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In addition to the external heatsink, the power switch and AC socket,
there is a mysterious unlabelled green button on the back of the Lion. It looks
tempting and inviting, but your ears will thank you if you leave it unpressed;
when depressed, the button bypasses the fan controller and runs the internal
fan at 12V. The resulting whine is so loud that it could be heard two rooms
away. There is also a bright blue LED that lights up when the button is pressed to
show that the power supply is working, just in case your ears don't tell you.
The blue LED on the back lights up when the green button is pressed.
The fan is a high speed, sleeve bearing model from Power Cooler.
The fan in the Lion (Power Cooler PS802512H) is an odd choice for a quiet power
supply. First of all, the fan is a high speed model. Second, it uses sleeve bearings. In a
low speed fan, sleeve bearing fans often sound smoother than ball bearing fans,
but at higher speeds, turbulence noise masks the difference. Sleeve bearing
fans have lower heat tolerance, so a sleeve bearing fan seems like a very
strange choice for in a power supply where it only turns on at high temperatures.
The choice of fan does not inspire confidence that the Lion will last a long
time.
CABLES AND CONNECTORS
There are a total of ten cable sets.
Lots of unusual cables...
Special attention has been given to the PCIe cable, which is encased in a braided
metal sleeve to reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI). A ferrite ring around
the end of the connector helps reduce ripple. A second, more recent sample that
we received included a similarly shielded
cable with a single 4-pin IDE drive connector, presumably for use with
VGA cards that use this style of connector.
For most systems, this special attention to EMI and ripple is unwarranted.
Heavy overclockers may be able to squeeze a couple more megahertz out of their
processor, but the practical benefits of EMI shielding are minimal. They do
look cool though.
Three "Fan Only" cables come with a single Molex and three-pin
fan header each.
The three "Fan Only" cables are probably useful for more users the
the heavily shielded VGA power cables. Each cable comes with one Molex connector and
one three pin fan header. All of the "Fan Only" headers receive the
same source voltage, which is regulated according to the temperature measured
by a single thermistor that can be placed wherever the user chooses to put it.
Unlike the rest of the cables on the Lion, the cable for the thermistor is extremely
short. At 10", it barely wraps halfway around the body of the power supply,
severely limiting the positioning of the thermistor.
The "Fan Only" voltage is controlled by this thermistor.
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