Montech Titan Gold 1200W ATX 3.0 power supply review

Montech is a rather new player in the PC power and cooling market. The Taiwanese company first appeared in 2016 and quickly made its presence international. Montech is currently focused on designing and producing PC cases, power supply units (PSUs), and CPU coolers. As the core philosophy of the company was to be competitive in terms of pricing, the vast majority of its products were targeting the high-volume mainstream market.

To entice gamers and enthusiasts, Montech shyly began releasing high-end and top-tier products. Not too long ago, the company released its new Titan Gold PSU series. The Titan Gold consists of high-output units designed for powerful gaming systems, a completely new market segment for the company. We examine the most powerful unit of the series, the Titan Gold 1200W PSU. Besides being a high-quality unit on its own, the Titan Gold was one of the first units that achieved ATX 3.0 compliance, and it was awarded the Cybenetics Platinum certification, but is it good enough to compete among the best power supplies on our list?

Specifications and Design

In the Box

Montech supplies the Titan Gold 1200W unit in a sturdy cardboard box. The artwork on the box is simplistic and focused around a picture of the PSU itself, but there is plenty of information about the specifications and certifications of the power supply on the sides and rear of the box.

Only the absolute basic items for the installation of the PSU can be found inside the packaging of the Montech Titan Gold, with the company supplying just a power cord and four mounting screws. There are no cable ties or straps, or any other accessories to be found.

The Titan Gold 1200W ATX 3.0 PSU is a fully modular design, allowing for the removal of every DC power cable, including the 24-pin ATX connector. Most of the cables have individually sleeved black wires and black connectors, but the ATX 24-pin cable and the 16-pin PCIe 5.0 cable consist of black wires bundled inside nylon sleeving. The strange thing here is the presence of five PCIe connectors, as one of the cables only has a single connector.

External Appearance

Unlike what most would expect from a company that is trying to keep costs down to a minimum, Montech actually invested some resources into making the Titan Gold 1200W PSU visually attractive. The chassis cover is punched to create a natural finger guard shaped after the company’s logo. The entirety of the power supply is sprayed with matte black paint that is highly resistant to fingerprints but also rather easy to chip if mishandled. It measures 160 mm long, which is 20 mm longer than what the ATX standard dictates, but we do not foresee any compatibility problems with any modern case that is meant to house an above-average PC.

The sticker with the unit’s electrical certifications and specifications is found covering most of the power supply’s top side. About a quarter of the sticker is blue and may draw unwanted attention if visible from a windowed side panel. Both sides of the unit have the company logo embossed onto them.

At the rear side of the unit, right next to the AC power connector and the basic on/off switch, there is a latching push button that controls the “smart-zero fan mode”. As the name suggests, this mode allows for passive operation while the PSU’s load is low – a frequently applied technique by many manufacturers nowadays. Disabling it will force the fan to continuously spin as long as the PSU is powered on but its speed will still be controlled thermally.

The front side of the unit is host to the numerous connectors for the modular cables. A legend and the company logo are printed on the chassis. There is also a sticker with the unit’s serial number.

Internal Design

Montech is making use of a 135 mm fan for the cooling needs of the Titan Gold 1200W power supply. The fan is made by Hong Hua, a popular manufacturer among PC PSU OEMs. It has a fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) engine for quiet operation and longevity but also has an extremely high maximum speed of 2300 RPM.

The OEM behind the Titan Gold 1200W power supply is Channel-Well Technologies (CWT), which is not a huge surprise considering that Montech has been in collaboration with them for several of their better products. The surprise here is that, while we didn’t know this when soliciting PSUs for review, the Titan Gold 1200W is using the same platform as the MSI MPG A1000G. It is an upgraded version of CWT’s most popular platform, slightly tweaked to add ATX 3.0 support.

Overall, the design of the Titan Gold 1200W is based on proven and relatively simple topologies. The filtering stage is typical, with four Y capacitors, two X capacitors, and two filtering inductors, with two rectifying bridges on a sizable heatsink following right after. The long heatsink that follows holds the active APFC components. Two very large capacitors, one 450V/680μF from Nippon Chemi-Con and one 420V/470μF from Rubycon, as well as a massive filtering inductor. The total capacitance of the circuit is very high and will undoubtedly cause a high inrush current that may cause small or quick circuit breakers to trip.

Moving on to the primary side of the main transformer, we find two transistors on a medium-sized heatsink, forming a typical half-bridge LLC inversion circuitry. The core of the secondary side is on a vertical daughterboard, which is home to eight power transistors that convert the transformer’s output to the main DC output of the power supply. The 3.3V and 5V lines are being generated via DC-to-DC conversion circuitry that can be found on their own vertical daughterboard. The secondary side capacitors are all made by Nippon Chemi-Con and Nichicon.

Cold Test Results

Cold Test Results (25°C Ambient)

For the testing of PSUs, we are using high precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2700 Watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox and various other bits and parts.

In consideration of the 80Plus Gold certification of the Montech Titan Gold 1200W PSU, the energy conversion efficiency is exceptional. The unit almost reaches 80Plus Platinum standards when powered via a 115 VAC source but cannot meet the 89% limit under maximum load. As Cybenetics ETA program takes into account the average efficiency of the unit, the Titan Gold achieved a Platinum certification there. Powering the Titan Gold from a 230 VAC outlet will increase its overall efficiency by 0.7%, but it will still not meet the 80Plus Platinum certification requirements, as the requirements also depend on the input voltage. The average nominal load efficiency (20% to 100% of the unit’s capacity) is 91.1% with the unit powered from a 230 VAC source, and drops down to 90.4% if the unit is powered by a 115 VAC source.

We performed our testing with the “Smart Zero Fan” mode of the unit disabled, forcing the fan to spin regardless of the load. The large heatsinks and good efficiency of the Titan Gold allow it to operate with its fan spinning at very low speeds while the load is relatively low. Still, a 1200W PSU will operate almost inaudibly with a load of up to 500 Watts. After that point, the fan’s speed increases quickly, especially when the load is greater than 900 Watts, making the Montech Titan Gold a very loud PSU when heavily loaded.

Hot Test Results

Hot Test Results (~45°C Ambient)

The Montech Titan Gold 1200W power supply displayed good resistance to high ambient temperatures, especially considering its efficiency certification. We calculated an average efficiency degradation of 0.7% across the nominal load range. The degradation is very high while the unit is heavily loaded, peaking at 2% when the unit operates under maximum load, suggesting that the components are getting thermally stressed.

With its massive 1200W power output in mind, the aggressive cooling profile of the fan keeps the internal temperatures of the Titan Gold PSU relatively low while the unit operates at low-to-medium loads. When the unit is heavily loaded, the very high thermal losses (which peak at about 160 Watts at maximum load) are becoming a bit too much for the cooling system to handle and the temperatures rise sharply. The temperatures do not get high enough to force the unit to shut down but they are uncomfortably high and definitely not good for the longevity of the unit. The high component temperatures also cause a significant efficiency drop at very heavy loads due to component stress.

The speedy 135 mm fan does a good job keeping the internal temperatures of the massive 1200W PSU relatively low – however, when the ambient temperature is high, the fan reaches its maximum speed when the load is about 950 Watts. After that point, the temperatures will rise sharply, as the cooling system cannot do anything more to combat the high thermal losses. When the Titan Gold 1200W unit is operating inside a very hot environment, it will stay relatively quiet only while the load is lower than 300 Watts. As the load increases beyond 300 Watts, the fan’s speed will increase linearly and will reach its maximum speed when the load is between 900 and 1000 Watts, at which point it will be generating more than 57 dB(A).

PSU Quality and Bottom Line

Power Supply Quality

The power quality of the Titan Montech Gold 1200W power supply is excellent for a product of this price range and of that efficiency certification. It has exceptional filtering on all voltage lines and a regulation lower than 1% on the primary 12V line. The maximum ripple on the 12V line is just 26 mV, a spectacular figure for a 1200W PSU. Montech also implemented exceptional filtering on the 3.3V/5V lines as well, where we recorded a maximum ripple of just 16 mV.

As part of our standard testing, we test the primary protections of all power supplies we review (Over Current, Over Voltage, Over Power, and Short Circuit). We tested all of the protections of the Montech Titan Gold 1200W power supply, and they all operate as intended. However, as seems to be the trend with ATX 3.0 units that are upgrades/updates of older platforms, both the OCP and OPP protections of the unit are set a bit high. The OCP protection of the 12V rail kicked in instantly, as intended when the current was almost 35% above the unit’s maximum rating. Likewise, we could draw almost 200 Watts above its rated capacity for relatively long time periods before the unit’s OPP protection decided it should shut the unit down. These relatively high figures are the side effect of gaining ATX 3.0 compliance, as the engineers have to ensure that the power supply will not be shutting down due to short-term power excursions.

Bottom Line

The Titan Gold 1200W marks a significant milestone for Montech, as it is their first entry into the ATX 3.0 market and one of the first units to be released under this new standard. With a focus on delivering a good price-to-performance ratio, the Montech Titan Gold 1200W aspires to be a top contender in the crowded power supply market.

The Montech Titan Gold 1200W is a high-performance computer power supply that delivers excellent power quality with very low voltage ripple and good regulation. Ironically for its name, this PSU achieves Platinum-level efficiency and received that level of certification from Cybenetics, but barely missed the 80Plus Platinum certification requirement under maximum load. This power supply is highly efficient, especially at lower loads, but its performance drops slightly at higher loads. The build quality of this power supply is exceptional, featuring Japanese capacitors and construction by a reputable OEM. Additionally, the competitive retail price of the Montech Titan Gold 1200W makes it a great value for those in need of a powerful and reliable power supply.

However, it is important to note that the power supply can get thermally stressed if it is kept running heavily loaded for prolonged periods of time, which must be considered for some applications. Home users and gamers need not worry about this, as regular PCs will not be running at maximum capacity for considerable periods. However, it will also generate very high noise levels if heavily loaded, which can be a potential drawback for some users.

In conclusion, the Montech Titan Gold 1200W power supply is a good, cost-effective option for high-end gaming and workstation builds. Its 1200W output makes it a great choice for all but the most power-hungry of systems, more than easily accommodating a GeForce RTX 4090 and overclocked CPU, and the very good overall efficiency results to passable thermal losses. The build quality is solid and the unit is well designed, and the 12+4 pin connector ensures its compatibility and usefulness going forward. The only downside is the noise level under heavy loads which might be an issue for some users. However, for those who are looking for a top-performing power supply, the Montech Titan Gold 1200W is a great option, and its $165 retail price makes it highly competitive in the market.

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