Mixing a bit of pre-mod with a nice titanium blue coat and 480 watts,
this psu is priced accordingly and gives you quiet operation and all
the room needed for expansion. But how stable is it ...
Arriving in a brown package sporting the StarTech.com logo, the Mutant
Mods' 480 Watt PSU w/ 2 blue LED Fans was well protected. After opening
the brown box, you were greeted with the Mutant Mods box.
Upon opening the retail box, you get to look at the shiny PSU through
some nice bubble wrap and another plastic bag surrounding it. As you
can see, there's plenty of precaution taken by the shippers to make
sure their items arrive to you unscathed.
As I was popping the bubble wrap, I noticed the extreme reflectivity of
the PSU inside its protective layers. I quickly unwrapped the item and
found it to be basically a blue tinted mirror. The titanium coating
really gives it a nice shine and polished appearance. Be careful if you
plan to take it apart, as screw drivers easily scratch the coating.
Your fingerprints are quickly printed on the surface and easy to see.
If you have trouble just wiping them off with a soft cloth, you can try
glass cleaner, as I found that removed the prints after putting a
greasy chip finger on it.
Visible on the bottom (depending on your PSU orientation) is a large sticker similar to the one below.
This sticker, in most cases doesn't cause that much of an eyesore. It's
the other stickers on the sides that do. No matter how you flip the
PSU, you either have small yellow stickers with an AMD recommended and
a ball bearing fan, or on the other side you end up with the specs
label and the P4/AMD supported. Either way, you'll have a little bit of
sticker peeling to do if you want to clean up your window side.
These are from the StarTech PSU Specs Page
- Perfect for use in acrylic and windowed cases with an eye-catching blue titanium finish.
- Input Voltage: 115/230 Volts
- MTBF: 100,000 Hours
- Number of Fans: 2
- Output Power: 480 Watts
- Current @ +3.3V: 30 A
- Current @ +5.0V: 45 A
- Current @ +12.0V: 26 A
- Current @ -12.0V: 1.0 A
- Current @ +5.0V (standby): 2.5 A
- Current @ -5.0V (standby): 0.5 A
- Warranty: 3 years
- 3x S-ATA
- 1x 5-pin AUX
- 1x 20-pin to motherboard
- 1x 12V 4-pin ATX
- 1x 3-pin [See
3-pin picture]
- 7x LP4 (4-pin Molex’s)
- 2x 4-pin Floppy
As you can see, it's a pretty nice looking PSU with power and enough
connectors to keep your hardware running and your lights bright.
However, I did notice that all the S-ATA connectors are on the same
line/string of wires, with about 7" of wire in between each. It ends up
cutting down the locations of where your S-ATA devices are. The 20-pin
motherboard connector cable is sleeved in a black mesh and that’s the
only one that's sleeved. Visually, it appears out of place, having one
large cable sleeved and the rest of the wires naked.
Had to check out the insides, as they state there are rather large
capacitors inside and can handle whatever you throw at it. Onward!
I'm sure you noticed the clear fans on the PSU enclosure. Those are
80mm 4 Blue LED Fans. There are two on the PSU, one on the top, another
on the back. Intake and exhaust, respectively. The fans are not very
loud, even when reaching their max 2000 RPM. The inner temperature
determines the speed of the fans. 30°C yields 2000 RPM; 25°C yields
1200 RPM; and 18°C lowers the fans to 500 RPM.
 |  |
I grabbed my trusty multi-meter, cut a small piece of wire, and headed
to the 20-pin motherboard connecter. To my surprise, I found that the
PS_ON (green) was already shorted to the ground next to it by a small
'U' shaped piece of metal. I'm not sure at the moment, whether they all
come with this, or if someone put it there to help me out. No matter, I
was pleased to see that someone took the time to do that.
Now I began to test the rails and only two varying lines. While the +5v
came up as a stable 5.1v under no load, it rose to 5.2v when under
load. As for the +12v it jumped between 12.3v and 12.4v, back and
forth, with no load. Once under load, the rail dropped to 11.7v and was
11.7v and then rose to 11.8v once I shut off a set of dual 12" cold
cathodes. After doing the math, that’s barely under a ±5% tolerance!
(5% of 12.3v is 0.615; making the lowest -5% voltage 11.685v). *IMPORTANT
NOTE* I do not know the tolerances on this PSU as of right now, as they
are not on the box, enclosure, or spec page (or I just completely
missed it). I have contacted the sponsor and will update this once I
get more info. I used ±5% as a comparison because it's a common
tolerance.*
 |  |
It's hard to decide on a suitable rating for this product, having a
jumble of ups and downs. Visually, the PSU is mostly appealing, but the
amount of stickers is a little overkill, especially since they are
spread out over the exterior (nothing that can't be peeled off though)
and the coating scratches rather easily. Fingerprints are also a small
issue, as they are easily left and visible on the reflective surface,
but wipe away easily (using glass cleaner for tougher ones to remove).
The fans function in conjunction with the heatsinks inside to provide a
well cooled and quiet power supply. Having the main motherboard wires
sleeved is a nice addition but all the wires should've been sleeved to
create a matching look and for airflow purposes. All of the rails
performed well, and within standard operating tolerances.
However, the extreme drop of the voltage of the +12v was disappointing,
though it still remained enough to power products. The S-ATA wires need
at least one on its own separate set, preferably all three. The lengths
in between don't cater to only hard drives, but aren't long enough to
provide much separation of your S-ATA devices.
This
product receives an 86% and the Silver Award as it performs but with
some flaws, is visually appealing in most aspects and has plenty of
power and connectors to keep your hardware running full tilt. Its 3
year warranty and lifetime technical support are both nice bonuses, the
warranty being the more valued. I would recommend this to anyone who
wants a powerful PSU but doesn't want to spend a fortune nor spend the
time modding to give it visual appeal.
This is a borderline silver award, and with some minor
changes/enhancements, its successor could take the Gold.
Thanks to Mutant Mods for sponsoring this review.
|
Reviews 
