bequiet! Straight Power E9 CM 680 W Power Supply Review

Power Distribution

Figure 17 shows the power supply label containing all the power specs.

Figure 17: Power supply label

As you can see, the manufacturer lists this unit as having four +12 V rails. Analyzing the circuit
, we could clearly see four “shunts” (current sensors), matching the number of rails advertised by the manufacturer. See Figure 18. Click here for a more detailed explanation.

Figure 18: Shunts

The available +12 V rails are distributed as follows:

• +12V1 (solid yellow wire): Main motherboard cable, SATA and peripheral power connectors
• +12V2 (yellow connector of the modular cabling system): The ATX12V/EPS12V cable
• +12V3 (green connector of the modular cabling system): The video card power cables that are installed on the green connector of the modular cabling system
• +12V4 (red connector of the modular cabling system): The video card power cables that are installed on the red connector of the modular cabling system

This distribution is perfect, as it separates the CPU and the video card power cables on individual rails. However, if you have only one video card with two power connectors, we recommend that you use one cable from each available connector instead of using the two cables available on one of the connectors.

Let’s now see if this power supply can really deliver 680 W.