Since the introduction of DirectX10 GPUs, quad core processors, and chipsets full of features but also incredibly hot and sucking a lot of power up PSU wattage has grown in leaps and bounds from the high but occasionally necessary 500W to the ludicrous 1200 and 1300W PSUs. That said even people with very high-end PCs don't need that much power. Today we have a PSU to look at from a somewhat less known company, BGears and their 650W Tarantula PSU.

Here are the features for the power supply.

- 13.5 CM fan for excellent airflow and quiet operation
- Oversized Heatsink for better heat absorption
- SmartFlex Modular Cable Management, great for SFF cases
- PCI Express, SLi and Dual Core CPU Ready
- EPS 12V and ATX12V Version 2.2 Compliant
- Active PFC for better power efficiency
- Sleeved cabling for a tidier look
- Green Power for extreme low power usage in standby mode
- High Efficiency of up to 86%
- Universal AC input 115~230V automatically scans and detects the correct voltage

Inside the box the PSU is neatly packed and features a gun metal black coloring. It's fairly standard size for a PSU of this wattage. Inside the package you'll find all the modular cables that the power supply comes with. These are different from other modular devices that you might be accustomed to because instead of ports the cables connect to other smaller cables on the power supply. This means they are quite long and might be a little bit more secure than using ports. The modular cables include a PCI-E 8-pin power adapter, two modular molex cable adapters, and two modular SATA cables. Included onboard are the 24-pin adapter, 8-pin CPU power connection, another PCI-E 6-pin power adapter, and one each of molex and SATA able. As with other power supplies the main power cables come straight out from the PSU.

For cooling the PSU uses a larger than normal 135mm fan and in testing ran quite cool overall and also was quiet. The Tarantula is rated for 86% efficiency which is good although not the best out there. Other features the Tarantula sports includes an oversized heatsink, auto fan speed control, and Green Power and RoHS compliant.

Here is our current test system.

For idle testing we waited 5 minutes into start up from Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 and measured the power draw. The load was tested using 3DMark 2006.

Against the much more expensive Antec the Tarantula does well and as we can see most users will never use that much power but with losses from efficiency and degradation of parts over time it's good to have more power necessary than to be right on the edge.