Introduction

Sunbeam Tech are pretty big now, releasing some fine products all the time. Sunbeam now have a name for themselves. I would like to prove to you that Sunbeam make fine products, and to show this you will see how well they have made their first power supply. The Nuuo power supply is equipped with special technologies.

Packaging

The Nuuo comes packed in a box which holds all you need to get it up and running. Though the packaging doesn't make much of a difference it is nice to have a picture of a Killer Whale (also known as a Orca) backing your product up, don't you think?

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Specification

* EUAP Version only

Check the Sunbeam Tech website for more details.

What you get

You get everything, well not really, but everything you need for the power supply.

• The Power Supply
• Manual
• Fan Controller/Temperature Reader
• 2x Temperature reading cables
• 2x 3 pin Fan Cables (female to female)
• 20+4 pin ATX Power Cable (joined to power supply)
• 3x 4 pin Molex Cables (1 is 650mm long and 2 800mm long)
• 2x SATA Cables (700mm long)
• 1x 4/8 pin +12volt Motherboard cable (450mm long)
• 1x 4 pin Molex to 2, 4 pin Floppy connector cable (140mm long)
• 1x EMI-Shielded HDD/VGA cable (600mm long)
• 1x EMI-Shielded PCI-E cable (500mm long)
• 1x 2x4 pin Molex to 1x PCI-E cable (150mm long)

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The Power Supply

This is one nice looking power supply, just from the black titanium colour you can see it must put out something pretty powerful. What really matters is the guts of the beast.

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This power supply has a modular connection, which is very useful because you do not have to have all the leads plugged in at once.

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The inside seems pretty packed, though there is a reasonable heat sink in there to get the heat flowing around. After all, power supplies can get very hot at times. The modular connection PCB is secured firmly with the outside casing of the power supply.

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I previously mentioned that power supplies produce a significant amount of heat, because we seem to load them up with more devices. Sunbeam took advantage of this problem by creating a new design for a power supply. A tri fan method was used to bring air in to the power supply. A 120mm fan pulls air from within the case into the power supply while a thin 80mm fan pushes all the heated air out the rear. This method works flawlessly in the background whilst your computer is running.

The Fan Controller

This package comes with a rather neat fan controller. It fits into a 3 1/2" floppy drive bay and controls one fan whilst monitoring two temperatures. The fan controller has a speaker and warns you when either the fan is running too slow or the temperature is too high. The fan controller has a built in micro-processor and can control the power supply fan for you, alternatively you can adjust it yourself.

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The Modular Cables

These cables are all special, well two in particular. they are EMI-Shielded, which prevents voltage decreases or increases, and mainly just helps the power keep regulated.

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One thing Sunbeam did was cable sleeve and heat shrink all the cables, which really really aids wire management. If you put one of these power supplies in your machine make sure you look at the difference in wires.

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Have you ever had trouble removing molexs from devices? Sunbeam have added an easy quick release plug to each molex connector and have also added right angled molex connectors.

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Installation

Well its pretty straight forward as to installing it as it is to removing your old power supply. Just make sure you have not got the power plugged in. If you have any problems the manual should help, if not give Sunbeam Tech a call.

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Test Setup

• AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (Stock Winchester)

• Gigabyte K8N Ultra-SLi

• Mushkin 512mb CAS 222 (2-2-2-6 @ 2.6v)

• Gigabyte Radeon x600 Pro

• 80GB Seagate SATA 7.2k RPM

• 5 Cooler Master LED Fans

• Cooler Master Aerogate I

• Cooler Master Praetorian 731 (Chassis)

• Matrix Orbital LCD-2041 WB-V

• CD Drive

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Test Procedure

• Computer as listed above will be used.
• 20 minutes of idle computer activity will demonstrate idle voltages.
• 20 minutes of load computer activity will demonstrate load voltages.
• Both multimeter and motherboard software will be recorded at load and idle times.
• No 5 volt reading from motherboard; multimeter will be used instead.
• Load will be caused by SiSoftware Sandra Pro Burn In Test on HDD, CPU and CD Drive.
• Largest change will be recorded.

Test Results

Multimeter Results

Software Monitoring Results (no +5volt rail)

Conclusion

You may just see this as a new power supply, but look closely. What we get out of power supplies now days is mainly just looks and usability while the efficiency has been perfected. Sunbeam really did work hard on this one and they perfected it even more! This power supply has long cables for bigger cases, different types of cables including 2x PCI-E plugs and 4/8 pin motherboard +12 volt connector. This product sits high above standard power supplies and even knowing it is the first from its company. We will be waiting to see just how much punch this power supply will push out.

I did take this power supply for a run, I hooked up an Anmeter (30A maxed), but I failed to load the power supply enough to get any good test results. Maybe next time I will have a full testing bench.

Although I found nothing wrong with this power supply that is why I would like to give it something it really deserves. I have awarded it a top performance award in its category, it receives the Pure Beefiness award because it fully deserves the name "Beefy".

Pros (+)

• 450 watt to 550 watt models.
• SLi ready (550 watt model only).
• Impressive Performance, low Jittering when suppling power.
• Impressive Voltage : Amps though I didn't test amps you can see by the Load testing how well it performs, with little voltage change to supply more stable power.
• Lots of bundled cables.
• Modular connection.
• 20+4 pin ATX connector.
• Cable Sleeved Cables.
• EMI-Shielded Cables.
• Dual PCI-E Plugs.
• Right angled molexs.
• Long Cables.
• Bundled Fan Controller/Temperature Sensor.
• 2x Fans, Tri Fan system.
• No need for all cables to be used at once.
• Good internal Cooling (pretty big heat sinks).
• Performance for Money
• Value Bundle

Cons (-)

• Wasted my time trying to think of any