Athena Power AP-MP4ATX55FEP8 550W Micro ATX SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: High wattage, obviously, in a small form factor.

Cons: Yes, it is loud. Even when it runs properly (99.9% of the time), it is loud.

Unfortunately for me, my unit occasionally does this clicking sound that I've isolated to the external-facing fan. It seems this happens primarily when the computer wakes up from sleep, but I believe the problem is mechanical.

Smacking my case seems to get the fan back into rythym and the clicking instantly vanishes -- sometimes for days or weeks. But lately the tough love doesn't work as well, and hitting my computer for several minutes at a time drives my roommates crazy.

Pros: it was very quiet and worked great... for about 48 hours

Cons: started to die after day two of having it in my computer on day ten computer would not start because the 12v was reading 11.19v

Manufacturer Response:

We at Athena Power apologize for the inconvenience and we would like to assist you with an RMA for the defective PSU. Please contact us at service@athenapower.us or call us at (626) 810-5008 and a service representative will be happy to assist you with the RMA. Thank you.

Pros: - Provides a lot of power for being so small, huge help for building a micro gaming PC
- Cools efficiently (has 2 fans)

Cons: - kinda has just a little bit too much wires, but hey, Micro case

Other Thoughts: - If you are building a micro gaming computer, this is a must.

Pros: Wasnt really loud, worked decent, no problems until the other day.

Cons: Started to burn out the other day, computer randomly dies now which is very annoying. after 10 minutes of rest the battery will boot back on and i can continue whatever i was doing previously. Worked great for the 3 weeks it worked.

Manufacturer Response:

We at Athena Power apologize for the inconvenience and we would like to assist you in replacing your PSU. Your PSU has a 3 year guaranteed manufacturer's warranty. Please contact us at service@athenapower.us or call us at (626) 810-5008 and a service representative will be happy to assist you. Thank you.

Pros: This is the most powerful PS that will fit in small cases that I've seen. My case is an IN WIN BK644.BN300TBL. While the use of this PS makes it impossible to use one of the hard drive bays due to the longer length, it all fits.

This is powering an AMD FX-4170, ASUS M5A88-M, 16GB of RAM, ASUS AMD Radeon EAH6850, and a Mushkin Chronos Delux 240GB SSD.

Cons: Fan died on the first one and was RMA'd. The 2nd one is still very loud. When I was using it for FPS games and using headphones it was bearable, but now that I have it hooked up to the TV for gamepad-style games it is just overwhelming. The dual-small-fan design should be done away with for a larger fan on one side.

Other Thoughts: I am going to replace this with a Silverstone ST45SF-G since my box can do with 450W. I'll be holding on to the Athena for a backup, and if I ever get the chance I might try replacing the fans with some that are of higher-quality.

Manufacturer Response:

We at Athena Power appreciate your patronage and we would like to assist you, we will be happy to take a look at your PSU and send you a replacement for it. Please contact us at (626) 810-5008 or e-mail us at service@athenapower.us. Thank you.

Pros: Fit my HTPC MATX form factor, 550W and support for LGA 1155 processors.

Cons: Dead on arrival.

Manufacturer Response:

We at Athena Power apologize for the inconvenience and we will be happy to assist you with an RMA. Please contact us immediately at service@athenapower.us or (626) 810-5008 and a service representative will be happy to assist you with an RMA. Thank you.

Pros: One of only a few PSUs with >300 watts that will fit in a true mATX case. Good connections for Ivy Bridge i5 on mATX MB.

Cons: Noisy. Fans emit a whine, speed up and slow down at random intervals. At full speed the fans are quite loud but its tolerable (but maybe not this loud?). If you can tolerate the fan noise, the constantly changing speed might drive you crazy.

Other Thoughts: I can see the fan speed in BIOS but no option to set it to a fixed (max) amount. This would be ideal.

Manufacturer Response:

We at Athena Power apologize for the inconvenience and if you can contact our service department either through e-mail at service@athenapower.us or by calling us at (626) 810-5008 a service representative will be happy to work with you in conducting an RMA so we can get you a replacement and a more quieter PSU. Thank you.

Pros: It has all the current connections for my ASROCK ivy bridge ITX motherboard and my video card that requires a 6-pin connection.

Cons: It is loud. It has two 60cm fans that raised the DB in my living room to 59db, measured, and turned my silent living room into a humming data center.

This could be a winner if constructed with 8db 10cfm 60mm Silenx fans. Until then, prepare for the noise.

Manufacturer Response:

We at Athena Power want to inform you that you are able to request an RMA with our service department and we may be able to assist you with getting a replacement PSU that will not have your fan noise issue. If you would like to go forward with this or need more information, please feel free to contact us at service@athenapower.us or call us at (626) 810-5008. Thank you.

Pros: Works, is a reasonable volume, drives my overclocked i7 with no problems

Cons: Once the fan spin up as load increases, it doesn't seem to ever spin down

Other Thoughts: I was really hesitant to get this PSU, but it is pretty much the only matx psu with this much power. It works which is important, and the voltage is stable. I have an i7-2600k oc'd to 4.5ghz stable. If you need an matx psu for a beefy system, this is the one.

What remains to be seen, however, is longevity...

Pros: This is the highest output SFX form factor PSU I have been able to find. It is the only one over 500W. So far it has proved to be very stable and provide plenty of power to my MiniITX gaming rig. Works great if you need a lot of power in a small case.

Cons: Some of the connection wires were a little tangled, it would be nice if they were wrapped in wire sleeves like most larger and more expensive PSUs. The two small fans can get very loud under load.

Other Thoughts: Ended up using this in a Lian-Li case instead of the Sugo. Aside from the noise and the wires feeling a little cheap, for the price and the size, you can't beat this PSU. 80 Plus certification and a 3 year warranty were enough to convince me to take a leap of faith on this, and it paid off.