Verdict:

Everything a high-end PC needs.

While most PSUs work by taking the 240V AC from the mains and transforming it separately for each rail down to the appropriate level (3.3V, 5V and 12V), the HX1000W bucks this trend entirely.

Instead, the HX1000W has just two transformers, one of which powers 12V1 and the other 12V2. This not only means that the HX1000W is one of the few PSUs that can claim to have two genuinely separate 12V rails, but also, as the 5V rail is derived from the 12V1 circuit and the 3.3V rail from the 12V2 circuit, the HX1000W only needs one AC/DC rectifier (changing 240V AC to 12V DC). It therefore has less circuitry and is more energy-efficient than a traditional multi-circuit PSU. Each of the 12V rails is rated up to 40A, but can't deliver more than 500W when combined with its derived 3.3V or 5V rail.

The rails are configured so that 12V1 powers the motherboard, the two hard-wired 6+2-pin PCI-E cables, the hard-wired 8-pin EPS12V cable and two of the blue modular sockets, while 12V2 powers the remaining two blue modular sockets and the six black modular sockets. The four blue modular sockets can power any combination of two 6+2-pin PCI-E, two 6-pin PCI-E or a second 8-pin EPS12V connector depending on your PC's power requirements. The interior is cooled by a reasonably quiet 140mm fan.

The HX1000W was easily able to produce 1kW without breaking into a sweat. This is no doubt partly due to its high 85 per cent efficiency. Couple this with the modular cables, plus the large number of power connectors, and the HX1000W is ideal for powering your next Dream PC.

• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008
• Multi-GPU graphics - 20th June 2008
• CPU water cooling - 17th June 2008
• Hard disks - 20th March 2008
• Audio hardware - 29th February 2008
• Graphics cards - 24th January 2008

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• Samsung SATA SSD 32GB - Hard disks / storage
• Spore - Games
• Zalman VF1000-LED - Other cooling hardware
• Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev 2 - Other cooling hardware
• Antec Mini P180 - Cases
• Turok - Games