When I talk about how the PC is the most customisable gaming platform, this wasn’t what I had in mind. Though in many ways being able to put a gif of tub Geralt on a tiny screen on my PSU is perhaps the best way imaginable of proving my point.
I’m using Gigabyte’s Aorus P1200W power supply and you may have already noticed its party trick: Besides being an 80+ Platinum rated GPU able to deliver enough power to keep the lights on in a small town—at least one of Nvidia’s next-gen GPUs—it has a full-colour LCD display built into the side of it. Gigabyte’s taking a PC’s least flattering component and putting it centre of attention.
A compact LCD panel on the side of your PSU is anything but sensible, but it is out-of-the-box set up to be a somewhat handy PSU monitoring screen. I’m talking key PSU speeds and feeds displayed on the side of the PSU itself, including: power draw, info on each rail, currents, power on time, fan RPM, and temperature.
Of course, you’ll need a windowed PC case and a cutout on the side of the PSU shroud to take advantage of such a ludicrous concept, but that includes plenty of modern cases.
Though the true glory of this PSU can only be exposed through the RGB Fusion 2.0 software. Within this app, you can navigate into the PSU’s display options and select either ‘Custom GIF’ or ‘Custom Video’.
Both gifs and video do have to be on the small side in terms of file size in order to work as intended on the compact panel—a seven-minute long goat compilation I found online was swiftly rejected, sadly. Still, most gifs I found online worked just fine without any tinkering whatsoever.
The built-in screen is a bit of an odd size, which isn’t much of an issue unless, like me, you try to upload a gif with some writing at the bottom.
If you can look beyond the screen for a second, the P1200W is also a mighty power supply. Most of all for its small size: It’s a rather compact design at 160 x 150 x 86mm, which is actually 20mm shorter than the generic 850W EVGA unit I swapped it in for. With a whole lot more power under its belt, and greater overall efficiency, it’s not style over substance with this PSU.
Most 1200W PSUs sit around $200–$300, though, so you are looking at a price premium for the Aorus P1200W. It will set you back around $310. That’s not a huge chunk of change more for a flashy PSU, but it is enough to make you think ‘do I need a tiny screen on my PSU?’
Let’s be honest, most of the time your answer to that will be ‘no’. And it doesn’t come with fancy new PCIe connectors for next-gen GPUs to help win anyone over, either. But I can think of a few good reasons for picking this PSU up: Perhaps alongside those Evangelion or Gundam components for some sort of mecha or cyberpunk-themed style build. Or simply if you’re really extra and want customisable screens everywhere a customisable screen can technically go.