Power supplies come in many shapes and sizes, including varying wattages, but how do you know how much wattage you need? Well that all depends on what you're doing, if it's a basic computer for surfing the internet and doing other office like tasks, you really don't need any of those popular large wattage power supplies out there today. Today for review I've got the Glacial Power 550Watt power supply, it's silent, and more than capable of handling a basic everyday computer…
Glacial Power 550Watt Power Supply
Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos
Sponsor: Glacial Power
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
Glacial Power 550Watt PSU
Model: GP-PS550BP
Features:
ATX12V Ver. 2.2
Reliable forward topology design
Dual +12V Rails
High +5Vsb Capability
Full Output Power from 0 °C to 45 °C
Full protection features of SCP, OVP, OCP, OPP, OTP
Low power consumption of standby
Complete fan switch off (0dBA) with low load
Fan delay shut down to extend electronic components' lifetime
Intelligent fan speed control to optimize power performance and quiet working environment
Delivery of 75% power efficiency by passive PFC
RoHS Compliance
Manufactured with high quality components and strict processes
Specs:
-Two-ball bearing 80mm fan
-MTBF: 100,000 Hours (25C)
-Dimensions: 150 (L) x 140 (W) x 86 (H)
: 5.95" x 5.51" x 3.34"
-Weight: 2.2 (Kgws) (4.85lbs)
Connectors:
1x Main Power (20+4)
1x CPU Connector
5x 12v Molex
2x SATA
1x FDD
2x PCI-E
{mospagebreak title=A Better Look at things}
A Better Look at Things
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The Glacial Power 55oWatt Power Supply comes in an attractive box that features pictures of the PSU itself, and of course a listing of the specs and features as well, it even includes a nice carry handle for convenience.
Opening the box we find it packaged in styrofoam for protection, included is a user manual, main power cable and mounting screws.
The Glacial Power PSU is the plain 'vanilla' type, with no frills like a nice paint job or sleeved cabling, it reminds me of the basic OEM power supplies out there you get with most store bought computers.
It does feature the popular honeycomb ventilation on the front part, which would be inside of your case. The rear of the PSU has an 80mm exhaust fan to draw air through the PSU to help cool it off, included on the rear is an I/O rocker switch, 115/230 volt selector, and of course the main power connection.
A Better Look at Things
Continued:
Of course the Glacial Power 550Watt power supply has the standard identification label which lists the basic specs of the PSU.
The main ATX power cable is sleeved, but the rest are not, why who knows…
The connectors are:
1x Main Power (20+4)
1x CPU Connector
5x 12v Molex
2x SATA
1x FDD
2x PCI-E
Opening up the Glacial Power PSU, which of course voids the warranty, we can get a better look at the actual components that make it up.
We also find nice large components, industrial sized, nothing cheap or small to be found in here, although it is quite cramped, so I'm not sure how well the air will flow through all of this.
Installation, Testing and Comparison
Installation is just like any other power supply, being that it is small, I had no problems fitting it into my case. Once installed you'll need to connect up the power connections to your various components and switch the system on.
Well I did this and my system came on for a second and shut right down, I did this quite a few times to no avail. I opened the case back up, checked the connections, and re-checked them, I even unplugged everything and re-plugged it back in to make sure everything was connected correctly. It still wouldn't work, I was stumped, I thought I had a dead power supply on my hands, but then it occurred to me to check the voltage switch on the back of the power supply, and sure enough it was set to 230, and not the 115 that it should be set at for use in the United States. After i switched it to where it should be everything worked fine…
For testing I recorded Idle and Load voltages of the 12v and 5v power lines using my trusty multimeter. To get idle voltages I let the computer sit for 30 minutes after boot, just running basic Windows services, to get load I ran two instances of Prime 95, one on each core of my AMD Athlon X2 4200+ CPU, and I ran 3dMark05 as well to get load on the video card which is a Connected3d X1800GTO.
Idle:
12v = 11.89v – 11.90v
5v = 5.12v
Load:
12v = 11.85v – 11.86v
5v = 5.13v – 5.14v
Obviously we started out at idle below the ideal 12v mark, but not to worry really it is still within tolerances.
Even if it is within tolerances, I still don't like the fact that they are running below the optimum 12v mark, while this is fine for basic things, I wouldn't really trust this power supply to handle anything that specifically requires a certain voltage…
On the bright side though, the Glacial Power 550Watt PSU is near silent, it added no additional noise to my system and both the 5v and 12v rails were stable under the loads that were put on them.
Summary:
The Glacial Power 550Watt power supply is silent and stable, no matter the load this power supply handled it very well. The fact of the 12volt lines dropping below the 12v mark is a bit troublesome, but it is within tolerances, although I wouldn't want to be running a higher end video card that requires specific voltages. For a basic computer this power supply will do just fine, it can make a nice replacement for one that died, or even an upgrade to help silence a noisy computer…
DragonSteelMods gives the Glacial Power 550Watt PSU a 4 out of 5 score.
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Pros:
-Stable
-Small to fit any case
-Silent
Cons:
-12v rails below 12v
I would like to thank Glacial Tech for the chance to review the Glacial Power 550Watt PSU and for their support of DSM.