Mushkin, a traditional memory manufacturer, decided to also enter on the power supply market. Volta 600 W is a single-rail model that they are going to release next week. Let’s see if it will survive our tests.

Volta 600 W is manufactured by Topower.

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Figure 1: Mushkin Volta 600 W power supply.

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Figure 2: Mushkin Volta 600 W power supply.

Mushkin Volta 600 W is relatively deep power supply (6 7/8” or 17.5 cm deep), using a 120 mm fan on its bottom that glows in either blue, red or green, having a switch for you to select the desired color. This unit does features active PFC circuit, of course.

A modular cabling system with eight connectors (two blue for video card power cables and six black for SATA/peripheral/EPS12V cables) is available, with the main motherboard cable and a cable containing two ATX12V connectors that together form an EPS12V connector permanently attached to the unit. These cables use nylon sleevings that come from inside the unit. The cables included with Volta 600 W are:

• Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector, 22” (56 cm) long (permanently attached to the power supply).
• One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form one EPS12V connector, 27 ½” (70 cm) long (permanently attached to the power supply).
• One cable with one EPS12V connector, 21 5/8” (55 cm) long (modular cabling system).
• Two cables with one six/eight-pin connector for video cards each, 23 ¼” (59 cm) long (modular cabling system).
• One cable with three SATA power connectors, 22 7/8” (58 cm) to the first connector, 5 7/8” (15 cm) between connectors (modular cabling system).
• One cable with two SATA power connectors, 22 7/8” (58 cm) to the first connector, 5 7/8” (15 cm) between connectors (modular cabling system).
• One cable with three standard power connectors, 22 ½” (57 cm) to the first connector, 5 7/8” (15 cm) between connectors (modular cabling system).
• One cable with two standard power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector, 22 ½” (57 cm) to the first connector, 5 7/8” (15 cm) between connectors (modular cabling system).

This configuration is compatible with a 600 W product, but we’d liked this product better if it had one more SATA power connector and one more peripheral power connector.

If you pay attention, the modular cabling system has a total of eight connectors, but this power supply comes only seven cables to be used with this system.

All cables use 18 AWG wires, which is the minimum recommended.

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Figure 3: Cables.

Now let’s take an in-depth look inside this power supply.