Be-Quiet StraightPower 550W Power Supply Review

[yurimxpxman]

"To many, performance and silent operation are considered to be mutually exclusive of one another. Releasing in September, Be-Quiet's StraightPower series is hoping to demonstrate that you don't have to sacrifice wattage muscle for silent running. If you are in the market for a PSU that hits the bulls-eye when it comes to performance, cooling, and silent operation, then follow along as we take Be-Quiet's StraightPower 550W power supply out on the firing range to see if they can hit their mark." - Chris Jones

http://hardwarelogic.com/news/137/AR...006-08-30.html

[One4yu2c]

And yes, Be-Quiet did indeed send both a 550w and 600w model for review. Kudos to Chris for making the reviews different enough from each other to remain interesting to read. :D

[stinger608]

Way to go Chris, I had to really look at the review section, I thought that the same review was posted again

Great job of making it different than the first review of the 600w

[Jokerswild]

Very good review. I have one question, is this PSU Sli approved or capable?

[Lead Head]

Could you pop the PSU back open and take some high res shots of the transformer(s) and PCB, and tell me what brand the large cap is, and what brand the smaller caps are on the the other side of the PSU

[Tyreal]

Originally Posted by jokerswild

Very good review. I have one question, is this PSU Sli approved or capable?

Here is the list of Power Supplies straight from Nvidia's SLIZONE website:
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizon..._powersupplies

As you can see, the power supply is not on the list but I have no doubts that this power supply would be able to run all but the most powerful SLI configurations.

[Jokerswild]

Thanks Ty

[Lead Head]

Originally Posted by Tyreal

Here is the list of Power Supplies straight from Nvidia's SLIZONE website:
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizon..._powersupplies

As you can see, the power supply is not on the list but I have no doubts that this power supply would be able to run all but the most powerful SLI configurations.

I would doubt it

4 rails at 41 amps total is 10 amps per rail, provided that the rails are split perfectly, 1 rail would be dedicated to the power connector wich would be loaded to the max at says about 9 amps, then the other rail for mainboard and other stuff, and the other 2 rails for the PCI-E connector, if you average that, that is only about 9-12 amps for the PCI-E connector, and modern nVidia cards are drawing upto 100watts

[yurimxpxman]

Yeah, I thought I was seeing things when I saw the exact same article in PHPCow twice, just with a 50W difference ROFL.

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by Lead Head

I would doubt it

4 rails at 41 amps total is 10 amps per rail, provided that the rails are split perfectly, 1 rail would be dedicated to the power connector wich would be loaded to the max at says about 9 amps, then the other rail for mainboard and other stuff, and the other 2 rails for the PCI-E connector, if you average that, that is only about 9-12 amps for the PCI-E connector, and modern nVidia cards are drawing upto 100watts

That's not how quad +12V rail power supplies work (or dual +12 rail PSUs), they're not split evenly across each rail like that. Each individual rail is capable of up to 18A at any given point in time, so long as the total +12 draw doesn't exceed 41A. The specs are very similar in range to other SLI certified power supplies. The NeoHE 500w, for example, which rates its three +12V rails as capable of up to 17A each, and a total of 38A in total.

Where the Be-Quiet may struggle is in running 2x7900GTX (and even here I'm not convinced). SLI certified quad +12V PSUs in this category have similarily spec'd rails (Fortron calls for 15A each, others rate them at 18A each, etc), the difference being that these units have a higher total +12V rail rating - I think the lowest I saw was in the high 40s.

So I'd have to agree with Ty that I have no doubts that this power supply would be able to run all but the most powerful SLI configurations.

EDIT: Lo and behold, here's a review of a Be-Quiet Dark Power Pro 600w running 2x7900GTX cards (LINK). The dual +12V rails are rated slightly higher (20A each), but the total +12V amps are slightly lower (40A).