Spire has done a good job with their Rocketeer 500W Power Supply Unit. Performance on the unit was stellar, easily handling SLI and Crossfire on two different systems. With more and more dual video card systems sold today, SLI or Crossfire is an important consideration when looking at a power supply. Stability was excellent, with no crashes with even the most demanding applications. A 500W PSU is the absolute bare minimum for SLI and Crossfire, but this one worked well. Modular power supplies are an excellent idea as if one cable goes bad, or breaks, for some reason; it's a simple matter of plugging another one in without wasting the connection.
The stiff cables are a bit of a detriment, as I've shown but is alleviated by the fact that you can easily replace a lost or broken cable. One other consideration is the 5 total Molex connections. That is a low number with 8 being optimal.. Further, he's likely to have at least two DVD drives, necessitating the use of two more Molex connectors. After consultation with Spire, they said that their next generation of power supplies will change the cabling to one less stiff which will make it easier to use.
The Positives
- Solid Performance
- SLI and Crossfire 7900GT/X1800XT stress tested successfully
- Modularity
- Easy replacement of broken or lost cables
The Negatives
- Stiff cables
- Low number of Molex connectors
- Spire sent one Molex Connector too many and not the PCI Express x16 second cable
