Power Supply Roundup: 730W to 900W

Hiper 5M730 and 5K770 - 730 and 770W

With the Type-R MK II series we have the first units from the British brand Hiper - which stands for "High Performance Group" if you were wondering in test at Anandtech. Hiper has been around for a long time and has a large variety of products in their portfolio. Power supplies are what we will be looking at today. We received several different models, and we'll start with the 730W version.

Hiper frequently comes up with new ideas that have helped make them famous, and that's why we weren't surprised to see USB ports on the back of this unit. We have not seen that before, and having five more USB ports on the back of your computer will certainly please some users. If a couple front USB ports aren't enough, the Hiper provides four additional "normal" ports, plus one port that works when the PC is switched off to load devices like a Blackberry for example.

Hiper packs everything in a plastic box that can be used for other things after the PSU is removed. A layer of foam protects the power supply from vibration during transportation. There are a lot of additional cables and accessories in the box. The unit has a shiny mirror finish that likes to collect fingerprints. Again, whether or not that's important will be up to the individual - it seems to need frequent cleaning, and it's much easier to scratch. Still, some people might appreciate the extra "bling".

The cooling is provided by an 80mm fan at the front of the unit. This will have to be a very strong fan since there is only one and the inside isn't very conducive to airflow. The unit can be powered from the standard 100VAC to 240VAC; why this needs to be written next to the power jack is a mystery. Above the power jack are the USB ports, and the single white port will provide power even when the PC is off. The labels indicate that the two units are not very different, and in fact it's only the 12V rails that are rated higher on the 770W model. The only difference inside will be a few lower rated capacitors in the 730W unit.

Cables and Connectors

The backside is wide and open to help with airflow, and we can already see the complexity that waits to greet us inside. All the cables are sleeved with a black mesh which is pretty standard for high-end power supplies. The minimum lengths of the main cable harnesses are 60cm which is longer than normal. There are four 6-pin PEG connectors, but no 8-pin PEG. There are two PEG connectors on each cable harness, which means if both connectors are used on high-end GPUs all of the power will go through only three 18AWG cables. In that case the cables will get pretty warm. It's better to have each connector on a separate harness, since then each connector has its own power and ground cables. For midrange graphics cards this is not an issue, and without the missing 8-pin PEG connector it's doubtful that you will be able to power the top-end GPUs (or at least the most power hungry offerings) anyway.

There are not many cable harnesses for SATA and Molex, which is odd for 730W/770W PSUs. There are only four SATA connectors on two harnesses, and three Molex connectors on one cable. At least the Molex connectors can get help from splitters, but four SATA connectors could prove limiting in the future. The splitter approach isn't good either, as each additional connection creates increased internal resistance. It would be better for Hiper to include additional connectors, consider the PSU ratings.

Unfortunately for us, it's almost impossible to get this power supply open without either destroying it or at least damaging some components. If that was the intended result to keep reviewers and consumers from poking around, well done - you succeeded. Once open, we found a decent build quality that is well arranged, albeit unconventional. There are two PCBs inside of the unit which are facing each other (with the PCB on the outside). The air passes through the middle and cools both heatsinks. For this arrangement all the components can only be half the height of a normal power supply.

The filtering stage is located at the front and occupies parts of the right side as well. Under the red and black cable is the standby circuit. Beside the left heatsink we have the PFC IC and on the far right side we see the two main caps which are manufactured by Samxon and rated with at 470 µF and 400V each. Most of the other components like rectifier bridges and diodes come from Fairchild.