In 1999 a company named Aspire came into the computer hardware scene as a case manufacturer. They have since changed their name to Apevia and moved into the power supply market. The Iceberg Power 680W represents their latest entry, targeting the enthusiast and case-modder demographics. This is definitely the show-car of power supplies, featuring a transparent acrylic cover, dual LED fans with three color settings, and UV reactive sleeving. With a power rating of 680 watts total and dual +12v rails totaling 46 amps, this Iceberg looks ready take on the Titanic (we do love cheesy jokes). Will the 2/3 of this Iceberg you can't see prove it's worth, or will it be all show and no go? Read on to find out!
Features
- High-tech aluminum casing with fire-resistant acrylic cover
- Multi-colored coated components and PCB
- LED light switch - Fan LED lights can be switched to blue, green, red, or off
- Dual 80mm crystal LED fans
- User-adjustable fan speed controller optimizing balance between noise reduction and necessary cooling
- All cables sleeved in UV reactive mesh
- UV Sensitive On/Off Power Switch, Power Plug and connectors
- ATX dual 12v compliant, SLI ready (Note: does not carry official nVidia SLI certification)
- Short Circuit / over-voltage / over-current protection
| DC Output: |
+3.3V |
+5V |
+12V1 |
+12V2 |
-12V |
+5Vsb |
| Max Output Current: |
38A |
40A |
22A |
24A |
.8A |
2.0A |
| Max Combined Power: |
330W |
|
|
| 660W |
| Total Power: |
680W |
In the box we find the standard compliment of a power cord, instruction booklet, and bag of screws. Apevia was thoughtful enough to include four small thumbscrews instead of the typical case screws, making installation a tool-less affair. Neato! We feel compelled to pass along the message from Apevia written at the beginning of our instruction manual:
This power supply unit is deigned to be functional and appealing. Only high quality materials and components are used to assure superior performance, reliability, and stability. A good power supply is not only served what it is claimed to be, but also can it be a piece of art to delight our heart.
Fascinating.
After removing all the foam support and plastic wrap we get to the goods. The most obvious thing we notice is the transparent acrylic cover; COOL! With it's bright green cable sleeving, multicolored components, and red PCB, this thing positively screams "MOD." The rest of the casing is composed of an elegant black brushed aluminum, provided a nice accent to rest of the casing. While some people are not into the tricked out component scene and may completely hate the styling, we feel that Apevia did a tasteful job on the Iceberg. This would look swank coupled with a DFI LanParty or one of ECS's chromatic motherboards. And for the curious, the acrylic cover is a great feature to spy the guts of a system.With clear side-panel windows, hard-drives with clear covers, and now clear PSUs, we wonder what might be next to receive the transparent treatment.
Before installing your PSU, don't forget to peel off the protective film on the acrylic. Also, keep in mind that acrylic is relatively easy to scratch, so take your time maneuvering this into your case.
Because of its clear cover, we don't have to open up this power supply to check out its naughty parts. The components are well laid out, and the cooling setup is very effective. The first fan sucks in air from the case, blows it along the two large finned heatsinks and over the capacitors and resistors, then exhausts out through the second fan. One can also notice the two Koshin KL5 200v capacitors. This particular PSU features only two +12V rails, which is somewhat disappointing as many PSUs in this price range have three or sometimes even four +12V rails. While this isn't a huge issue, it is something to consider for those running systems with dual high end graphics cards and power hungry processors. For those running single card setups, or low to midrange SLI or Crossfire systems, the 46 amps provided by the two +12V rails should be more than sufficient.
After unleashing the power cables from their rubber band restraints, we find what can hardly be described as a mess of cables. Quite the contrary, it's amazing what a huge difference sleeving makes in terms of reducing clutter and improving visual appeal, as well as the ever important airflow.
20+4 Main ATX Connector
|
1
|
4-pin / 8-pin CPU
|
1 (4+4)
|
4-pin FDD
|
2 |
4-pin Molex
|
8 (4 x 2 cables)
|
SATA power
|
4 |
6-pin PCIe
|
2
|
Apevia provides plenty of four pin molex connectors, but only four in SATA flavoring. While this will be sufficient for average setups, power users running juicy RAID arrays may find themselves turning to adapters. And we still hold out hope that optical manufacturers will jump on the SATA bandwagon en masse, which would further highlight the deficiency of connectors on this unit.
The molex connectors have neat little tabs on the to make pulling them out of those stubborn devices easier. We did run into a small problem with this when trying to plug the connector into an AGP graphics card (see above picture), but most of you should be running PCI-E nowadays anyway. Simply bending the tab backward eliminated this problem.
The back-panel features a switch that, when pressed, cycles through the fan LEDs color settings (blue, red, green, and off). Above the color switch sits the Fan Speed Adjuster knob, which allows adjustment between 80-100%. The fans are nearly silent up to about 90%, after which they are mildly audible. The green switch and plug are pretty neat too.
Normally there is little need to show pictures of a power supply running, but we would be remiss in our duties if we failed to show the bling in action!
Pictured above we see the green LEDs in all their lighted glory. And if green doesn't suit your fancy, you can also select either blue or red. There's enough light spilling out to fill up a room, and Apevia wisely lets you turn them off if you plan on running your PC while you sleep, watch a movie, or otherwise would not want to be distracted by a glowing computer chassis.
The fan speed controller rests on the back of the unit, and with a turn of the knob, both 80mm LED fans (intake and exhaust) can be adjusted, as mentioned above.
Testbed
Our testbed today consists of the following components housed in a Thermaltake Armor full-tower chassis:
| Processor |
Pentium4 2.8E @ 3.5GHz
|
| Motherboard |
Asus P4P800SE
|
| RAM |
OCZ Platinum DDR @ DDR500 (2.5-3-3-7)
|
| Videocard |
ATI Radeon x850XT Platinum Edition
|
Hard Drives
|
Maxtor Diamondmax10 200GB SATA, Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 300GB SATA2
|
Our testing will cover the primary rails, namely the 3.3v, 5v, and all 12v rails. As the ATX specification provides +-5% tolerance in voltage on each rail, we check to make sure that the unit runs within spec. Almost more important is clean voltage. Voltage fluctuations are one of the most common causes for system instability, so we are looking for steady readings that don't jump around.
We will first measure the Apevia at the systems stock speed of 2.8GHz with a 1.32 core voltage. We will then run the tests again at 3.5GHz with a 1.5 core voltage. For more information on our testing methods, check out the
HardwareLogic PSU Testing Guide by our very own Jonathan Ng.
Testing revealed a few interesting things. The +5V rail hovered uncomfortably close to the +5.25V limit (ATX specification allows a +/- 5% tolerance in either direction),. This isn't really a problem, however, as it never showed signs of going out of spec (and we sure tried!) and remained fairly stable. The +12V and +3.3V rails all remained well within spec and reasonably stable, resisting much fluctuation. The voltage shifts from idle to load were also a little more drastic on the +12V rails then we would have liked to see but nothing to cause concern. There were some minor fluctuations occasionally while under load, however they were generally no more then .01-.02V.
Overclocking our system seemed to have little effect on the Apevia, as it churned out similar results to our first round of testing. In addition to bumping up the vCore, we also increased our RAM voltage to 2.75v. With all of our hardware running full tilt, the Iceberg didn't seem to notice. The rails all remained reasonably stable, with only minor fluctuations on the +12V rails. In our tests the Iceberg showed plenty of gusto with no sign of slowing down, and it should easily handle more power hungry dual graphics card systems without any trouble.
| Segment |
Score |
Comments |
| Feature-set |
10/10 |
- With a clear cover, color selectable LED fans, fan speed controls, green sleeved cables, and a host of other goodies, the Iceberg aims to please. They even give you thumbscrews!
|
Cables and Connections
|
17/20 |
- 8 molex, even two FDD connectors, not to mention dual PCIe and a nifty 4+4 CPU connector, very few people should need any sort of adapter
- Only 4 SATA connectors?
|
Power
|
18/20 |
- A claimed power rating of 680 is nothing to sneeze at
- Only two +12V rails, albeit beefy ones. At this price-point, it should have at least had three
- No official SLI certification, but SLI and Crossfire ready
|
| Performance |
19/20 |
- Considerable change in +12V voltages between idle and load
- Fairly stable under a constant load
|
Cooling and Noise
|
10/10 |
- Dual 80mm fans surprisingly quiet
- Very effective airflow design
|
Warranty and Support
|
3/10 |
- Apevia provides only a 1 year limited warranty through the original retailer.
|
Price / Value
|
8/10 |
- Usually retails around $120
- At time of writing Newegg offers a $15 mail in rebate
|
Our Recommendation
Without question, the IceBerg Power 680 is one of the coolest PSUs we've yet reviewed. Our biggest gripe concerns the stingly one year limited warranty (through original retailer only) where the standard these days hovers around 3 years, and we'd like to see more SATA connectors at this pricepoint. Regardless, the unit itself performed well in our tests, and though it doesn't carry official SLI certification, we wouldn't hesitate to use this in a dual graphics card system. Those with pimped out rigs looking for a great looking and solid performing PSU to tie it all together would be prime candidates for the Apevia IceBerg Power 680.
