Intro

A few weeks ago, Hiper was good enough to provide two 480W PSUs from their "Type R" range for PimpRig to review, which proved to be good performers as well as good lookers. In addition to a healthy power increase (now promising a whopping 580W), the new "Blue Label" addition to the range is of the "modular" variety, which as I'm sure you know, means that you only need to plug in the cables you really need - which can be a huge boon to case tidiness.

Up until very recently, modular PSUs were available only to dedicated modders who were prepared to do it themselves. That is, until the arrival of the Ultra Products X-Connect, which brought the "modular" concept to the masses. Unfortunately, the $130 USD price tag translated to around £100 in the UK, so Hiper's modular PSU is bound to attract lots of attention with its £60 - £70 cost.

The main question has to be whether the performance is a match to the units undoubted good looks - whether it's all "bling" and no .... um, even Roget's Thesaurus failed me here ... I just can't find a monosyllabic word rhyming with "bling" that's synonymous with poor performance. :(

Specs

Let's have a look at the specifications, as gleaned from Hiper's website, the box, and the manual:

Packaging / Unpacking

I've got to admit I was worried when I saw the state of the box the PSU arrived in - if you look at the photo you'll see that one side had been completely marmelised during shipping. With an average PSU box (one retail packed in cardboard), it probably would have been curtains before the review even started, boot prints not really being the sort of thing you want to see in review photos.

Fortunately, the packing Hiper use on their PSUs is anything but average, and not only had the PSU itself survived the local parcel depots' apparent reenactment of the 1966 World Cup final (featuring my parcel in a starring role: the ball) unmarked, the packaging itself was also unscathed.

The front and back of the panels of the box are full colour printed stickers describing key features of the PSU - these look to be eminently peelable, should you want to use the container for some other function. Previous Type R boxes looked an excellent prospect for reuse (the 10 litre capacity potentially making them the mother of all lunch boxes), but the one surrounding the "Blue Label" model looks even more useful. Not only does it improve on the earlier design by being hinged on one side, it also has a removable bits & bobs tray ... the ideal home for your Dremel?

After removing a layer of shrinkwrapped cellophane and undoing the toolbox style latch, a bits & bobs tray containing the modular power connectors was revealed; each was individually bagged, and protected from rattling in transit against the lid by a shaped piece of foam.

Removing the tray revealed a manual, and the first glimpse of Hipers' patented "exTension" device connection cables (each of which is individually bagged), and a 1.6 metre ( 5' 9" ) mains lead with a moulded on 3-pin UK plug.

Much of what I wrote about the manual in the review for earlier "Type R" PSUs holds true for the new "Blue Label" model - it's still of dubious relevance. Again, it's housed in a stylish satin black cover with embossed silver print, but is very sparse - only 8 pages, and only in English. Only two and a half pages are of any real use (covering connector pinouts, features and warranty information), the rest seeming to be a poorly adapted (and sometimes poorly translated) reworking of the ATX PSU specification. In the past, I've bought PSUs that didn't have a manual at all - I didn't feel the lack, so no real criticism would be valid here.

Moving the manual to one side revealed the PSU itself, wrapped in another bag (not that even the most determined bit of dirt could have made it this far) protected on four sides by a further section of foam padding.