High Power PW480-102DF Power Supply

The High Power PW-480 comes all black.  Two orange 80mm cooling fans are present to keep air flow moving and temperatures comfortable.  One of these fans' has its speed regulated by an internal thermal probe; adjusting the fan's speed from 1200 to 3000 RPM depending on the internal temperature.  Not that an 80mm standard case fan is going to make much noise in the first place but every little bit helps when you are looking to make a silent system.  You also have a fan speed monitor line coming out of the High Power PW-480 that you can plug into your board to monitor the variable fan's speed.

  

In addition to fan monitoring, the PW-480 is also set up internally to monitor and shut down if necessary in the event of overvoltage, overpower, overheat or a short circuit.

Around back, with the wrapping wires off, we see what looks like a den of snakes.  The power lines you see are extended length lines that you full tower case folks will appreciate.  Aside from the 20-pin ATX power and 12v Aux lines you have two rails measuring 1.09 meters, each with three 4-pin Molex connectors and a FDD connector, another rail measuring .9 meters sporting three 4-pin Molex, and a two connection SATA power line that was three quarters of a meter long.  The power lines are all sheathed in colored mesh with black shrink wrap at the ends.  The three Molex lines are all blue while the SATA line is green and the 12v AUX line is orange.  In the second pic below you can see the clean wrapping job complete with a black heat shrink covering at the end that gives off a very pro look.

  

This is one of those no brainer features that I can't believe no one has thought of until now.  Take a closer look at the Molex connector below.  See the top and bottom folds?  High Power calls this "EZ-Extract."  Basically its just some extra plastic that allows you to get a better grip on the connector.  Think about how many times you have been carefully wiggling a stuck power connector back and forth trying to get it loose.  Those days are over with these snappy little numbers.  Kudos to High Power.

Now we come to the trendy feature, the power usage display.  This display piece is an anodized black 5.25" bay cover.  Centered is a small LCD screen that displays the total wattage output being called for by your system.  Add in some high end power sucking VGA cards in SLI and watch the numbers raise.  The small white plug you see on the reverse side is the connection point where the display plugs into the High Power PW-480.

  

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