Cabling:

Full bundle of cables

Heatsink ends

    The Tuniq Miniplant 950W is not a fancy, modular-cable power supply. Instead, it's just your standard PS2 Form Factor. All of the cables are sheathed in a black plastic mesh that give the cables some rigidity. Each of the cable sleeves are secured at the ends with a tie wrap and a piece of heat-shrink tubing.

20+4	4&8 pin power	6&8 pin PCI-E
6 to 8 adapters	6 Molex 2 FDD	6 SATA

    Time to move on to the cables themselves. Since Tuniq sells power supplies worldwide, the Miniplant was made to handle both 110V and 220V, and this is done without having to flip that little switch on the back - it's all automatic. A quick breakdown of the remaining cables are: the main motherboard power connector, which is a 20+4 connector; a 4pin and 8pin CPU 12v connectors, two 8pin and 6pin PCI-E connectors and two 8 to 6 pin adapters. All of those cables are 20 inches in length. Next up are two more cables, each with 3 Molex plugs and 1 FDD plug. Two other cables are left, each with three SATA plugs at right angles. These cables are 35 inches in length.

Installation and Testing:

PSU installed

Rear view

    Installing the Tuniq Miniplant 950W power supply is like installing any other power supply. Slide the power supply into the proper location and use the four supplied screws to secure the power supply to the case. Now for testing. Since we at VH can't afford to spend $50,000 on a Chroma C8000 Automatic Power Supply Test System and Dice refuses to get one for review, we can only really test the PFC rating of a power supply. I did this by generating a 200W power load, along with the power load from the computer hardware listed below, which gives me around 340W-350W. Also, showing voltage readings under idle and load conditions don't mean a thing without the proper test equipment. It is normal for the voltage to fluctuate under these conditions, so my testing for now on will just show the Power Factor.

Test Rig:

Seasonic Power Angel will be used to read the efficiency of the power supply under normal system load. With my system setup, there is no way I'm going to get near the max wattage rating of this PSU, so we shall see the PFC rating under a normal system.

Conclusion:

    Who wouldn't want a near-1000 watt power supply in a standard size PSU enclosure? The Tuniq Miniplant 950W proves to be a solid and stable performer, with plenty of PCI-E connections for the hardcore gamer. I know this isn't a modular PSU and all the extra cables may clutter up a smaller enclosure, but I say deal with it since you are getting a true "mini plant" in a small PS2 housing. Plus, they included some zip ties to help keeps things organized.

    Pulling only 343W, the Tuniq Miniplant 950W barely broke a sweat and there weren't any discernable sounds from the fan. The large fan size, along with the slow rotation and blade design, keeps any fan noise to an absolute minimum. The voltages remained stable throughout the testing phase, and the 86% efficiency is right in line with most other PSU's in its class.

    If you are in the market for a powerful, quiet, small power supply that produces a near-1000W punch, then the Tuniq Miniplant 950W will be a great choice. I would like to thank Tuniq for sending out this item for VH to review.

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