| AC Ryan RyanPower2 550W Modular PSU - Page 2 of 3 |
The Basics:
The finish on the AC Ryan Ryanpower2 is a shiny black, not entirely like an automotive finish, but still glossy enough to gather fingerprints. The pictures below show a few shots taken outside to get an idea of just how shiny this supply is. The second picture also shows the header that all of the cables plug into. It is this group of connectors that makes the Ryanpower2 unique.
 
The modular design allows you to only use the connectors your system requires. You can order different lengths and configurations as needed from AC Ryan to customize as necessary. AC Ryan also has many different colors in UV reactive and LED lighted connectors. AC Ryan even goes as far as to offer kits to create your own Conductx cabling including crimpable right angle Molex, SATA, fan, floppy and even PCI-Express connectors. You could create the exact cable lengths you need with just the right connectors in just the right places and all in the right colors. The pictures below show the Conductx cables that are included and the 20-pin ATX connector. This cable has a 24-pin connector on the power supply side, and the motherboard end is 20-pin. This makes it easy to convert to a 24-pin motherboard in the future by ordering a 24 pin to 24-pin cable.
 
In the first picture below you can see that there are 2 different kinds of Molex cables. The two below are standard 3x Molex setups. The one on top has 3 right angle Molex connectors and a single floppy connector. AC Ryan calls this the “drive” cable and in theory this is a great idea, you can keep the wiring much tighter and closer to the drives. I say in theory because there is a big problem with how it was put together. To look right the first Molex would have to go to the bottom hard drive then work your way up to the floppy drive. The cable is not long enough to go all the way to the bottom. So my next thought was to disregard the floppy connector and start with the top drive. This puts the Molex connectors upside down and twisting them around ruins the intent. The second picture shows the other cable sets.
 
Pictures below show more details of the 3x SATA and the P4-12V cables. I found no issue with these, the length was right and the SATA connectors were facing the right way.
 
The last two cables have me a bit baffled. The picture on the left shows the 3-pin fan header cable (with a full shot of the 24 to 20 pin ATX cable). They actually included the third yellow wire to each of the fan connectors. This means that the RPM signal from each fan will be tied into the RPM signal from each of the other fans. I’m not sure how this would affect the fans but a better idea would have been to omit the yellow wire from this cable. The picture on the right shows the last of the cables. I can only assume that this was meant to be the PCI-Express solution. One end has a PCI-E 6 pin connector and the other has two male Molex connectors with only the 12V (yellow), ground (black) and a brown wire in the second ground position. It looks to me like you have to use two of your Molex connectors plugged into this adapter to power a PCI-Express graphics card. There is no place on the power supply itself to plug this unit in. Since most PCI-E graphics cards come with an adapter if required, I’m not sure this could be called a PCI-E ready power supply.
 
Time to open it up and see what makes the Ryanpower2 tick. Just like every other power supply there is a sticker that announces a voided warranty if removed. The picture on the left shows the guts. Nothing special in here, looks to be a well built, capable supply. I could not find any voltage adjustment potentiometers. The picture on the right on the other hand shows how AC Ryan created the modular design. It looks like a conventional power supply was modified by hand. Piles of solder on a hand made circuit board make up the backplane of the modular group of connectors. Notice the remnants of masking tape under the screws holding the circuit board down.
 
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