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- Date:
- Monday , March 09, 2009
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
BFG LS-450 Power Supply
Looking for BFGTech's new quality power supplies in a power rating for a system that is a bit more reserved. We look at the smallest BFG PSU that comes in at 450 watts. And of course we put it to the same testing we put the kilowatt units to.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the BFG LS-450 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 packaging for the LS-450 is almost identical to the other current members of the LS series of power supplies. To start with, on one side of the box we find the power table and connector counts for the included LS-450 and that information is reproduced below. Otherwise, the front and sides of the packaging contain mostly marketing points and advertisements for the run of the mill features like PCI-Express connectors, safety features, MTBF, etc. The rear of the box has a fan noise graph, efficiency curve, and some basic installation instructions as we have seen on the other LS units. The packaging also indicates that the unit is 80Plus certified but at the time of writing the unit was not listed on the 80Plus website. Lastly, the LS series is covered by a 5 year warranty and must be registered within 30 days of purchase otherwise the unit is only covered by a 1 year warranty. While 5 years is not nearly as long or as nice as the Lifetime warranty that is featured on the ES-800 it cannot be stressed enough that users should register their BFG power supply as soon as they purchase it in order to not lose the warranty protection they thought they were getting when they bought the unit.
As we see from the power label on the LS-450 we have a single 12v rail power supply with 29A or ~77% of the unit’s capacity available on it. Coupled with this output we find that the unit has a 6-pin PCI-Express connector, six Molex, and six SATA connectors. For a 450w unit this appointment seems viable, however the 12v capacity is a bit lower than what we have been seeing from some other units on the market and it will be interesting to see how this unit does in relation to those units.
The LS-450 packaging contains the power supply, power cord, mounting screws, and user manual all packed up neatly in the box. In regards to the manual that ships with the unit, the first thing a user should do with the manual for LS-450 is to ignore it, make paper airplanes out of it, or just throw it away. The reason is, the only thing in the manual is the installation instructions that are on the packaging. That is it, nothing else and this is a considerable step down from the LS-550 and LS-680 documentation. Given that, let’s move on and see if the unit itself can at least provide a better impression than the documentation.