In Win recently unveiled their newest line of power supply units, the Commander II Bronze series. With it’s military look and naming scheme, In Win appears to be making an all out assault on the PC enthusiast market. The Commander II Bronze series PSU’s come in a 750 watt, 850 watt and 1200 Watt version.  We will be looking at the 850 watt version for this test drive.

About In Win

“IN-WIN Development Inc., an ISO 9001 manufacturer of professional computer chassis, power supplies and digital storage devices, is the leading provider of enclosure solutions to system integrators worldwide. Founded in 1986, IN-WIN provides high quality chassis that conform to all safety regulations, as well as unsurpassed customer service.

In Win has become a leading, top-notch manufacturer of core technology in order to meet market and consumer needs and demands. Our company’s management team has laid a strong foundation in terms of eight major elements: Innovation, Service, Speed, Value, Safety, Warmth, Faithfulness, and Diligence. These elements help In Win to remain a leader in the business realm and also help differentiate us from our competition.”

As expected, the Commander II Bronze packaging is a military green with yellow stencil graphics. The front of the box gives brief mention of the modular cable design, the use of Japanese capacitors and the voltage regulation. Also present on the front of the box are the 80 Plus Bronze, Nvidia SLI Ready and the 5 year warranty logos.

The back of the box is where you will find a full rundown on the features and specifications of the Commander II.  There are also some thumbnail pictures of the cable connections as well as a few of the inside components. More on all of this later.

The box sides contain information on the efficiency level, noise level and other highlighted features.  The model number, UPC code and the product serial number can be found here as well.

Upon opening the box lid you are presented with the user manual and a nifty nylon pouch for storing any unused cables after the system build. The power supply is very well protected in black foam blocks as well as being wrapped in a plastic bag.  You also can see a box of accessories as well as a cardboard sleeve to the right side.  Under the sleeve is where the provided power cord is located and where the non-modular cables are tucked away.

In the accessory pack you will find everything you need to install the Commander II PSU into a system. You get a bag with four mounting screws, all the necessary cable leads and two bags of Velcro cable ties (three in each bag).  As mentioned before you also get the user manual, nylon storage pouch and a power cord.

The list of features and specifications is quite impressive on the In WIn Commander II 850 watt power supply.  Immediately grabbing our attention was the four +12v rails at 34A each. This should be an adequate amount of +12v Amps to satisfy a SLI/Crossfire-X setup using two, three, or even four video cards depending on the video cards power requirements.  The use of Japanese Electrolytic capacitors is another plus.  Keep in mind only the primary capacitors are of Japanese origin, the rest appear to be of Taiwan origin. Another nice feature is the “Intelligent Fan Speed Control” that In Win has implemented on the Commander II series PSU’s.  As the PSU’s temperatures rise the fan speed automatically increases to aid in keeping the unit cool and thus increasing efficiency.

Here is a list of the features for the In WIn Commander II Bronze 850 Watt Power Supply:

• Supports NVIDIA SLI & Quad SLI and all Multi-Core GPU Technologies
• High Efficiency up to 85%
• Active Power Factor Corrections (PF>0.99)
• Supports ATX 12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91
• Modularized Cable Management System
• 8(6+2) Pin PCI-E Connectors for Multi-GPU Graphics Cards
• Four Independent +12v Outputs
• 13.5cn Double Ball-Bearing Fan
• Patented 4-Pin Molex Easy-Swap Connectors
• Intelligent Fan Speed Control for Optimal Acoustics
• High Efficiency Voltage Transfer Technology of Double Forward Circuit Design
• Japanese Industrial Grade Electrolytic and Solid State Capacitors to Ensure Reliability and Superior Performance
• Steady 12V DC to DC VRM Output Design
• Quality Gold Plated High Current Terminals
• Hexagon Shaped Ventilation for Excellent Heat Dissipation
• Provides Multiple Industrial Grade Protectors – Over Current, Over Voltage, Over Power, Under Voltage, and Short Circuit Protections
• ErP Lot 6 Compliant
• 80 Plus Bronze Certification

And finally the specifications:

Having a look at the exterior of the In Win Commander II Bronze 850 Watt PSU is next on our list.  The entire unit is painted in a military green color and finished off with yellow stencil type graphics. One thing we look at right off the bat is how heavy a power supply is, and this one weighs in at about 5.5 Lbs! The weight alone of a power supply can go a long way in determining the quality. If you don’t believe it, grab a hold of one of those $40 600 Watt power supplies out there, and when you are done laughing you will see what we mean.

Starting at the top of the unit you will find a label attached with a brief rundown of the amperage of the different rails, wattage specifications and the usual hazard warnings that are standard fare on most power supplies. The bottom of the unit houses the 13.5cm smart fan and has a black protective grill covering it.  Both sides of the power supply feature a slotted ventilation area, the left side is where the yellow stenciled graphics are positioned. The back of the unit is entirely made up of honeycomb mesh which will aid greatly in the air flow characteristics of the unit.  Also at the back is where you will find the rocker switch for turning the power on or off, and the power cord receptacle. The front of the Commander II features six slots for attaching the various modular cables.  The hardwired cables extrude from the front area as well.

Next we split the housing apart to have a look at the guts of the In Win Commander II Bronze 850W unit.  The 13.5cm fan used in the unit is manufactured by Young Lin Tech Co. The fan has a maximum RPM of 1800 and a CFM rating of 95.01.

The next series of pictures will give you a good look at the inner components. We found all the solder points to be very well done and very sturdy to the touch.  You can also see the DC to DC VRM design implemented for this Power Supply. There are three large heat-sinks but unfortunately not a lot of space between components for good air flow. The two main caps are of Japanese origin and manufactured by Panasonic. The DC to DC modules are comprised of solid capacitors.

Having a Power supply with a modular cabling design is a terrific way to build an organized and clean looking system. It is worth noting that the Commander II series power supplies are not fully modular. Other than the main 20+4 power lead there are three other cables hard wired to the unit. A Dual end PCI-E, a 8-Pin CPU and a 4+4 CPU lead are also hard wired to the unit. We would have rather not seen any PCI-E leads and just one of the 8-pin CPU leads hard wired. The 4×4 CPU lead would be the obvious choice for being hard wired as it accommodates a wider range of motherboards.

There are a total of six modular cable slots built in to the unit, two PCI-E and four peripheral connections. Starting with the four peripheral connection cables, you get two molex cables that are comprised of a floppy type connector and four 4-pin molex connectors.  There are also two SATA connection cables which have four SATA power connectors per cable giving the user the option to power up to eight SATA devices.  Finally in addition to the hard wired PCI-E cable you get two more in the accessory package. All of the PCI-E connections are of the 6+2 design and have two connectors per cable.

Attaching an of the cables to the power supply could not be easier, just align the locking tab and push it in until you hear the “click”…….. Done!

Initial testing was done with a digital volt meter by simply reading the +12v and +5v in a no load condition.  We used the old paper clip trick to jumper the green and a black ground wire on the main harness to fire up the power supply and take some basic readings.  In this no load condition the +12V reading was 12.22v and the +5v was 5.05v.  It was pleasant to see such a high reading on the +12v, no doubt when the system is put under a load this value will drop some but there appears to be lots of head room here.

We installed the In Win Commander II Bronze into a system consisting of the following components:

eVGA X58 Classified NF200 (E759)
3X2gb G.Skill DDR3 2000
i7 920
2x eVGA GTX260 video cards in SLI
DVD Rom Drive
4x IDE hard drives
Water Cooling W/MCP355 Pump and 6 additional fans

We set the CPU to a 4.0 overclock and took an initial set of readings while the system was idle. We then started up the LinX stress test and took another set of voltage readings over a 30 minute period noting the high and low values.  Once that was complete we fired up the Future Mark Vantage benchmark and noted the high and low values during the benchmark. Here are the results:

As you can see by the above results there was very little change between idle and load testing results. In fact no change at all between the LinX and Vantage tests. In Win advertises stable voltages as part of their marketing campaign for the Commander II line of power supplies, nothing we have seen would doubt their claim as the voltage rails were rock solid through everything we threw at it. It’s possible with more sophisticated testing equipment to measure other functions of the Commander II 850W under extreme load conditions, but rarely (if ever) does the average enthusiast come close to those conditions.

The In Win Commander II Bronze 850 Watt Power Supply is well constructed, provides very stable voltage readings and is very unique looking. The unit is not without a few shortcomings however. The point of a modular power supply is to have the option to use only the cables you need.  If you are building a multiple graphics card system with a motherboard that has two 8-Pin CPU power connections then you will use all the hard wired leads.  If the system you are putting together does not incorporate all those features you will find yourself tucking unneeded cables away somewhere inside the case.  Also the PCI-E leads have dual connections on each lead, We prefer to have one cable for each video card and you can do that up to a tri-SLI/Crossfire configuration.  For those of you who wish to run a quad-SLI/Cossfire configuration, two of your video cards will have to share a single cable. All of these cabling issue could easily be resolved by simply adding more modular ports and the cables to match. Granted, If you are using a quad-SLI/Crossfire system you would probably be looking at the 1200 Watt version of the Commander II.

At the time of this review the In Win Commander II Bronze 850 Watt power supply can be purchased for around USD $167.99 which puts it at the upper end of pricing for similar units from other suppliers.

Pros
Stable voltage readings under overclocked and load conditions
Main capacitors of Japanese origin
Unique military appearance
Modular design
Ample accessories
4 +12V rails at 34A each
80 Plus Bronze certification

Cons
Price is upper end compared to similar units on the market
Two PCI-E and both CPU +12v cables are hard wired

If you are in the market for an enthusiast level power supply that has a unique look, solid voltage outputs and a massive amount of amps on the +12v rail, then the In Win Commander II 850W Bronze could be just what you are looking for. OverclockersTech is proud to give this unit a 8/10 and the accompanying Silver Award!

Dino DeCesari (Lvcoyote)