Be very cautious about Hiper power supplies...

  • Thread starter Thread starter MartyLK
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MartyLK

I just learned a disturbing fact about this Hiper 580 PSU. A poster in
another forum brought up the now proven fact that the dedicated PCIe
coax connection on this PSU uses only 2 of the visible 3 pins for all
six PCIe wires.

When the person brought this up I immediately got my Ohm meter out and
did some testing. What I found has seriously clouded the perceived
quality of this unit.

I took the dedicated PCIE lead...the one that has 3 pin sockets on the
coax connector end and a 6 pin card connector on the other end. I
checked for continuity between all of the connections. Only 2 coax pin
sockets had continuity. One coax pin socket didn't have continuity
with anything!

One coax pin socket had continuity with 3 wires at the other end and
one of the other coax pin sockets had continuity with the other 3
wires at the other end.

It is certainly clear there is some amount deception be perpetrated
but I'll reserve a condemnation till I see if the machine I'm going to
build using this PSU will function correctly. I plan to do away the
dedicated PCIe connections this PSU came with and use the 2 quality
adapter my Ultra X-Connect came with. I'll be connecting them to one
each of the 4 pin PSU coax connector...the auxiliary connectors. Thsi
would make things look better and I'd also feel better about not using
that ugly extra PCIe adapter that came with this Hiper PSU. It has a 6
pin PCIe connector on one end going into two molex connectors on the
other end.
 
I just learned a disturbing fact about this Hiper 580 PSU. A poster in
another forum brought up the now proven fact that the dedicated PCIe
coax connection on this PSU uses only 2 of the visible 3 pins for all
six PCIe wires.

When the person brought this up I immediately got my Ohm meter out and
did some testing. What I found has seriously clouded the perceived
quality of this unit.

I took the dedicated PCIE lead...the one that has 3 pin sockets on the
coax connector end and a 6 pin card connector on the other end. I
checked for continuity between all of the connections. Only 2 coax pin
sockets had continuity. One coax pin socket didn't have continuity
with anything!

One coax pin socket had continuity with 3 wires at the other end and
one of the other coax pin sockets had continuity with the other 3
wires at the other end.

It is certainly clear there is some amount deception be perpetrated
but I'll reserve a condemnation till I see if the machine I'm going to
build using this PSU will function correctly. I plan to do away the
dedicated PCIe connections this PSU came with and use the 2 quality
adapter my Ultra X-Connect came with. I'll be connecting them to one
each of the 4 pin PSU coax connector...the auxiliary connectors. Thsi
would make things look better and I'd also feel better about not using
that ugly extra PCIe adapter that came with this Hiper PSU. It has a 6
pin PCIe connector on one end going into two molex connectors on the
other end.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information!
I have a Lite-On power supply, 300 watts, came with my Acer. Not the
best wattage, but very quiet and powers a 7600GS video card!
 
Thanks for the information!
I have a Lite-On power supply, 300 watts, came with my Acer. Not the
best wattage, but very quiet and powers a 7600GS video card!
Click to expand...

Actually, as it turns out, this PSU isn't as bad as I described. The
deception still stands on their part but they really did the only
logical solution shy of actually doing it right by making the PCIe
lead and connection a 6-pin. Unfortunately there isn't room for 6-pins
in that coax style connector. They did, however make the both pins of
sufficient size as to be able to carry the current. Same goes for the
CPU connector.

There is no way to efficiently divide 2x3 conductors between 3 pins.
There are 3 12v conductors and 3 ground conductors in a PCIe
connector. It isn't efficient to divide those 3 each between 3 pins or
even 4 or 5 pins.

As it turns out I was a bit hasty in my caution but this particular
PSU does have its issues. In an older, single card, system this is a
very, very good PSU. But in the newer SLI systems, this PSU isn't
recommended for the lack of connections and the lack of an 8-pin CPU
(EPS) connection.

So this is still a recommended PSU, built very well and incredibly
beautiful to behold in person and look stunning in a case. Just make
sure to use it carefully.
 
I have a Lite-On power supply, 300 watts, came with my Acer. Not the
best wattage, but very quiet and powers a 7600GS video card!
Click to expand...

I'd rather have a 300W Lite-On than a 580W Hiper. Lite-Ons are top
notch, and the company is something like the #2 or #3 PSU maker in the
world.
 
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