Montech Century II 1050W ATX v3.1 PSU Review

Epilogue

Similar to its big brother, the Montech Century II 1050W achieves high overall performance, which, along with its highly affordable price of $110, offers an equally high performance-to-price ratio. It is always great to see lesser-known OEMs like the Shenzhen Xinweiye Technology that Montech used for the Century II PSUs, offering capable and affordable platforms that meet eye-to-eye platforms from known OEMs like CWT, Great Wall, and others.

The Century II 1050W features high average efficiency, tight load regulation, good ripple suppression, and a good transient response at 12V and 5V under normal loads. It also offers increased hold-up time, high power factor at 115V, and low leakage current. On the other hand, its inrush currents are high, the transient response of the 12V rail at 200% loads is not competitive and similar to the 1200W unit, and its protection features on the minor rails need tuning. This unit is also not suitable for users seeking the quietest possible high-capacity PSU, as it employs an aggressive fan speed profile, resulting in increased noise even at moderate loads. With more fan speed modes, this could be handled, but the restricted fan grill also doesn’t help.

In any case, the Century II 1050W is a highly competitive PSU, especially at the offered price of $110, and you should include it in your list if you don’t pay great attention to noise output. If you do, there are quieter PSUs to select, which most likely will cost you more, though.

Since I pay great attention to protection features, this is the primary reason I don’t provide a “recommended” badge for this unit. According to my policy, any unit that doesn’t have properly tuned protection features automatically loses that badge, regardless of its performance and/or other features.

Before investing in a new power supply, read my Best ATX v3.x PSUs article to check all alternative PSU offerings. You help me a lot by using my affiliate links, which don’t increase the price of the product. I receive a commission from Amazon every time you do it, which can make a significant difference for me, especially now that I am working independently, exclusively for my media, rather than for someone else.