Now we are going to take an in-depth look at an entry-level power supply from Akasa, Essential Power 350 W (model number AK-P350G BK). Is this a good unit? Let’s see.

By the way, we’ve already reviewed another entry-level model from Akasa, Paxpower 500 W (AK-P050FG7).

Usually power supplies from Akasa are manufactured by Enhance Electronics, but this one is manufactured by a company called XHY Power.

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Figure 1: Akasa Essential Power 350 W power supply.

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Figure 2: Akasa Essential Power 350 W power supply.

Akasa Essential Power 350 W is 5 ½” (140 mm) deep, using a 120 mm fan on its bottom. This unit does not feature a PFC circuit, as you can see by the presence of a 115 V/230 V switch in Figure 1, based on the outdated half-bridge topology.

No modular cabling system is provided and all cables have nylon protections that come from inside the power supply housing. All cables use 18 AWG wires, which is the correct gauge to be used.

The cables included are:

• Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector, 16 1/8” (41 cm) long.
• One cable with one ATX12V connector, 17” (43 cm) long.
• One cable with one six-pin connector for video cards, 17” (43 cm) long.
• One cable with two SATA power connectors, 16 ½” (42 cm) to the first connector, 5 ½” (140 mm) between connectors.
• Two cables with three standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector each, 17” (43 cm) to the first connector, 5 ½” (140 mm) between connectors.

The problem with this configuration is clearly the presence of only two SATA connectors. Nowadays you will be using at least one SATA hard disk drive and one SATA optical drive, making it difficult to install them when you only have 5 ½” (140 mm) between the two SATA power connectors.

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Figure 3: Cables.

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