Power Supply Roundup: 650W-680W
by Christoph Katzer on February 21, 2008 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Hiper Type-R MKII HPU-5B680
We already reviewed several Hiper power supplies in previous roundups, and today we will be looking at the HPU-5B680. It comes in a shiny blue color, and much of the casing exterior has many small punched holes. According to Hiper these help with cooling, though we've seen opinions elsewhere that these holes will do the opposite and instead disrupt airflow. During our testing, we couldn't really see any good or bad aspects to the holes. The cooling is similar to other CWT-based designs: not really better but definitely not worse. Hiper uses a single large 135mm fan on the bottom to provide cooling, which is silver to match the overall look.
The USB ports on the back of the power supply are a nice touch if you seem to run out of ports. However, most PCs today have enough USB ports for all sorts of applications, and not many people will need eight additional ports (which are actually part of a single USB hub). The one white port does supply power even when the PC is off, and with a maximum 1A users can use it to recharge MP3 players as an example. Even though we can't really say who would need it, but in a crowded market anything that sets your offerings apart from competitors can help.
The 680W unit has four 12V rails rated at 18A, once again with a combined power of 624W. The lower voltage 3.3V and 5V rails have a combined power of 180W, typical of today's offerings.
All of the cable harnesses leave the PSU chassis in a slightly different manner than what most are used to seeing. Instead of using a single round exit with a huge cluster of cables, Hiper uses five holes spread across the front, with two harnesses in each one. Hiper says this gives users better access to the cables with the PSU mounted in a case. Hiper does not provide a large number of cable harnesses, instead choosing to provide Y-splitters that attach to the cables connectors. This gives users a better choice of where to put the connectors, which is a good thing. The downside is the added resistance created by the extra connection, even if it's just a very small one not recognizable by most users. For lower wattages, the amount of current coming through these connections isn't that much, so the resistance shouldn't be a problem. However, we wouldn't recommend this type of approach on a 1200W model.
Once we open the housing, the ODM is easily recognizable. This is the first unit of this roundup manufactured by Channel Well, and we'll see two more later. Compared to the units we've seen so far, we see small changes component-wise and different heatsinks. Hiper actually has their own assembly line for their products at the manufacturer's facility. We visited one of Hiper's production facilities in China just after CES this year, and Hiper has a major role in the production and conducts all the quality control.
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larson0699 - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
You mentioned that the label on the Thermaltake unit doesn't state maximum combined load of the lower-volt rails.But look, it does. 180 Watts.
BRDiger - Tuesday, July 29, 2008 - link
I kind a wondering because comparing the efficiency level of the Be Quiet! to the testing datasheet on the 80plus.org site it just reaches about 80% at 100% load unlike your results with nearly 84%. Comparing it to the Enermax Modu 82+ review here, it even exeeds its efficiencyJust wondering and it´s not supposed to be an offence...
BRDiger - Tuesday, July 29, 2008 - link
Well, after reading another review it seems that 80plus was actually wrong and the be quiet!s performance exeeds the enermax..strikeback03 - Friday, February 22, 2008 - link
Thermal and fluids was not my best subject in school, but don't fans usually lose air off the tips of the blades, not suck it in? That is my experience with the Zerotherm Nirvana, which seems to make the same claim of sucking air in with its open fan.mo3 - Friday, February 22, 2008 - link
The new Enermax Modular 82+ & Pro 82+ can peak over 700Watts with out a problem; also they have the ATX12v V2.3 and reaching 88% efficiency.Modular 82+ has 2x 12 pin connection embedded for up and coming graphics cards and greater stability.
Just to give the readers a better alternative! :)
Check out more info at: www.enermax.co.uk
crimson117 - Friday, February 22, 2008 - link
Okay... PSU review.. new 9600 GT review... I think anandtech is trying to tell me I need a new computer!NINaudio - Thursday, February 21, 2008 - link
Hi, you mention that the be quiet! PSU is quiet but also runs warmer than the others. Where are the temperature charts that we've seen in previous PSU reviews? It would be good to see the temperatures that you sacrifice for a quieter PSU. Is it a degree, 5 degrees, ten degrees, more?tynopik - Thursday, February 21, 2008 - link
1. include a real stress test like how the units handle rapidly changing input voltagesay load them up to 80% capacity and then connect them to a variac and dip the voltage to ~90V 3 times in quick succession to simulate a brownout or poor electrical conditions and check that
a) it doesn't blow up
b) it maintains quality output while the input if fluctuating
2. include cheapo units for comparision just for the reminder of what a poor quality unit is
3. i really love your connector length charts, far more useful than the usual 'stetch a jumble of cables out and lay a ruler next to it' approach. i just wish you would do the same for the sata/peripheral connectors
4. i'm really like the way you combined all the acoustic and efficiency charts together instead of having a bunch of individual charts
Christoph Katzer - Thursday, February 21, 2008 - link
I just assembled a nice system do to those tests. Once it's up and running I will include it. Will also make a comparison of all cables from now on, thanks.The problem with cheap units is that they are mostly for a specific market. I would need to buy thise units myself since no company would ever send them over. Since I am not in the US I will only have the stuff from Europe which is not even available in the US. But let us see how we could change that in the future...
jtleon - Thursday, February 21, 2008 - link
Chris,You state that at least 100W must be drawn before these units achieve high efficiency. Can you relate this requirement to most normal PC tasks - i.e. browsing the web (reading Anandtech reports of course), answering email, other office based activities (the majority of PC users on the planet), rather than those hardcore gamers that are gaming around the clock (and clearly are independently wealthy!).
It would appear that these PSU's are not going to efficiently reduce the carbon footprint of the majority of PC users on this planet.
Am I wrong?
Regards,
jtleon