Extreme Alterations (now Xoxide) sent over one of their 420w Power Glow power supplies. This power supply is the same one that comes in Chieftec cases however it has LED fans in it instead of clear ones.
This power supply seems to be competing with the Antec True Blue power supply which is basically the same thing. This power supply is both Pentium 4 ready and AMD approved so it should be able to handle whatever you want to throw at it. Now let’s take a closer look at this power supply and see how it does.
The power supply did not come in a box of it own, it was delivered in a regular priority mail box with packing material inside to protect it. The power supply itself comes in a bubble pack which keeps it relatively protected, especially with the packing foam. The only thing included with the power supply is the power cord which is normally what a power supply comes with.
The power supply has the standard sticker on the side of it which indicates the specifications of the power that it will put out during operation, the model number, and some safety information. The back of the power supply is also pretty standard having an 80mm fan, switch, and plug for the power cord.
From the bottom on the power supply you can see that it is temperature controlled and has another 80mm on fan to help pull more hot air away from your CPU and out of your case. The one thing that caught my eye about this power supply is that the warranty sticker was ripped already which means that the power supply comes with a voided warranty.
Below are some of the specifications for this power supply. Most of the details below are really just for technical reference however you may find some of them useful if you are looking for something specific.
| Maximum Power | 430watts |
| Switches | ATX Logic on-off additional power rocker switch (115/230 Volt selector switch) |
| Overload Protection | Latching Protection +5V @ < 47A +3.3V @ < 48A +12V @ < 18A |
| Colors Available | Blue, red, green, blue/red |
| Dimensions | 5.9″(L) x 5.5″(W) x 3.4″(H) 15cm(L) x 14 cm(W) x 8.6 cm(H) |
| Net Weight | 5lbs/2.3kg |
| Input Voltage | 115 VAC / 230VAC |
| Input Frequency Range | 47Hz to 63Hz |
| Input Surge Current | < 60A @ 115VAC |
| Input Current | 9.0A for 115VAC 5.0A for 230VAC |
| Hold-up Time | > 17ms at Full Load |
| Efficiency | > 68% |
| EMI/RFI | FCC Class B CISPR22 Class |
| Output | +5V -5V +12V -12V +3.3V +5V SB |
| Max. Load | 36A* 0.5A 20A 1.0A 28.0A* 2.0A |
| Min. Load | 0A 0A 0A 0A 0A 0A |
| Load Reg. | ±3% ±5% ±3% ±5% ±3% ±5% |
| Ripple V(p-p) | 50mV 50mV 120mV 120mV 50mV 50mV |
| * +5V, +3.3V & +12V maximum output 410 Watts max. | |
| Operating Temp. | 10 to 50ºC |
| Operating Alt. | Sea Level 10,000 ft. |
| MTBF | 80,000 hrs. @ 25ºC |
| Approvals | UL, CSA, TUV, CB, CE, NEMKO |
In my opinion the cables are longer than they need to be. I had this power supply installed in a full tower and still had tons of slack to spare after plugging it all in. Only the ATX cable had mesh around it which is a nice touch, but it would have been even cooler if the rest were as well.
Once I had everything in place and plugged in I booted up the computer. As you can see the LED fans in the power supply look pretty cool and do a good job lighting up the case inside as well as the back of the computer. The fan inside of the case by itself is not enough to light up the whole thing but if you have a cold cathode or more LEDs fans it would look really cool.
I am assuming that whoever makes these power supplies simply took the stock fans out and replaced them with LED fans. In the process of doing this they ripped the warrantee sticker and didn’t bother to replace it with a valid one. This is kind of a big deal because if the power supply goes bad you may not be able to receive a refund or exchange due to the fact that the warrantee had been voided.
I opened up the power supply to find that the layout was basically the same as most other power supplies but lacking any useful heatsinks to cool the unit. I also saw that my suspicions were correct about the replacement of the stock fans. As you can see the wires have been cut and soldered to the new fans. It seems that the company simply cut the standard fan wires and pulled them out then replaced them with some LED fans. Even though the job seems a little tacky it will work and the exposed wire was properly shielded with heatshrink.
Finally, taking a look at the power supply connections that this unit comes with you can see that everything is pretty standard. There are five Molex, 2 berg, one 12v, one auxiliary, and one ATX connections on this power supply which is pretty good overall. The ATX cable is wrapped with black mesh which is nice because it will keep all the wires organized and in place.
Test Bed
- Abit NF7-S Rev 2.0
- 1800+ Athlon XP
- 60GB Seagate Barracuda IV HDD
- 80GB Western Digital HDD
- 1024MB PC3200 Corsair TwinX (review to come)
- Abit Geforce 4 Ti4200 OTES 8x AGP 128MB
- PcToys VGA MAXX Heatpipe Cooler
- Koolcase’s Panther
- Zalman 400w APF PSU
- Plextor 40x12x40 CDRW
- Plextor PX-504A DVD+RW (review to come)
I installed the unit to my normal test bed which is the above hardware to test it. When I first turned the unit on fans started up and put out a good amount of noise, at least more than I like to hear. The power supply isn’t loud however I think that for me personally it is more than I want to hear. After Windows finished booting I went ahead and started up Motherboard Monitor 5 which I used to get the voltage readings. I let the computer idle for about 15 minutes and watched the readings. The results from the system idling are impressive with the 5v line staying at 5v and the 12v line at 11.98v.
After getting the idle voltages I loaded up Prime95 which I used to get the CPU to 100% load. After about 15 minutes of stressing the system the load voltages were also pretty impressive with the 5v line only dropping to 4.97v and the 12v line dropping to 11.92v. This power supply of the three tested had the best 5v line and the second best 12v line.
Conclusion
When I first received this power supply I was a little unimpressed because of the fact that it did not come in a box of its own and looked just like the stock power supply from a Chieftec case. After further inspection of the unit both inside and out I found more things about the unit that I really did not like.
I did not like the fact that the warrantee had already been voided and that the stock fans were cut and new ones were soldered on. The cables in my opinion were a little long, however if you have a huge case you will like this feature. the power supply does look really cool and does operate really well
I do admit that, however I do not feel though that this unit is worth the $72 that it’s selling for. Overall this is a good power supply because of the power output and look but I wouldnt recomend it unless you are wating a “tricked out” power supply.
Because of the pros and cons of this power supply I am going to give it a 6/10. I would like to thank Extreme Alterations for sending over this unit, head on over and check out what their store because they have a lot of cool stuff.
Pros
- Good 5v and 12v line
- Looks cool
- Comes in blue, red, and green
- Solder points for fans shielded
- Lots of Molex
- AMD approved and Pentium 4 ready
Cons
- Warrantee came voided
- Stock fans just replaced with LED fans
- Cables too long
- A little loud