Final thought and rating
Available for just under £100 and therefore priced at the higher end of the spectrum for a 680W power supply, German manufacturer be quiet!'s E9-CM-680W is a well-thought-out unit that ticks practically all the boxes.
Aesthetically rather lovely to look at, for a PSU at least, and enabling easy-as-pie integration through the common sense inclusion of colour-coded ports, this Straight Power model is geared towards near-silent computing via the inclusion of the well-engineered SilentWings 135mm fan.
We believe the PSU market will see considerably more focus on mid-wattage supplies such as this be quiet! Intel is reportedly dropping the TDP on upcoming desktop Ivy Bridge chips and the rumour-mill suggests NVIDIA's high-end Kepler GPU may draw less than 200W at full chat. What users need, then, is a top-notch supply that zeroes-in high efficiency, lots of 12V power and flexible connectivity.
Perhaps the only blot on the scorecard is the slightly high ripple when pushed and the £20 premium when compared to decent 650W PSUs from all and sundry. No supply is perfect, but this one's very good in most respects.
The Good
Super-easy installation
High specification
Very quiet under load
The Bad
Ripple can be a tad high
Cheaper main cap than FSP Aurum CM
HEXUS Rating
be quiet! Straight Power E9-CM-680W
HEXUS Awards
be quiet! Straight Power E9-CM-680W
HEXUS Where2Buy
The reviewed supply is on pre-order from Scan.co.uk.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
