature of Motherboard monitor, I tracked the voltages throughout different stages of system use. Voltage levels remained within specification, but I have an issue to expand upon. With the power supplies FAN ONLY connectors providing power to the chassis intake/exhaust fans, the fans were nice and quiet but I encountered system instability during extended game-play sessions with games like: Generals Zero Hour and Battlefield: Vietnam. I had a digital thermometer's sensor positioned to record exhaust temperature from the chassis fan. This was reading only 98°F degrees while the internal thermometer was nearing almost 120°F. When I moved the probe to the power supplies exhaust fan port, the temperature reading jumped to 125°F. In an overclocked scenario, especially with a high end video card in the AGP slot, the FAN ONLY headers to not allow the fans to spin up to a speed high enough to provide adequate ventilation. After replacing the chassis fans with normal full-power connectors, internal temperatures returned to normal and system stability was returned to 100%.

CONCLUSION

     There is a LOT to like about this power supply, starting with the great looks. UV wrap on all the major cables, and a nice twist in the wires of the drive/device power leads adds a unique look that separates itself from the rest of the power supplies on the shelf. The window mod in the chassis of the power supply, though very nice looking, isn't viewable in some enclosures that don't have full window mods in the side panels, or that have a support structure around the power supplies mounting point. The voltage supply is clean enough to support overclocking operations in a PC rigged for gaming. While the FAN ONLY header ports are a great idea to reduce fan noise, I can NOT recommend using them due to the heat choking that was exhibited during my testing routines. Had the FAN ONLY headers reacted better to the increase in temperatures then the performance rating would have been much more favorable.