Date: December 8th, 2009, 2009
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited By: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Kingwin
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PRODUCT PICTORIAL AND WALKTHROUGH
The Lazer uses a large 140mm fan to keep things cool. It is speed regulated to respond to internal temperature, spinning up as cooling demands increase. The finish on the Lazer is a gunmetal gray color that's almost black and not shiny but not exactly flat either. I like the finish a lot and it appears to be very durable. Mr. Bones would like to see a more reflective finish, but only because he's very vain. The rear of the unit is pretty conventional with one notable difference.
This little red switch allows the user to select the LED color of the fan and connectors. You can choose white, blue or turn the LEDs off. This is a cool little feature, and we'll see the effects a bit later.
From this angle, we can see the sockets for the new “Crystal Cube Connectors” and their white silicone covers. The native cables are sleeved in a black and blue mesh material and are protected by a black plastic grommet. The shiny sticker on the top lists a patent license number of 7,133,293 which, after some net research, seem to indicate that Kingwin (or their manufacturer, Superflower) is using some patented technology from Ultra Products. It seems that Ultra holds the patent on modular cables and I've seen many modular PSUs lately with a similar sticker. The obligatory label offers some abbreviated specs, and a large colorful sticker on the side proudly states that this is a Lazer PSU.
The Crystal Cubes are quite an improvement, using a 9-post connector for all the cables, with the individual posts populated according to the power desired by the terminal connectors. This allows the PSU to have sockets that are all the same without worry that a user will plug a cable into the wrong socket. Nice! And, they light up, too. We'll see this feature a bit later. Here's a breakdown of the native and modular cables with length data:
Native Cables:
(1) 20+4 pin ATX - 20"
(1) 8 pin AUX - 22"
(1) 4+4 pin AUX - 22"
(1) PCI-E cable with 6 pin and 6+2 pin connectors - 22"
Modular Cables:
(2) SATA cable with four SATA connections each - 38" each
(1) 4-Pin Molex cable with four standard Molex + one FDD connector - 44"
(1) 4-Pin Molex cable with four standard Molex - 38" each
(2) PCI-E cable with one 6 pin connector - 20"
(2) PCI-E cable with one 6+2 pin connector - 20"
Connectors for power distribution are plentiful and cable lengths are generous. Most modern multi-graphic schemes are supported and there's plenty of wattage to be distributed by the cables. While the user's guide is pretty thorough, I'd like to see more detailed rail distribution information (or a single +12V rail, I think six is a bit much.)
