Final Words & Conclusion
The Verdict
A bit of a problem right now in the PSU market is that power supplies come a dime a bucket. There is so much competition, brands and models available in the market that as a PSU vendor, you really need to have something horribly good or different in your hands to make the difference.
Gigabyte succeeded with that for the bigger part. We feel that this is a very efficient and stable power supply with a lot of reserves. The overall design is great, nice black theme, sleeved wiring, LED lit ventilator and then the brute horsepower to deliver what it should ... stable current. As such it comes recommended, but here's the thing. If you have SLI or Crossfire on your upgrade path then the tide turns and I would not recommend this PSU purely and solely due to the lack of PEG connectivity.
What's bogging me here is the fact that we have a 700W power supply with four 12V rails at nearly 20 AMPs, that's all still great. But then we only get two PCIe connectors. And that's enough for one modern graphics card ...
Now say you take two 175 EUR GeForce GTX 260 cards and set them up in SLI mode then yeah .. you are short two PCIe PEG connectors aren't you ? Then you are forced to use the ugly Molex to 6-pin power converters, Again you'd need two of these; each single one of these converters use two Molex connectors. Yes .. you have no Molex connectors left after that .. not even to power up your DVD-ROM.
Seriously, I do not know what SLI-certification means anymore other than adding a sticker onto the packaging and looking at primary voltage distribution specifications. Why anno 2009 do manufacturers do not think about simple stuff like this ... ? It also raises a question, if you as do not think about something as simple as this, what else did you not think about ? This so baffles me.
So there you have it. Make no mistake, the Gigabyte ODIN is a lovely and really good power supply, quite efficient, great looks, nicely sleeved. But only if you plan to use just one graphics cards. Keep in mind that to maximize efficiency the design of the cables is not modular, not very aesthetically pleasing 'spaghetti in the PC' for PCs with say a side window and a modded chassis. So that's a bit of a tradeoff in your choice, more efficiency or a more pleasing overall look.
The Gigabyte Odin PLUS 700W is available soon for 120 incl VAT and comes recommended, but only if you stick to one graphics card.
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