First Look
After disappointing results from the Sniper 330, I now have the its big brother – the Sniper Power 450. Is this product better? Or will it also be a disappointment? I intend to find out.
The Box
The box is similar to that of the Sniper 330, although somewhat larger. It has the same red colour scheme, and identical marketing on the back. I’m not going to re-type and re-comment on the marketing this time around, as I have already done so for the Sniper 330. At least this time around, the cable configuration area is filled in.
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Like on the Sniper 330, the front and sides of the box are devoid of marketing.
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Another unfortunate similarity is the lack of any padding in the box. There is no foam or bubble wrap, and the only accessory included is a power cable.
The Power Supply
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Like the Sniper 330, the label claims that this is a dual 12V rail unit made by Delta. Again, this is not true. This product only has one 12V rail and it isn’t made by Delta. This power supply does feature Passive PFC, unlike it’s little brother.
The cable configuration is identical to that of the Infinity 450W which I recently reviewed. For those of you who haven’t read that review, that is a 20+4 pin ATX connector, a 4+4 pin ATX/EPS12V CPU connector, three molex/peripheral connectors, five SATA power connectors and one 6+2 pin PCI E-Connectors. Interestingly, the cable part at the back of the box said that this was supposed to have two EPS12V CPU connectors. I knocked half a point off the Infinity 450W PSU’s final score for only including one PCI-E connector while implying two or more by saying SLi and Crossfire support on the box. This time around, the box specifically states two 8 pin connectors, and I only see one. That will cost it a full point for outright dishonesty. Not that it will be a major problem in the real world, however, since few users require two of these connectors.
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Like it’s little brother, the Sniper 450 uses a wire grille for the top and a honeycomb grille at the back. This is about as good as ventilation gets with a top mounted fan.
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