![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Thursday , February 14, 2008
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Hiper Type-M 880w Power Supply
Hiper aims for the enthusiast with a new 880 watt computer power supply that seems to have all of its ducks in line. If you have ever wondered why we think DC quality output is just as important as carrying the load, the Hiper 880w is a perfect example of that.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the Hiper Type-M 880w is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While normally none of these items is a make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help in many situations. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing and use more efficient.
The first thing many people will notice about the Hiper Type-M 880w packaging is the seemingly washed-out nature of it. That is not due to photography; rather the unit is advertised as being packaged in recycled paper which from the looks of it is certainly true. The upside here is that it is eco-friendlier but it is much more difficult to read and photograph well. On the same eco-friendly vibe we should point out that the unit is also ROHS complaint and is advertised as being 85% efficient. Very little of the information on the packaging is actually on the box, rather most of it is contained on a cardboard sheet that is shrink wrapped to the back of the box. That sheet contains the power label in great detail (reproduced below) that includes many of the other electrical specifications, connector layout, advertisement for being inaudible (and as being ~20dBA under "normal" load), and the SLI certified logo. A quick check of the SLIZone website finds the Type-M 880w certified for 8800 Ultra SLI while a quick check of the CrossFire webpage finds a number of Hiper products (including other 880w models) certified for CrossFire but not the Type-M we are looking at today. Finally, since the unit is advertised as being 85% efficient a quick check of the 80Plus website was in order but revealed no Hiper entries and indeed no CWT entries at 880w either. There are of course a large number of valid reasons why the unit would not be on the 80Plus website but still be ~85% efficient, so we will just have to see for ourselves how the Hiper Type-M 880w does today in our review. Lastly, the packaging does not mention the length or warranty but it is included later on in the manual and is stated as being 3 years which is a bit on the shorter side considering the lengths of warranties other brands are offering these days.
* Floppy connector is provided by an adapter that occupies one Molex Connector.
The Hiper Type-M 880w power label information is certainly interesting. The unit has 64A available on the 12v rails for ~87% of its total possible DC output capacity. This is good but the arrangement of these rails is a bit unusual. As we see the 12v1 and 12v2 rails only feed the P4/AUX and EPS connector. Indeed if we use the EPS connector then there is a total of 36A available to feed CPU's in the system; which may be of benefit to users who are running multi socket systems but is completely unnecessary for the majority of users. This does not, however, limit the power available to rest of the system though for users with more traditional setups as the OCP is set for 30A on both 12v3 and 12v4 which feed all the other peripherals. With a possible 60A out of 64A available here users should never have issues with the 2 12v rails being tied up on the EPS connector but the layout of the other 2 12v rails may be an issue for some people. Feeding off of these remaining 12v rails are 4 PCI-E connectors with 1 8 pin connector and 1 6 pin connector on 12v4, and 2 PCI Express connectors (1 8 pin connector and 1 6 pin connector) along with all the SATA/Molex connectors on 12v3. In theory the 2 PCI-Express connectors by the specifications are able to provide a total of 225w of power (150w per connector on the 8 pin PCI-Express and 75w per connector on the 6 pin PCI-Express) which would be ~63% of the capacity of 12v3. So in theory if users do not pay attention to which rail they are connecting their PCI-Express cards to that use the 8pin and 6 pin PCI-Express connectors and those cards do draw their full potential from the connectors they could run into some issue if they are drawing a lot of current via Molex/SATA connectors on 12v3. This seems unlikely though given the limited Molex and SATA connectors on the Hiper Type-M 880w but having the Molex/SATA/Motherboard moved from 12v3 to either 12v1 or 12v2 would have certainly freed up more capacity for devices that are likely to use it which would have allowed Hiper to offer more SATA/Molex connectors.
Once we open the Hiper Type-M 880w we find a normal assortment of items including the power supply itself, a bag full of extension cables, the power cord, manual, and some Hiper case badges (I’ll spare everyone the Blazing Saddles joke here). Usually there isn’t much here that is really useful but I want to address the extension cables that come with the Type-M 880w that are cleverly dubbed “ExTender.” While these types of cables may seem gimmicky to some people there are some benefits to them for some users as it stands with these particular cables. For instance, the Molex ExTender's provide, in addition to an extension, a 90 degree angle that is semi-fixed which could come in very handy for routing cables in certain situations while the PCI-E cables provide fixed 8 pin to 6 pin step downs to accommodate any issues you may have. The other item to comment on is the manual. The manual is comprised of a single large sheet of paper folded into ¼’s with most of the same information as the packaging. The real difference in provided information is here we find the warranty length (3 years from time of purchase), pinouts for the various connectors, and some rudimentary instructions for connecting certain devices that was not on the packaging. Overall the documentation for the Hiper Type-M 880w is ok but not great, however the inclusion of the ExTender cables actually seem useful for certain situations.