Silver Power Blue Lightning 600W
by Christoph Katzer on August 27, 2007 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
The Fan
The Silver Power Blue Lightning has a 120mm fan located in the middle of the power supply's bottom. The fan grille is recessed into the casing to help keep it out of the way. The logo does protrude slightly, but this shouldn't present any problems.
In a rather interesting design decision, the backside of the fan has a plastic cover over the top third that blocks airflow. This is apparently done in order to better direct airflow towards the areas of the power supply that require the most cooling. The plastic guard is located nearest the ventilation grille, so in essence more of the airflow will be directed deeper into the power supply.
Given the "Blue Lightning" name, you might imagine that the fan will have blue LEDs installed, and you would be correct. The power supply emits a constant blue light when operating, a feature which became quite popular several years ago, particularly within the budding mod scene. Some people still like such features, but like many fads the popularity has died down with the passage of time. A switch to turn the light off might have been a nice addition, though that would simply be an extra cost. If they had left the lighting off altogether, we certainly wouldn't have complained.
Cables and Connectors
All of the cables are sleeved from the casing through to the final connector. While this is certainly a nice feature that is often missing even on higher-end power supplies, taking such care and using some of the budget on the sleeving means that they could have potentially dropped the price even further without affecting the performance. Sleeving generally makes the most sense on longer cables, where the individual wires might get tangled in other components. Sleeving the small 10cm sections in between connectors isn't as important, but it can make the wiring look more attractive and some people will certainly appreciate it.
The Silver Power Blue Lightning includes six SATA and six Molex connectors, which should be more than sufficient for entry level systems all the way up to upper-midrange systems. It also includes two 6-pin PEG connectors and should be able to power moderate SLI and CrossFire configurations. The main ATX power connector is a 20+4 pin connector, so it can be used with older motherboards as well as the new 24-pin models. We're a little bit baffled as to why an 8-pin EPS connector is included, as we seriously doubt most users would consider using this budget power supply in any high-end system that would require such a connector, but at least the inclusion doesn't hurt.
The Silver Power Blue Lightning has a 120mm fan located in the middle of the power supply's bottom. The fan grille is recessed into the casing to help keep it out of the way. The logo does protrude slightly, but this shouldn't present any problems.
In a rather interesting design decision, the backside of the fan has a plastic cover over the top third that blocks airflow. This is apparently done in order to better direct airflow towards the areas of the power supply that require the most cooling. The plastic guard is located nearest the ventilation grille, so in essence more of the airflow will be directed deeper into the power supply.
Given the "Blue Lightning" name, you might imagine that the fan will have blue LEDs installed, and you would be correct. The power supply emits a constant blue light when operating, a feature which became quite popular several years ago, particularly within the budding mod scene. Some people still like such features, but like many fads the popularity has died down with the passage of time. A switch to turn the light off might have been a nice addition, though that would simply be an extra cost. If they had left the lighting off altogether, we certainly wouldn't have complained.
Cables and Connectors
All of the cables are sleeved from the casing through to the final connector. While this is certainly a nice feature that is often missing even on higher-end power supplies, taking such care and using some of the budget on the sleeving means that they could have potentially dropped the price even further without affecting the performance. Sleeving generally makes the most sense on longer cables, where the individual wires might get tangled in other components. Sleeving the small 10cm sections in between connectors isn't as important, but it can make the wiring look more attractive and some people will certainly appreciate it.
The Silver Power Blue Lightning includes six SATA and six Molex connectors, which should be more than sufficient for entry level systems all the way up to upper-midrange systems. It also includes two 6-pin PEG connectors and should be able to power moderate SLI and CrossFire configurations. The main ATX power connector is a 20+4 pin connector, so it can be used with older motherboards as well as the new 24-pin models. We're a little bit baffled as to why an 8-pin EPS connector is included, as we seriously doubt most users would consider using this budget power supply in any high-end system that would require such a connector, but at least the inclusion doesn't hurt.
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meyergru - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
...how do those two statements add up?"In fact, the efficiency is above 80% over almost the entire range which can not only save money on electrical costs but is also generally a good indicator of power supply quality. "
"This isn't an ideal result, but at the same time PFC isn't necessarily one of the most critical factors in determining power supply quality."
As far as I know, a PFC of ~0.92 means 8% more will actually be billed to me by the provider. Thus, the good efficiency of over 80% does not help at all.
13Gigatons - Tuesday, September 4, 2007 - link
PFC intended purpose is to turn a complex load into a simple one.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor_correcti...">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor_correcti...
mindless1 - Thursday, August 30, 2007 - link
Meeting the 80% efficiency does still help, but you are pointing out one of the interesting developments these days, how PSU manufacturers are tweaking to arrive at higher efficiency and that within the context of expectations of how the industry (reviewers et al) will review, particularly when it's a retail product. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is ideally bad, but at any given moment and price, can be subjectively more or less important depending on your needs.The important part is that this information was revealed so you can decide for youself if this unit meets those needs or if you'd rather some other compromise. No PSU is perfect in every way including price.
Christoph Katzer - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
What was the relation of the both again?Your provider charges reactive power?
swtethan - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
I'd like to see where the x-pro stands to see if I should upgrade or not :) got an ETA on that? All over the forums for the past 5 months that PSU has been on banners :PMissPriss - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
Great review, though perhaps Anandtech should consider gearing a small percentage of articles to those who aren't technomaniacs. BTW - how do you pronouce "Anandtech"?JarredWalton - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
I'll take the second part - I think there might be some less-techy articles on occasion, but the PSU stuff definitely doesn't qualify.Anyway, for those interested, it's pronounced Ahn-Ahnd-Tech. Or "On Ond Tech". So if you pronounce it with a nice southern twang and an "A as in apple" sound, Anand might make weird faces at you. That, or I need to check my hearing and make sure Anand isn't saying, "Hi guys, it's '&n - &n(d)" as opposed to "Hi guys, it's 'än - änd." (When did http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phoneti...">phonetic symbols get so stinking complex?)
SemiCharmed - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
I agree with MissPriss. It could be called "NotsoAnandtech"DividedweFall - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
Hoorah for MissPriss! I don't send comments in fear of being rejected by the eleet technomanic crowd.Samus - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
We readers at Anandtech are loyal to this place BECAUSE the reviews are for technomaniacs. They're among the most thorough reviews of hardware around.Go look at any other site's PSU reviews and you'll see what I mean.