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

Hot Test Results (~45°C Ambient)

For a product of this class and price range, the Montech Century Gold 650W PSU is extremely resilient to high environmental temperatures. The performance of the PSU was largely unaffected while it was operating inside our hotbox, with the average efficiency drop being just 0.2%. The degradation at maximum load was slightly more substantial but still remained negligible. This suggests that the components of the Century Gold are barely getting thermally stressed, even with the PSU operating at maximum capacity in our hotbox.

The thermal control circuitry of the Century Gold appears to be very basic but also highly effective, with the PSU increasing the speed of the fan almost linearly depending on the load. Regardless of the simplicity, the internal temperatures of the PSU are very low for a unit producing that kind of power. Montech could be less strict with the thermal control circuitry but the very low component temperatures directly affect the longevity of the PSU.

Despite the simple thermal control, the Century Gold has its fan spinning at low speeds even while the ambient temperature is high and increases the speed of the fan (and, in extend, the noise) alongside with the output power of the unit. If the Montech Century Gold 650W PSU is found operating under a very high ambient temperature, the Yate Loon fan will be almost silent while the system is idling, clearly audible at half load, and loud while the unit is operating at maximum capacity.