„PCIe5“ (ATX 3.0) MSI MAG GL series power supplies
The second wave of MSI power supplies supporting the ATX 3.0 standard is marked by, in addition to the lower price, one small but attention-grabbing detail. The latter was created in response to the drama surrounding the 12VHPWR connector. In a clever, practical way, another form of prevention has been added for ordinary, less experienced users to prevent possible difficulties due to insufficient electrical contact.
MSI has expanded its range of power supplies with the “GL” models, which fall under the MAG product line. Hierarchically, they are thus lower than the “G” MPG from late last year. The most noticeable difference should be the price, the parameters of the power supplies are similar compared to the older (and more expensive) Gs when considering the same performance variant. And that’s whether it’s the 80 Plus Gold efficiency or the 12-volt branch circuit current load. The latter is also only one (single-rail) in this case.
The advantage of the GL power supplies is the shorter body, which is only 140 mm in length. However, the price for wider compatibility or more convenient mounting (due to smaller dimensions) is that “only” a 120 mm fan is used. A model with a 135 mm rotor fits into the one centimeter longer Gs. The power supply housing is different overall, simpler, but with an already from the look of it a large degree of openness of the intake grille with hexagonal honeycomb-shaped cut-outs.
Two of the three GL power supplies (750 and 850W variants) meet the ATX 3.0 standard, which also means native support for the 16-pin 12VHPWR connector to power more powerful graphics cards with Nvidia GPUs. And that includes the most powerful GeForce RTX 4090 with a power draw of around 450W.
The connectors are built for 600W and to avoid worse pin to pin contact, leading to higher temperatures, a two-tone casing is used with high contrast yellow elements with traditional black. The yellow part (the material around the connector hollows) would not be visible after proper insertion. So it is a kind of a safety device, where it relies on visual perception in addition to tactile and acoustic response (after the connector latch is clicked in).
MAG GL power supplies are available in three variants. Two, the 750W (A750GL) and the 850W (A850GL) are the performance equivalents of the more expensive MPG series models and the third, with 650 W (A650GL), is suitable for lower-power builds. However, the latter supports only the older ATX 2.5x standard and costs around 95 EUR.
Prices for the ATX 3.0 models scale with the BeQuiet! Pure Power PSUs – 120 EUR (A750GL) and 142 EUR (A850GL).
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
