The Montech Century Gold 650W PSU Review: The New Kid Starts Out Strong

Power Supply Quality

The electrical performance of the Montech Century Gold 650W PSU was significantly better than what we expected to see from a product of this class. It has surprisingly strong voltage regulation on the primary 12V line, keeping it within 0.4% across the entire nominal load range. The regulation on the secondary 3.3V and 5V lines is at 1.5%, which is less impressive but still very good. The power quality of all three voltage lines is exceptional considering the tier of the PSU, with the 12V line displaying a maximum ripple of just 26mV with the unit operating at maximum capacity.

As part of our standard testing, we test the primary protections of all PSUs we review (Over Current, Over Voltage, Over Power, and Short Circuit). The Montech Century Gold 650W successfully passed all of the tests, generally reacting timely when needed and shutting down to protect itself and the components it is powering. Only the over-current protection on the 12V line is set too high, taking the PSU a good couple of seconds to shut down at even 110% of its rated amperage. Regardless, the protection operated successfully and no permanent damage is done to the unit even after several successive attempts.

Conclusion

Montech developed the Century Gold series for the higher end of the mainstream market, trying to combine and balance quality, performance, and cost. The market segment that the Century Gold 650W is targeted at is very large, and the sheer selection of available products makes it challenging for new products to establish reputations, even when attempted by highly established brand names. Regardless, Montech is definitely making a serious attempt with the Century Gold.

The core design of the Montech Century Gold 650W feels uninteresting by today’s standards, with the unit based on topologies that are widely used and proven over many years. What is interesting about the Century Gold is Montech’s selection of components, which are of outstanding quality considering the class and target audience of the PSU. Having a proven design combined with top-quality parts is the recipe for longevity. This extends beyond the passive parts, such as the all-Japanese capacitors, to the active parts of the PSU, which are remarkably efficient and largely unaffected by stress, despite the extremely plain heatsinks of the unit.

A good selection of components does more than just affect the quality of a PSU, as it directly affects every aspect of the unit’s performance. The Montech Century Gold 650W is a prime example of that quote, as the PSU displayed the combination of exceptional power quality, great energy conversion efficiency, and minimal losses. Only the thermal control circuit is simplistic and, still, the high efficiency of the PSU allows it to maintain very low noise levels over most of its nominal load range. For a product designed to target the mainstream market, the Montech Century Gold 650W PSU performs exceptionally well – better than a large number of top-tier PSUs.

Montech is a new company whose focus is to deliver, above all else, cost-effective products. As such, we expected the Century Gold 650W unit to be a power supply designed with a focus on price over quality. That, however, proved not to be the company’s main intention with this particular PSU series – instead, this is very much a premium power supply (or at least as much as a Gold PSU can be), with Montech incorporating some of the best parts and materials they could readily procure. So for their first showing on AnandTech, they've definitely made an impression by delivering a high quality PSU.

The one catch in all of this, however, is that the use of premium components adds to the price tag in what is historically a price-sensitive market. Selling the PSU directly through Newegg, Montech has priced the Century Gold 650W at $90, placing it dangerously close to the prices charged for premium PSUs from the larger, more established names. As a result, Montech can't lean on pricing to become a break-out star in this market, which means they have to work in smaller and harder ways instead.