ADATA BN-550 Power Supply Review

Introduction

ADATA, a traditional memory manufacturer, is entering the power supply market, and its units should arrive in the North American market in the third quarter of this year. They will be selling two series, BN, with models from 400 W to 550 W, and HM, with models from 550 W to 1,200 W. Both series are 80 Plus Bronze-certified, and models from the HM series have a modular cabling system, a feature not available on the BN series. We had the privilege of receiving their BN-550 model before the official release in the United States. Let’s see if this unit is a good product.

The ADATA power supplies are manufactured by HEC/Compucase, and the BN-550 is a rebranded HEC-550TB-2WX unit.

Figure 1: ADATA BN-550 power supply

Figure 2: ADATA BN-550 power supply

The ADATA BN-550 is 5.5” (140 mm) deep, using a 120 mm sleeve bearing fan on its bottom (Young Lin Tech DFS122512M, 1,500 rpm, 63.86 cfm, 29.93 dBA).

The cables are permanently attached to the power supply, and they use nylon sleeves. This power supply comes with the following cables:

• Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector, 18.1” (46 cm) long
• One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form an EPS12V connector, 18.1” (46 cm) long
• Two cables, each with one six/eight-pin connector for video cards, 18.1” (46 cm) long
• One cable with four SATA power connectors, 17.7” (45 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors
• One cable with three SATA power connectors, 17.7” (45 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors
• One cable with two peripheral standard power connectors, 17.7” (45 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors
• One cable with two peripheral standard power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector, 17.7” (45 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors

All wires are 18 AWG, which is the correct gauge to be used, with the main motherboard connector using thicker wires (16 AWG) for the +3.3 V (orange) output.

The cable configuration is satisfactory for a 550 W product, but we’d like to see more peripheral power connectors.

Figure 3: Cables

Let’s now take an in-depth look inside this power supply.