Globalwin has come out with their first series of power supplies which they have named Sapphire. These power supplies come in either a 420w or520w version, the one that I received is a 520w. This power supply has some nice features on it such as: case fan controlling connector, serial ATA HDD connectors, gold plated connector pins, OVP (Over Voltage Protection), OCP (Over Current Protection), and SCP (Short Circuit Protection). This power supply is also rated at 19 dB which makes it very quiet, this is something I always love. The power supply uses a dual fan design having one fan in the front and one in the back. Along with all these features the power supply boasts an awesome titanium surface, windows, and LED fans.
The power supply comes inside of a nice shrink wrapped box. On the top of the box there is a picture of the power supply which looks really nice. The side of the box has some specifications such as power levels and a list of features that it has, such as an active PFC and being SATA ready.
This Gloablwin power supply sports a titanium coating just like the True Silent 450w power supply that I previously reviewed. I truly like the coating on these power supplies because it gives it a mirror finish. The bottom of the power supply has a blue window in the housing so you can see all of the innards which is cool for people who have windows in their cases. More and more companies are catering to the modding community and pumping out products with windows, cathodes, and LED fans. The top of the power supply has a sticker with the standard warnings and power ratings so that you will be sure your getting what you want.
Both sides of the power supply also have a blue windows so that you can see inside and for the light from the LEDs to get out. Even though one side of the power supply will not be seen in most cases because of the fact that most cases do not have a window on the back side Globalwin still gave it a window. This is something people with clear cases or fully modded cases will like a lot, it would look less impressive with only one side window.
I unscrewed the four screws holding the cover on the power supply to see what kind of innards it had. The PCB on top of is blue to match the windows and LEDs within the power supply which will add to the professional look. I admire when a company makes the effort to make their product the best that they can even to the smallest detail. If it were another color when you looked through the windows the PCB would probably look ugly. Globalwin has also done a great job heatsinking the inside of the unit to keep it cool. On one side of the power supply there is a smaller PCB which is used to control the three fan only Molex connectors.
This is the first power supply I have seen with serial ATA connectors actually on the unit which is nice to see because eventually Serial ATA devices will become more prominent. Normally newer power supplies coming out are “SATA ready” but they do not include an adapter or connectors which is pretty bad in my opinion. This power supply also has three fan only Molex headers which control the fans connected to them by the PCB within the power supply. Its nice to see more companies using these fan only Molex because you dont have to waste the real Molex on fans. Along with the serial ATA, and fan only connections, this power supply has eight Molex, two berg, one auxiliary, one 12v, and one ATX power connector(s). The length of the cables on this power supply look to be a little longer than they need to be but we will see for sure on the next page.
Test Bed
- Abit NF7-S Rev 2.0 (review to come)
- 1800+ Thoroughbred
- 60GB Seagate Barracuda IV HDD
- 80GB Western Digital HDD
- 1024MB PC3200 Corsair TwinX (review to come)
- XFX GeForceFX 5600 Ultra (review to come)
- Koolcase’s Panther
- Plextor 40x12x40 CDRW
- Plextor PX-504A DVD+RW (review to come)
I installed this Globalwin Sapphire 520w power supply to my normal test bed which is the above hardware. The cables are much too long, I am using a full tower and as you can see there is still a ton of slack at the top of the case. This could easily be solved by hiding and cleaning up the cable but there is no need for them to be as long as they are. This power supply is advertised to be 19dB which I find to be very accurate, after booting my computer I could barely hear it.
After booting up the computer I loaded up Motherboard Monitor 5 so that I would be able to get the voltage readings from the power supply. I always focus on the 5v and 12v line which is what I feel is the most important thing to look for when it comes to power supplies. I let the system idle for about 20 minutes and after that time the voltages on both lines had not changed at all. I was very impressed at how stable this power supply was and how strong the 5v line which is usually not this good. With a reading of 5.08v and 12.04 you can be sure this power supply will keep your system stable at all times. The True Silent 450w power supply had the same 5v line, however the 12v line was lower than this Globalwin one.
After getting the idle voltages I loaded up Prime95 which I used to get the CPU to 100% load. I was glad to see that the 5v line did not drop at all and the 12v line only dropped to 11.98. Overall this power supply out performs the Zalman 400w, Power Glow 420w, and True Silent 450w. It is great to see a product that looks good on the outside and can still produce results where needed when it is needed.
Conclusion
I really like this power supply a lot because of the features offered, the performance, and the overall look. With this power supply coming modded already there isn’t much that you could add to make it look better which I think is cool.
The titanium covering makes the power supply look awesome and I hope that all companies start using it. Not only are the ascetics pleasing but it uses quality materials suck as gold plated connector pins, it has a SATA cable instead of using an adapter, it is extremely quiet, and has fan controlling Molex.
The only negative aspect of this product is that the cables are too long. Other than the long cables, which isn’t that big of a deal there is nothing to speak negatively about.
Overall I am giving this power supply a 10/10 and awarding it the OCmodshop Seal of Approval. I would like to thank Globalwin USA for sending over this power supply for the review. As of now I was unable to find any US sites that are carrying this product but they should become available soon.
Pros
- 520w of power from this unit
- 5v line is the strongest I have seen in a long time
- Titanium coating offers a mirror finish
- 3 blue windows on the body of the PSU
- Blue PCBs used inside the unit
- Blue LED fans look cool
- Gold plated connector pins
- SATA cable with 2 connections
- 3 fan only Molex connectors
- Extremely quiet
Cons
- Cables too long