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Cooler Master 550W 120mm LED fan power supply

Thursday, December 8th, 2005 | Power Supply Reviews, Reviews | View Comments

The Cooler Master 550W power supply is highly specced power supply that doesn’t quite live up to its claims. Unfortunately like many power supplies, this one claims a little more than it can give. In reality it cannot maintain its 550W power delivery for an extended period of time.

It is however, still a decent power supply. It can deliver its claimed power for a while. That’s not too much of a downer, seeing as the vast majority of computers could never put this much strain on a power supply, and even then, not for that long.

It’s basic list of features are…

• 120mm fan
• 550 watts of power output
• Extra floppy drive sized power meter
• Good cooling

At first looks the Cooler Master 550W power supply might not look like much, but a lot should be expected from a power supply in this range.

The blue LED light might not be to everyones liking, but should be fine for most people. You might not notice it if your case is out of the way or has no window on it.

It provides quiet operation due to its large 120mm fan. Basically a 120mm fan can move twice as much air as an 80mm one, but makes the same noise, so you get better cooling, without adding extra noise, which might happen when adding more fans.

A cool extra that comes with this is a meter that tells what kind of output the power supply is producing. It is a moving needle that pinpoints usage along a little dial. Although not extrememly useful and doesn’t pinpoint any specifics of the power output it will provide some eye candy for those who like lots of little gadgets on the front of their computer case.

Their is a 20pin to 24pin converter included with the package which adds a good amount of compatability with motherboards. The cables are fairly standard offerings.

Basically you can’t go too far wrong with this power supply. It produces the said output and will keep things in your system running smoothly for a good long time.

Enermax Noisetaker 485 watt power supply

Sunday, November 27th, 2005 | Power Supply Reviews, Reviews | View Comments

The Enermax Noisetaker 485 watt is slightly smaller in output than its bigger brother, but is at a price that is much more within the range of normal buying. It offers the same high quality, but with a power output that is less, but still enough for nearly all computers.

485 watts might not seem like much compared to the 800W monsters that can be seem around. However, it is more than enough for a computer that has a PCIe graphics card, 2 SATA drives, 2 sticks of 512MB memory and the usual array of gadgets.

Here is a brief list of features…

• 485W power output
• 2 fans for cooling needs
• Convertible 20/24 pin adapter

The Enermax Noisetaker is a fairly plain power supply that just does what it is supposed to do. One of the neater features is that it lets the fans run on after you have turned the computer off. This could be a benefit or a drawback, depending on your point of view, but by turning the power supply off you can make them turn off.

Enermax is one of the more well known makers of power supplies. It has been around for a few years and its products are reliable. In fact I would recommend either it, or one of it major competitors for any power supply upgrades.

The Enermax will not disappoint in terms of performance, delivering smooth power to the parts of your computer that need it most. A clean power supply is especially good for those components that are most sensitive to power variations, like processors.

This power supply, although not a bargain, gives you more of what you need for a reasonable price. It is enough, even if you have lots of parts in your computer. At around a 100 bucks, it makes good sense for an upgrade, especially if you are going to upgrade the other major components in your computer.

Enermax 600 watt ATX power supply with 2 80mm fans

Monday, November 21st, 2005 | Power Supply Reviews, Reviews | View Comments

This highly specced, highly rated power supply, provides all the power needs any computer could need. With a rated 600 watts of power its more than enough to run the most powerful processor, paired up with dual-graphics SLI graphics cards.

New computers put continuin strain on power supplies. As the parts get faster and more advanced so do their power requirements increase. Processors can suck up to 90 watts, graphics cards get a lot too because they now incorporate GPUs, which are like mini processors for graphics only. Hard drives are another culprit here, but overall things need more.

Here are the main features…

• 600 watts total power
• ATX standard power supply
• Quiet operation, despite 2 fans
• Stable voltages

Really not everyone needs a 600watt power supply, actually most people don’t. There are however advantages to making the investment into a higher quality supply.

To provide future upgradability, a high quality power supply can provide the needs of any extra parts you might care to add.

This power supply from Enermax is very plain, nothing fancy on the outside, no little lights and stuff like that. And at its price its not cheap.

So let me get to the point. As a long term upgrade, power supplies are a great choice. The stability added to a system by a power supply that is both stable and efficient cannot be seen immediately, but can be felt in the long term, by just not having any trouble. That might not seem like much, but when you realize how many hassles many people have with their power supplies, you might think twice.

Power supplies do not date quickly, unlike processors which seem to move in and out so rapidly, a good power supply is a long term buy.

This power supply does more than just provide lots of power it is also quiet. Many high power supplies become very noisy as they have to add fans to keep things cool inside, if they don’t, it will fry. Especially under extended use, where the components can be tested to the extreme by continued high loads.

The Enermax does a good job in all departments. It is not a cheap buy, but is certainly great. Get it if you are looking for a good long term upgrade.

Ultra X-Connect 500-watt Modular ATX Power Supply with UV

Wednesday, May 4th, 2005 | Power Supply Reviews, Reviews | View Comments

This power supply provides the same reliability and power that is offered by it’s non-UV brother.

It features the modular design, which means that the cables only need to be in the computer when they are not in use.

Providing a solid 500 watts of power to this system, it has all the power needed to run even the most demanding of today’s computer parts.

This version of the power supply comes with UV reactive cables. So they will shine in the dark when a UV light is added to the inside of your case.

It comes with two fans and the sides are transparent. There is a UV light on one of the fans so that the inner parts of the power supply will glow, and are visible through the sides.

Great power supply, the modular design is nice to reduce clutter in the cool custom computer cases, and the UV is a nice little touch for those looking to put the final touches on their mod computer case.

Ultra X-Connect 500-watt ATX Modular Power Supply

Wednesday, May 4th, 2005 | Power Supply Reviews, Reviews | View Comments

“Wow, cool. So why didn’t anyone think of this before?”

That was the first thought that came into my head when I saw this power supply. Instead of all the wires being fixed to the power supply, which leads to all those cables just hanging around in your box, every cable is a seperate component that can be completely removed.

The wonderful part about this is that is removes clutter from inside the box, making it look better, but also improving air flow, which is important to keep things in the computer cool.

This 500 watt power supply does just as it is supposed to, and that is provide clean strong power to your computer’s parts.

According to reviews on this Ultra Power Supply it does just that. All of the voltages supplied to the different components are spot on, except for the 12V which someone reported as being 12.57V, but not too serious.

The 500 watts of power is more than enough to power practically anything you would want to put in your computer, and does a good job supplying that extra power to modern video cards.

The only complaint to be heard about this power supply is the flexibility of the cables. There are a lot of wires on any common component within the computer and when they are put together in a round cable it becomes stiff. Some people reported even having to move components around to get the wires to go in their place.

With the power supply often being the most neglected part in your computer, and standard ones being as little as 250 watts, if you plan on upgrading other things, make sure the power supply is sorted out first.

A great range of colors to compliment a cool custom computer case.