Remember when you just had to have a 300 Watt power supply to replace your standard 250 Watt power supply so you could overclock your 600MHz Intel Pentium III up to 1GHz? I may be dating myself, but I remember those days all too well and I remember when I finally got that P3 600 up to 1GHz I thought I had one mean rig.
Man have things changed; these days that 1GHz system would be considered a dog, and a 300 Watt power supply would not even begin to power up a modern system. It has become pretty obvious to today's computer enthusiast that a high Wattage, stable power supply is a must have item for power hungry systems. Besides a high power rating, we have also come to expect features such as modular cables, multiple (quiet) fans, and a nice looking finish on our power supplies.
We are going to be taking a look at a power supply designed to meet all those expectations and maybe a little bit more. The
Spire Rocketeer V SP-500W offers us everything mentioned with support for dual PCI Express graphics cards, SATA, and support for both ATX and BTX form factor motherboards with a bonus of LED auto temperature speed fans with "Turbo Fan Control". It looks as if though we have a lot to look at in the Rocketeer V SP-500W so let's get right to it by checking out some of the published data.
Features (as taken from the Spire website):
» Intel BTX 1.0a & ATX 1.3 / 2.01 Specification Compliant
» Supports Intel Pentium 4, AMD Sempron and Athlon 64
» EMI Shielded VGA/HDD Power Connector
» Modular EZ-Cable Power Connectors
» Two Blue LED Dual Ball Bearing fans
» 3 Speed Variable Fan Speed Auto-Control
» Completely Silent 10.0 dBA up to 45C / 113F
» I/O Short Circuit & Overload Protection
» Two SATA Power Connectors
» Thermo Reactive Cooling System
» Green power energy star
» 3 Year Warranty
Specifications (as taken from the Spire website):
» Application: Intel BTX 1.0a, ATX 2.01 ATX 12V Power Supply Design Guide Ver. 1.3
» Voltage: 200~240 Vac / 100~120 Vac (Europe=Active PFC / USA=Select Switch)
» Frequency:47Hz ~ 63Hz 10.0A for 100VAC / 6.0A for 240VAC
» Current: +3.3V@28A; +5V@45A; +12V@26A; -12V@1.0A; -5V@0.8A;
» Output: +5VSB@2.5A
» Hold-up Time:16 ms
» Nom. Power: 500W
» Max. Power:550W
» P.G. Signal:100 ~ 500 ms
» Voltage Protection: Two (2) +12V trip point 13.4V - 15.6V | +5V trip point 5.74V - 7.0V | +3.3V trip point 3.76V - 4.3V
Packaging:
Our
Spire Rocketeer V SP-500W arrived safely in a shipping box containing the retails box. Inside the retails box we have another box with all the modular cables and users guide, a bubble pack sleeve with the power supply, and a bag containing a power cord, mounting screws, 4 black tie wraps, and 5 Velcro tie wraps.
