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kingdingeling
Soo, after the people at Enermax can't get their asses up and get me my Noisetaker 600W back, I decided I needed this rig back and went and got myself a power supply.
I went to the local PC alley and had a look at what they offered. I had a look at a couple of Thermaltakes, Tagans, Mushkins (yes, they sell them at the local dude here!), Coolermasters, Enermaxes (the Liberty series) and LC-Powers (god those things are crap) and then this BeQuiet. I had heard of them earlier from friends and on german OC-ing websites and so on. According to some reviews, BeQuiet is supposed to be up there with PCP&C performance wise, at a fraction of the price, so I got the Straightpower 500W from them (81.90€ (Euro's), thats about 108$).

Not the cheapest, but the specifications but also the look of this thing got me convinced. Here are some pics of the PSU:

The Puma on the box says a lot about BeQuiet, silent but deadly:


Very nice looking package I have to say, this was noticeably bigger than the box my Noisetaker came in!


Very detailed info on the cables, including EXACT cable lengths. This can be very helpfull if you have a big case, like the Stacker or the Armor:


Under the cover of the box there is actually a little viewing window, where you can see the PSU already. It's not in this picture, but thats about what it looks like:


Looking for the accessories was like playing hide and seek laugh.gif Each of the foldable things at the side hid something different, either the PSU connectors, the power cable or a bag with the mounting screws and a couple of cable binders:


The PSU with all its accessories and manual. Notice ALL cables are sleeved except the fan headers:


Another interesting thing about the Straightpower 500W is that it has 3 cables just for fans, where you can hook up 3x fans with the 3-pin headers and 3x fans with the 4-pin headers (Molex plugs):



Enough of the outside appearance, lets get this baby mounted cool.gif


I simply love the shiny design of this unit, compared to my Noisetaker this is a pearl! As you can see in the above picture, the space above the PSU is pretty much filled with cables, because there is just SO many connectors, I had to really push them in there for them to fit. laugh.gif Too bad this unit isn't modular, but the modular series from BeQuiet was too expensive for me (530W = 98€, more than 130$). Back to this unit, two 12V rails with 25A and 18A should be enough to power much higher end systems than mine. An interesting feature here is that the 12V rails are balanced according to load of each of them. For example if I connected everything I had to the first 12V rail, it would most likely be overloaded, but to prevent damage to the unit and the parts of the system, they balance the load between them so everything is fine and can run smoothly.

After I got everything hooked up, I had a look at what my case looked like and it did not look good at all ph34r.gif way too many cables in there, sleeved but still too much. I tried wiring them around a little big, but it really did not make such a big difference. So I took the Velcro Tape (translator, dunno if thats correct) that came with the PSU and fastened some of the cables around the metal bar that runs across my case. It might not be optimal, but it's a decent solution in my opinion. Cable management is still horrible, but at least now they don't get into the 120mm fan at the top (modded that into the case) and cause it to make lots of noise or even to stop:


Unfortunately, I do not have a Digital MultiMeter at hand, otherwise I would go and check the rails immediately, but I might go and get myself one of them tomorrow or next week.

Overall I think the BeQuiet Straightpower 500W is a great power supply with enough power for most mid to high-end systems out there these days. 25A and 18A on the two 12V rails is enough for SLIed 7900GTX's/7800GTX 512MB's according to NVIDIA. They actually don't have this PSU listed in there, but according to their requirements of watts and ampere, it is well above the requirements.
I know these are not sold anywhere in the US, but if anyone in Europe needs a new power supply, have a look at BeQuiet!
kingdingeling
updated! Gonna get a DMM these days and test the volts of this baby!
jammin
And is it actually very quiet?

I would do a quick bit of research to find out who the OEM is, but I'm feeling lazy.
Maybe someone will do it for me.
kingdingeling
yea, this is REALLY quiet! If I do some re-wireing, I might just keep this bad boy in my rig and have the Noisetaker for backup smile.gif
roadkill
I forgot who makes these, but they are very goood biggrin.gif
kingdingeling
so I heard, up to now its been running straight through without anything longer than a 10 minute break on full folding power from the 2. of March. I really like this unit, and as Enermax has yet to show themselves, this is a great compensation thumbs-up.gif
kingdingeling
Enermax came on Thursday, the switched out the unit although it says "problem fixed" on the sheet... or they switched the cover (had a nice long scratch on it wink.gif) I suppose the BeQuiet will stay in my rig for now, more than enough. Gotta put that Asus burner in tomorrow.... yeehaa, cable management here I come!!! laugh.gif
Silverfox
QUOTE(kingdingeling @ Mar 17 2007, 11:06 PM) [snapback]673341[/snapback]
Enermax came on Thursday, the switched out the unit although it says "problem fixed" on the sheet... or they switched the cover (had a nice long scratch on it wink.gif) I suppose the BeQuiet will stay in my rig for now, more than enough. Gotta put that Asus burner in tomorrow.... yeehaa, cable management here I come!!! laugh.gif



get a sata burner then wink.gif
kingdingeling
it IS a SATA burner wink.gif some kinna Asus thing with LightScribe I picked up for 75 Sing, thats like 32€....
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