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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
33 Comments
View All Comments
MrOblivious - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
Yes and no. The additional interface and the extreme load a load tester puts accross a single connector magnifies the problem beyond what a system would see happen which is what people were asking about.I am sure Chris is looking into it ;)
yyrkoon - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
to see some Seasonic PSU tests. Not sure *why* but I cannot remember seeing any Seasonic PSU test from you, or any other sites I frequent, and they are supposedly the manufactuers of several of the PSUs for other companies that have good PSUs.Also, it would be very nice to have an article once in a while that explained where the different PSUs were manuafactuered, who actually makes them, and what parts each company typically uses for various models. Anyone can write a review, but no one seems todo this. Be the first ! I *could* probably scour the web to find this information, but if it comes from your guys, I could probably trust the information ;)
Axbattler - Thursday, August 30, 2007 - link
Silent PC Review has made some reviews of Seasonic (and the Corsair too if I remember right).LoneWolf15 - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
A Seasonic 500w PSU review was done very recently by another ]H[ard-core review site. You might want to check it out. They and JonnyGURU as well are very clear about who makes PSU's, capacitor brands in them, etc.Seasonic makes PSU's for a number of companies --the Antec Neo HE line is one example, but they do some others as well.
As for the Silver Power, if Anandtech's weblink is correct to MWave (it is partially broken) and that PSU is available for $69, it's a great price.
JarredWalton - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
The web links are just pulled from the engine automatically (automagically even) based on some search text. I put in "Tagan" and that's what came up. Still, the 530W Tagan is probably pretty decent for $69. This PSU is apparently $88 shipped from http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">Newegg (see above comments).yyrkoon - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
heh Jarred, read the first user review on newegg ... not exactly a good example of a PSU 'review'. I probably would take it with a grain of salt *if* the overall user review % was not what it is.JarredWalton - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
Yeah, Newegg reviews are basically random people spouting off. I've had numerous good quality PSUs fail over the years, and I've had "crappy" PSUs that are still kicking after four years. Without some clear details about the load the PSU was under and the operating environment - let's be honest, overclocking can kill a lot of PSUs if you push it too far - there's any number of reasons a PSU can fail. $90 for a >80% 600W PSU is really pretty good.Christoph Katzer - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
Seasonic comes up this week.Don't worry about the rest, that'll come as well...
Samus - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
Looks identical. Newegg has it for $80.Chris, can you confirm whether this is the same power supply as the silverpower?
Christoph Katzer - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
Thanks for the info. It is indeed the same PSU.