be quiet! SFX L Power 500w Gold Power Supply Review

be quiet! SFX L Power 500w Gold Power Supply

With the emergence of compact or mini-ITX systems, the need to provide power supplies for them is growing. Given that these systems are designed to be small, obviously standard power supply models are likely not going to be suitable.

As such, be quiet! has launched the SFX L Power 500w power supply. Being both gold rated and fully modular this little PSU is designed to be the perfect company to your compact gaming system.

With be quiet! being one of the most recognizable brands, you know almost immediately that you’re going to get a quality product here. If that doesn’t convince you, then there are other factors. Being gold rated means that this power supply has had to meet rigorous testing to ensure that it performs with high-efficiency. Although paraphrasing the requirements somewhat, a gold rated power supply must operate at a minimum efficiency of 88% while at full load.

Good efficiency means that the power is more effectively used. What does this mean in real-world terms though? Put simply, your power supply isn’t as energy-hungry and as such the better is it, the less expense you’ll see on your electric meter.

Let us, therefore, have a look at the be quiet! SFX L Power supply to see exactly what you’re getting here and if it will be suited to your system.

Testing Methodology

As this is designed for compact systems, the be quiet! SFX L Power has some slightly unusual cabling options. As part of our standard power supply testing, this generally requires us to hook up to the power supply to a large testing unit. In this instance though, the 24-pin adaptor has some shared outputs which piggyback off the main cable.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, put simply, after, over an hours effort, I simply couldn’t get this to work on our testing system. It isn’t even as if I’m not experienced as I am the main power supply tester for eTeknix these days. Put simply though, you will not see our usual testing methods here. Instead, we will focus more on the product itself including the designs and aesthetics.

Product Features

• A strong partner for Mini ITX and compact gaming PCs
• Quiet Operation for Compact Systems
• SFX L Power 500W is certified 80PLUS® Gold with an efficiency rating of up to 92%
• Entirely modular cable management is enhanced by premium black flat cables.
• This power supply is particularly versatile in deployment thanks to the SFX-to-ATX adapter bracket provided.

What be Quiet! Has To Say

“The SFX L Power supplies CPUs and GPUs with steady and dependable power thanks to a stable 12V-rail, high-quality Japanese capacitors and innovative technologies such as LLC, Synchronous Rectifier, and DC-to-DC conversion. Four PCIe connectors to support multi-GPU setups.” – be quiet!

Product Specification

For a full product description, please visit the official be quiet! SFX L Power website in the link here.

Cabling

As this is a fully modular power supply, cables are a little less stressful. Given that this is designed for compact systems though, it will still be important to know that this is going to have all the cables you need. You can, therefore, check out the product cable specifications below. Hopefully, this will help you determine the suitability as cable length is also a factor in small system designs.

Packaging and Accessories

The packaging carries all the brand identifying features you would expect from be quiet! You have the overall black design, with white/silver trim set against it. The front of the packaging here clearly wants to make all the key features nice and clear.

The back of the box is absolutely fantastic! It literally has all of the key information you could want to know. This includes the product features, the cable details, the PSU dimensions as well as the power output. In addition, be quiet! have also managed to sneak in a quick promotional blurb. It is a fantastic use of the space and again tells you everything you could possibly want to know.

Inside the box, with the power supply (which we will look at closer shortly) you are also provided with the cables, a mounting plate, and a product manual. While most of that is self-explanatory, I will just go into further detail on the mounting plate. In compact systems, the PSU is generally speaking the single largest and heaviest component. As such, placement may be limited. With the mounting plate, be quiet! has given you some flexibility about where you can install it. It is, if nothing else, a nice touch.