Specifications

With such a low price, it would be insane to ask for more than 80 Plus Bronze efficiency. However, the manufacturer states that this unit can deliver its full power continuously at up to 50°C, which is amazing if true. Such budget PSUs usually only have a temperature rating of 25°C, but Xigmatek apparently chose to set the bar significantly higher. The PSU also has a semi-modular cabling design with flat cables and includes a full set of protections. The only downside so far is its horrible Haswell compliance test result; however, do note that we adhere to Intel's tough guidelines in these tests. And while the unit will be able to power a Haswell system with relative ease in most cases, we ought to follow Intel's testing procedures in order to cover all Haswell usage scenarios and not just most of them.

Xigmatek speaks of a fluid circulative bearing technology (FCB) fan, but the specifications we found say it to be nothing but a sleeve bearing fan with some minor modifications. Be that as it may, we didn't expect to find anything better inside of a budget unit. A good fan alone can easily cost more than 10 bucks, which would be 1/4th of this product's price. Only 12.5 cm long, this PSU is incredibly small as most PSUs of a similar capacity are usually 16 cm and at least 14 cm long. Such compact dimensions will make the Maverick fit into even the smallest of cases, which was obviously Xigmatek's intention from the start.

The +12V rail uses a group-regulation design, which will cause the unit to perform poorly with unbalanced loads on its rails. Still, the +12 V rail is strong enough for a mainstream system, and the same goes for the minor rails. The 5VSB rail is as strong as in other modern low capacity PSUs.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

Only those cables that are absolutely necessary have been affixed to the unit, which will please most of you. Many would obviously prefer a fully modular design, but such is nigh impossible at this price point. There are two PCIe connectors with, strangely enough, only 6 pins. At least one of these would normally have 6+2 pins since 450 W on the +12V rail is enough to power a strong VGA. The number of SATA connectors is high enough, but we would like a couple more 4-pin Molex connectors. There are also no floppy connectors, which probably won't bother most users. However, Xigmatek could have at least provided an FDD adapter in case someone does need one.

All the cables are on the short side since the unit will most likely go into a small chassis. Yet we would have still liked longer SATA and peripheral cables.

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail, we do not have anything to comment on when it comes to its power distribution.