Silver Power Blue Lightning 600W
by Christoph Katzer on August 27, 2007 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
The Internals
Credit where credit is due: Silver Power has managed to create the most difficult power supply casing to crack that we have encountered so far. We have no idea who came up with the design or why they would want it, as logically it must be just as difficult to seal up as it was for us to open. We can only feel sorry for the poor soul sitting at the end of the assembly line tasked with the job of closing up the power supplies. The two sides are designed in a "U" shape and slide into each other. The fan and various cables do an excellent job of getting in the way, particularly the cable harness that leads to all of the connectors. Very few people actually try to open up their power supplies anyway, so unless there's some trick to assembly that we can't figure out, the net result is that none of this can be good for productivity and appears to serve no real purpose.
The construction of the casing makes it very difficult to get a clear view of the various components, as something else always seems to be getting in the way. We did manage to get the PCB out of the case in order to take better pictures after testing but the above image gives you an idea of how everything is arranged.
Most of the filtering is done directly behind the AC jack. A couple of capacitors are placed on the right side just before the rectifying bridge. The bridge itself is attached to its own small heatsink, as it can become quite warm during use.
Next to the bridge we find the standard PFC stage and the main capacitor. The main capacitor is made by Teapo and labeled as 450V and 330µF at just 85°C.
Credit where credit is due: Silver Power has managed to create the most difficult power supply casing to crack that we have encountered so far. We have no idea who came up with the design or why they would want it, as logically it must be just as difficult to seal up as it was for us to open. We can only feel sorry for the poor soul sitting at the end of the assembly line tasked with the job of closing up the power supplies. The two sides are designed in a "U" shape and slide into each other. The fan and various cables do an excellent job of getting in the way, particularly the cable harness that leads to all of the connectors. Very few people actually try to open up their power supplies anyway, so unless there's some trick to assembly that we can't figure out, the net result is that none of this can be good for productivity and appears to serve no real purpose.
The construction of the casing makes it very difficult to get a clear view of the various components, as something else always seems to be getting in the way. We did manage to get the PCB out of the case in order to take better pictures after testing but the above image gives you an idea of how everything is arranged.
Most of the filtering is done directly behind the AC jack. A couple of capacitors are placed on the right side just before the rectifying bridge. The bridge itself is attached to its own small heatsink, as it can become quite warm during use.
Next to the bridge we find the standard PFC stage and the main capacitor. The main capacitor is made by Teapo and labeled as 450V and 330µF at just 85°C.
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33 Comments
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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.