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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Samus - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
It appears that a log of people on newegg have this PSU fail after a few months. Now before we get into newegg consumer feedback 'reliability' :) there are a few people who've had these fail, not just one or two.I'm ganna give it a shot anyway. Should work well with my DFI Infinity 975 board, being EPS12v and all.
Slaimus - Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - link
Knowing it is an Apex-built power supply took most of the wind out of its sails. Apex, also known as L&C and Deer, has made some of the most unreliable power supplies ever.This seems to be one of their better efforts, but reliability will always be a concern with this company.
mindless1 - Thursday, August 30, 2007 - link
SMPS tech is reasonably mature beyond present tweaking a bit for higher efficiency, more 12V current, and these without cost rising out of control.Point being, Apex (actually better known as Foxconn or Hon Hai) can easily build quality PSU, it is not inability it is the choice of product placement and construction cost that results in some of the junk we've all seen.
As for reliability, there is a problem as always that you hear of someone with a failed PSU but no autopsy most of the time. No disrespect meant to reviewers, but over the years I can't could how many times a product seemed good at first glance, and second glance (a review period), but later a fault compromised the lifespan. A review of one unit can't take forever, it is going to be inherantly limited in scope, but still must be seen as a way to disqualify products more than qualify them for long term use.