700W to 850W PSU Group Test

Hiper Type-R 730W

Manufacturer: Hiper
Price (as reviewed): £96.60 (inc VAT)

The Hiper Type-R is a PSU with a car-inspired edge. The unit and even the box is all about style, looking fantastic on your shelf or in your case.

The tub is the best container of the bunch, made from hard grey plastic and including a very solid handle and proper clip lock. Inside there is shaped foam padding to hold the PSU, with the cables tucked in around it. It would have been better to include a separate box or strap to hold all the extra cables since it is not only a modular PSU, but also includes many additional extender cables.

The labels on the case don't provide as much detail as the others but it does include necessary information on the PSU rail ratings, its features and the additional cables in the box. However, there is no complete picture of the actual unit.

The unit is 18x15x8.75cm in size and weighs a respectable 2.57kg without the additional cables.

Accessories:

• Multi-language manual;

Yes, that's all, a manual. However considering the quality of box you get, that's where the investment lies. The manual is multi-language and pretty detailed, but misses out identifying which socket corresponds to which particular rail.

The main unit only has the 24-pin ATX sprouting from it, with the rest of the cables being your choice of additional use. This means that you can exactly tailor your cable usage to minimise cable mess in your case.

Supplied Cables;

• Two 60cm black braided 4-pin 12V cables (capable of making a single 8-pin 12V cable);
  
• One 25cm black braided single ended Molex cable;
  
• One 35cm black braided single ended Molex cable;
  
• One 45cm black braided single ended Molex cable;
  
• One 60cm black braided single ended Molex cable;
  
• One 45cm black braided 6-pin PCI-Express cable;
  
• One 55cm black braided 6-pin PCI-Express cable;
  
• Two 15cm black braided Molex to 6-pin PCI-Express adapters;
  
• Two 15cm black braided Molex to two SATA hard drive adapters;
  
• Two 15cm black braided Molex to floppy adapters;
  
• Four 15cm black braided Molex extension cables;

Because of the unorthodox way the single ended cables use many adapters to make up the connector numbers, it's exceptionally important you read the manual as it explicitly states what you can and can't do when it comes to stringing adapters from the Molex plugs.

For example, you must use two separate rails for the additional PCI-Express power adapters and you can only daisy chain connectors instead of having them from the same Molex. Finally, each rail only supports a maximum of three large devices (optical or hard drives), so you can't daisy chain four hard drives together for example.

While this can give you the exact PSU cable requirements you need, making it arguably the most optimised modular product on the market, it can potentially lead to instability or dangerous results if you don't adhere closely to the instructions provided.

The main unit features a gorgeous stainless steel body with perforated sides and bottom to allow for heat dissipation; but, conversely, this means the directed airflow through the case from one fan to the other is spoilt. There is also an embossed Hiper logo in both of the sides of the PSU. The fans are two 80x15mm units, each with 11 blades (as opposed to the normal seven blades), with one fan placed at either end of the PSU.

This means the modular connectors are placed on the underside of the unit pointing downwards into your case. If your case is like most ATX cases out there, then your PSU sits over your motherboard. This just means that all of the cables drop down over your motherboard and CPU, cluttering the area, hindering airflow and possibly getting in the way of fans.

Whilst the actual modular connectors look great and have a solid attachment to the unit, the build quality of our sample unit is slightly off. The connectors don't line up exactly central to the casing which means plugging in the connectors requires some forceful elbow work in order to get them in.