Power Supply Roundup: 730W to 900W

Product Comparison - Cable Length

As you can see below, we have a new cable length comparison chart now. This should make it easier to compare the various PSUs with all of the test units in each roundup appearing in each chart. We will have multiple images for the various connector types to keep things manageable. We've color coded the background from red to green as an indication of how well the cables will work in full-size towers. Naturally, if you have a smaller case and prefer not to have extra cable snaked into the crannies, you might prefer a PSU with shorter cables.

All of the test units in this roundup have a minimum length of 50cm on all harnesses, making them a good match for larger cases. Hiper and Cooler Master have slightly longer cables on some or all of the ATX harnesses, with a length of 60cm or 24".

The graphics power connectors (also called PEG connectors) present a very different approach from the companies. Hiper includes one long and one shorter harness, which make sense as the two graphics cards are above each other and therefore you won't need the same length for both of the harnesses. Unfortunately, the 730 and 770W models don't include any 8-pin PEG connectors.

The 880W unit has two harnesses with two connectors each. The first one is an 8-pin connector and the second is a 6-pin. The problem with this approach is the amount of power delivered on the individual wires. If the user attaches both connectors to a demanding GPU, you end up with a potential for 225W to come across a single rail - potentially enough to cause problems, though testing proceeded without incident. While no current graphics cards require this much power, a modified design would be appreciated.

Seasonic also has an odd design. Their PEG harness only has six cables, but they still utilize an 8-pin PEG connector at the end. Two of the wires serve double duty and connect to two pins, but ideally and 8-pin PEG connector would have eight wires from the PSU. Whether these cables are a higher gauge in order to deal with the additional demands is not clear, but again testing proceeded without any noticeable difficulties.

All the other units have real 8-pin PEG connectors to power up the latest graphics cards. Silverstone wins the longest 6-pin cable competition with their 70cm/28" harness, though the other three connectors are a more modest 50cm length.