Silver Power Blue Lightning 600W
by Christoph Katzer on August 27, 2007 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Introduction
Most of our readers are probably not familiar with the company Silver Power, which is no surprise considering that this is a new brand name primarily targeting the European market. However, the parent company of Silver Power is anything but new and has been manufacturing a variety of power supplies for many years. MaxPoint is headquartered in Hamburg Germany and they have ties to several other brands of power supplies, the most notable being Tagan.
The Tagan brand was established to focus more on the high-end gamers and enthusiasts, where quality is the primary concern and price isn't necessarily a limiting factor. Silver Power takes a slightly different route, expanding the product portfolio into the more cost-conscious markets. Having diverse product lines that target different market segments is often beneficial for a company, though of course the real question is whether or not Silver Power can deliver good quality for a reduced price.
We were sent their latest model, the SP-600 A2C "Blue Lightning" 600W, power supply for testing. This PSU delivers 24A on the 3.3V rail and 30A on the 5V rail, which is pretty average for a 600W power supply. In keeping with the latest power supply guidelines, the 12V power is delivered on two rails each capable of providing up to 22A. However, that's the maximum power each 12V rail can deliver; the total combined power capable of being delivered on the 3.3V, 5V, and 12V rails is 585W, and it's not clear exactly how much of that can come from the 12V rails which are each theoretically capable of delivering up to 264W each.
Most of our readers are probably not familiar with the company Silver Power, which is no surprise considering that this is a new brand name primarily targeting the European market. However, the parent company of Silver Power is anything but new and has been manufacturing a variety of power supplies for many years. MaxPoint is headquartered in Hamburg Germany and they have ties to several other brands of power supplies, the most notable being Tagan.
The Tagan brand was established to focus more on the high-end gamers and enthusiasts, where quality is the primary concern and price isn't necessarily a limiting factor. Silver Power takes a slightly different route, expanding the product portfolio into the more cost-conscious markets. Having diverse product lines that target different market segments is often beneficial for a company, though of course the real question is whether or not Silver Power can deliver good quality for a reduced price.
We were sent their latest model, the SP-600 A2C "Blue Lightning" 600W, power supply for testing. This PSU delivers 24A on the 3.3V rail and 30A on the 5V rail, which is pretty average for a 600W power supply. In keeping with the latest power supply guidelines, the 12V power is delivered on two rails each capable of providing up to 22A. However, that's the maximum power each 12V rail can deliver; the total combined power capable of being delivered on the 3.3V, 5V, and 12V rails is 585W, and it's not clear exactly how much of that can come from the 12V rails which are each theoretically capable of delivering up to 264W each.
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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.