BitFenix Formula Gold 550W
BitFenix is a rather new company in the enthusiast realm having been founded in 2010. Much of their early portfolio revolved around cases/chassis. Today, however, BitFenixs’ product portfolio includes chassis/cases, fans, various accessories, and power supplies. Among this expanding portfolio we are interested in their power supplies and, today, we are seeing the 550W entry in their Formula Gold series which is produced in conjunction with CWT.
Channel Well Technology (CWT) was founded and began manufacturing power supplies in 1993. Since 1993 Channel Well Technology products have shown up under various guises including Antec, Xclio, 2theMax, CWT, Thermaltake, Xigmatek, and Corsair. While most familiar to our US users from when it used to provide OEM services for Antec, CWT is one of the more complete OEM manufacturers as it has a fairly high level of vertical integration providing transformers all the way up to its well designed independently regulated SMPS. Recently, however, CWT has begun stretching out and is providing OEM services for a number of brands as today’s unit demonstrates.
Firebird Formula….Firebird Trans Am….There is a Screaming Chicken Here Somewhere
The BitFenix Formula Gold 550W is the first power supply we have seen from BitFenix as well as the smallest capacity power supply yet to cross our test bench. One issue with small capacity units is that people often expect a small price tag but the same quality and performance that you see with higher-end/capacity products. That makes this a very tough market to play in when you are a vendor that wants to build a brand and BitFenix seems to be a brand that wants to build. So, it will be of great interest today to see how they walk this tight rope. Before we move on to see how the Formula Gold 550W, and what it costs, let’s first see what BitFenix has to say about this unit:
Introducing you the newest line up of BitFenix power supplies that boasts of extreme quality and world’s best performance with 80+ Gold efficiency and up to 92% efficiency at typical loading. The new BitFenix Formula Gold power supply line up comes with a wide range of power options starting with 450W all the way up to 750W incrementing by 100W.
Let’s move on now and see what we can expect when a user purchases the BitFenix Formula Gold 550W power supply in retail in terms of documentation, accessories, cable count, rail layout, output characteristics, and general build quality.