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- Date:
- Monday , February 16, 2009
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Entry Level Power Supply Roundup
Not everyone needs 1200 honking watts of power sitting in their new computer build. Not much has changed there. But what has changed is the enthusiast brands of power supplies that will now occupy the entry level PSU space. We have a few PSUs for you today that will not break the bank.
Cooler Master eXtreme Power 500w
The first thing we are going to look briefly at with the Cooler Master eXtreme Power 500w is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While none of these items is a real 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. 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 Cooler Master eXtreme Power 500w comes decked out in a box that is white and, pink? Ok the less said here the better. Moving on the packaging contains some basic electrical specifications, the power label (reproduced below), and the connector count. There are no 80Plus, SLI, or CrossFire certifications on the box and none of these various projects list this unit on their site. Lastly, while not on the packaging the unit features just a 2 year warranty which is certainly shorter than we would like to see on this unit, or any unit.
From the power label we see that the eXtreme Power 500w has a total of 30A available on the 12v rails which is ~72% of the units possible output. This lower 12v rating combined with the 165w 5v/3.3v rating immediately makes it look as if this unit is an older design that Cooler Master is pushing off in the lower output bracket as all of our other units today have a larger percentage of their capacity available on the 12v rails for more modern systems. The eXtreme Power 500w does have two 12v rails and they are broken down per the ATX12v 2.0 specification. As such, we have up to 18A available for the processor while the other 12v rail has 18A for the 6-pin PCI-Express, five Molex, and four SATA connectors. This unit is obviously not geared towards a real high end system with this 12v layout, capacity, and connector count but if the unit survives it should be adequate for most low end systems.
The Cooler Master eXtreme Power 500w contains your usual assortment of items for a power supply including the power supply, power cord, mounting screws, and a manual. The manual is actually a sheet of paper folded up and has information in 12 languages. Included with all of the information there are the installation instructions, power table, electrical specifications from the box, and warranty information. As such, the only thing gained from the manual is the warranty information, and the installation instructions (which are fairly self explanatory to begin with). The manual is passable, but certainly not complete or great by any means. The one good point about it is that it does include the warranty information which some manuals omit.
External Build Quality
The Cooler Master eXtreme Power 500w is clad in a flat black clamshell housing that is dominated by its sole overhead 120mm fan. The rear of the unit features a honey combed vent area and a selector switch as the unit lacks APFC and is not full range.
The eXtreme Power 500w comes in at a length of ~5.5 inches while the cables provide a serviceable length of ~13 inches to the first (or only) connector except for the EPS connector which stretches all the way out to ~17 inches. The cables are mixed between sheathed in black mesh, and completely unsheathed leaving a rather messy appearance for this unit.
Internal Build Quality
Once we open the eXtreme Power 500w we are left looking at a rather sparse, older, and cheap AcBel design. This unit is group regulated, lacks APFC, and has a large section of the single layer PCB removed. The heatsinks used here are on the smaller side but the unit is only 500w and if it is efficient the Protechnic 12v fan rated at 0.45A should be sufficient to cool the unit when paired a good fan controller and these heatsinks.
On the primary side we see what appears to be a very old design still in use. There is no APFC and the two bridge rectifiers are without heatsinks. Attached to the primary heatsink we can see one of the two main switching transistors facing frame here with the other on the opposite side. The one upside here is the transient filter stage on this unit is complete but split between the back of the AC receptacle and the main PCB here. Lastly, the unit features a pair of Elite capacitors rated at 560uF 200v.
On the secondary side the unit looks clean overall, though sparse and featuring a single layer PCB. The caulk usage here is mostly appropriate which is good to see as AcBel at least took the effort to properly seat most components on the PCB rather than make up the difference with adhesive. We also see the two large coils indicating that we are looking at a group regulated design. The wiring here is bunched and sleeved back into the housing (for those wires that actually are sleeved) which is good. Mixed in with the wiring we find a plenitude of Luminous Town Electronic Company (Ltec) capacitors.
Build Quality Summary
Overall the build quality of the eXtreme Power 500w looks acceptable but certainly very dated and looks to be very much a lower cost unit. The external features of the unit are on the sedate side with the unit trimmed out in a flat black finish. However, the wiring is a bit of a mess as only some of it is sleeved which leaves users with some serious spaghetti looking cables on their hands. Once we move to the interior the unit really begins to look long in the tooth as the primary side lacks APFC. The component selection features less than top tier choices such as Elite capacitors (primary) and Ltec (secondary) capacitors while also employing a single layer PCB. If nothing else, these units should be cheap to build and cheap to buy. Our concern today however is, “Can it blend?” So let's move on and find out.