Montech Century Gold 650W Power Supply Review

A Closer Look

Out of the box, the Montech Century certainly presents itself well with a sleek black aesthetic and overall professional ethos. It has a nice sturdy weight in the hand and looks to be, at least on the surface, a well-designed power supply.

While there is branding to the side, it does have both good and bad points. While fitting in very well with the overall aesthetic of the product, it’s a little disappointing to find that this hasn’t been embossed into the metal. It, instead, comes as a whole panel sticker. Something that does give the impression that this is somewhat of a generic design.

Yes, stickers on power supplies are not uncommon. Given that these cover the whole panel, however, it suggests that while Montech wanted to do something a little fancier, costs were cut to give nearly the same level of overall quality. We should note though that this is an aesthetic point and we will get onto the ‘overall’ visual quality of the PSU as a whole shortly.

The ‘top’ of the power supply is mostly notable for the Montech branding to the center of the ventilation panel. We should note though that the overall level for air access to the fan isn’t overly large. Something possibly highlighted by the fact that this PSU is provided with a 120mm fan rather than a 140mm model. While we certainly don’t think airflow will be a problem, the look does seem to suggest that they might have initially planned for a larger cooling solution for this design and instead opted for a smaller 120mm design.

And in a definite mild grumble, the sticker to the corner is something of an eye-sore. Yes, this can be removed, but we would suggest some caution in this regard as often this sticker is the manufacturer’s proof that you didn’t tinker inside the power supply (which would void your warranty).

The power supply base comes with a sticker that lists all of the key power output specifications. While this information will largely be irrelevant or unimportant for 95% of users, for those who do need to know this kind of stuff (like us when it comes to the testing), it’s handy to have it clearly listed directly on the PSU.

Coming as a fully modular design, the cable input bank to the Montech Century is well organised which each section being clearly denoted for its use. With the ‘back to back’ methodology as well, both cable insertion and removal is pretty easy. Albeit with it offering a fairly terse level of resistance. So, in other words, if you plan to use this power supply, we’d advise inserting the cables you need before you place this in your case (which is good practice anyway).

The mains power input section is exceptionally well ventilated meaning that, all going well, any heat generated from within should be very quickly removed. As you’ll note, this power supply does not come with any ‘hybrid/zero fan’ functionality, but hopefully, based on the overall design, this should still allow for good airflow while not having the fan running like the clappers.

Cabling

The Montech Century is provided with nice and flexible black flat cables. Each one is clearly denoted for its usage which, on the whole, makes the design practically fool-proof. In terms of length, while not overly generous, these should still be more than suitable for the vast majority of system case designs (so you have no excuses for bad management!).

Internals – A Look Inside!

Getting inside the Montech Century is a straightforward process and the initial impressions are good with a nice clean layout. Everything seems to be well placed and, although uncommon for most power supplies these days, there are not masses of cables that could potentially obstruct the airflow.

In something of a mild disappointment, we find that this power supply utilises a third-party fan. Coming from ‘Yate Loon’, however, we have seen this cooling solution within many designs and, on the whole, we have never failed to be impressed with its performance.

The PCB is exceptionally well organised with all of the key components nicely spaced within. This means that, at least in theory, that this should have good positive airflow around all of the ‘toastier’ parts. With a protective sleeving to the fan cabling as well, this is a nice addition ensuring good long-term durability.

Although not an aspect of the design hugely pushed by Montech in the marketing, we can confirm that the main capacitor used within this power supply is Japanese. Coming from manufacturer ‘Nippon Chemi-Con’, and being rated to 105C, this is exactly what you want to see from any quality PSU product!

Overall Thoughts!

The Montech Century certainly seems to represent a solid power supply design. Both externally and internally everything looks good and would seem to suggest that our testing should provide some strong results. Admittedly, there is evidence here and there that efforts have been made to make this as cost-effective as possible. The good news though is that it doesn’t appear that this has spread into the overall quality of the components.

In regards to testing it though, let’s get this hooked up to our bench and see what happens!