Testing & final words
Testing:
Following setup was used in tests:
MSI P43 motherboard
2x2GB A-DATA DDR2 800MHz
ECS Geforce 9800GT
500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA
Nexus Edge case
We plugged the Blackmoon power supply to the computer to see its performance. Right after booting we heard some high pitch noise. It’s nothing to worry about in terms of working, but it shows signs of poor quality. Definitely something you don’t want to hear with a new power supply. Also something worth mentioning is the sound level of the power supply. Spire promises it to be maximum of 21db, but in our tests this was one of the loudest power supplies we have seen. The fan was on slow speed only for about one minute after the boot and after that the fan was at full speed making louder noise than any other component in the computer. We believe the problem to be in our test sample as other reviews of the same power supply have stated the power supply to be quite quiet. It is something you should take under consideration anyway, as it clearly shows that the quality of the Blackmoon series differs very much between different units of the same production line.
Following chart shows us the voltages in idle and in high stress. Voltages were measured with motherboard sensors.
All the voltages seem to be well within the ATX specifications. There are no big fluctuations in the voltage levels and during our tests the power supply didn’t fail a single time.
Conslusion:
Spire Blackmoon 550W power supply seems to be quite contradictory product. Despite having pretty good voltage levels and more than enough connectors for even higher end computers, the quality does not meet the standards on power supply markets these days. While Spire advertises Blackmoon generates maximum of 21db noise, our tests show it to be way louder. In fact it was so loud, that using your computer was not a pleasure anymore. Also the high pitching noise inside the power supply worries me a bit. I wouldn’t want such noise in my computer. Other than that, Blackmoon seems to have some nice attributes like external +12V line and blue led in the fan to lighten up your case interiors. It might be, that the faults we saw in our sample unit were unique and other units may not have them, but stay on your toes because if there’s one faulty unit, there will be another one too.
UPDATE 6.11.2009
After discussions with our contact at Spire, we decided to send the unit back to factory for further investigations. We believe our unit is believed to be faulty. Fan speed should be slower and high pitching noise should not occur in the unit. We will keep you posted if Spire finds something wrong in our unit.
Pros:
+ External +12V connector
+ Cool looking
+ Amount of connectors
Cons:
- High pitching noise
- Loud fan
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