The Aerocool E85M-550 is a 550 W power supply with a modular cabling system, and the manufacturer promises 85% efficiency. For some reason this unit is sold only outside the United States.

This power supply is manufactured by HEC/Compucase and it uses the exact same design as the Aerocool V12XT-600 that we reviewed recently.

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Figure 1: Aerocool E85M-550 power supply

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Figure 2: Aerocool E85M-550 power supply

The Aerocool E85M-550 is 6.3” (160 mm) deep, using a 140 mm fan on its bottom. The fan part number, DFS132512H, makes us believe that it is a sleeve bearing model manufactured by YongLinXing Electronics, even though the brand, “Aerocool,” is printed on it. The fan glows in blue when turned on.

This unit features active PFC, of course.

It comes with a modular cabling system with six connectors, two red ones for video card power cables and four white ones for peripheral and SATA power connectors. Two cables are permanently attached to the power supply. The cables included are the following:

• Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector, 19.3” (49 cm) long (permanently attached to the power supply)
• One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form an EPS12V connector, 18.9” (48 cm) long (permanently attached to the power supply)
• Two cables, each with one six/eight-pin connector for video cards, 20” (51 cm) long (modular cabling system)
• Two cables, each with three SATA power connectors, 20” (51 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors (modular cabling system)
• One cable with three standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector, 20” (51 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors (modular cabling system)

All wires are 18 AWG, except the orange (+3.3 V) wires in the main motherboard cable, which are thicker (16 AWG).

Although the E85M-550 is based on the same design as the V12XT-600, the cable configuration is different. The V12XT-600 comes with separate ATX12V and EPS12V cables, the video card cables have one additional connector each, there is one more SATA connector on each SATA cable, and it comes with one additional cable carrying three peripheral power connectors. Another difference between the two models is the presence of LEDs illuminating the modular cabling system, a feature not available on the E85M-550.

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Figure 3: Cables

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