bequiet! Pure Power L8 400W Review

The bequiet! Pure Power L8 400W power supply is an excellent little power supply, exceptionally well built and set to be sold at a competitive price point of around £40 inc vat. This will surely target those users with low to mid range single graphics cards or the audience who want a quiet power supply for a media center.

Technically the unit is unremarkable but it doesn't exhibit any particular weaknesses. It delivers very good efficiency results for an 80 Plus Bronze certified supply and the ripple suppression is solid on all rails.

Aesthetically, we always like bequiet! product designs … they also opt for subtle black boxes with orange and white accenting which looks elegant in a shop window.

The latest non modular range have a noticeable change over the CM (Cable Management – or modular) models within the Pure Power L8 series. The fan trim has changed from bright orange to a dull grey. This means you can immediately tell whether the unit is modular or not, by simply looking at the fan grill section of the chassis. It sounds a minor point to make, but it is effective.

While this particular unit is not modular, the quality of the cabling is excellent although bequiet! have opted for traditional sleeved cables rather than the ‘easier to route' flat ribbon style which many manufacturers are adopting with their latest models.

There aren't a plethora of cables hardwired to the 400W unit, so unless your chassis has a terrible cable management system, they should be easy enough to hide out of sight.

Under £50 bequiet! face some competition from their own Pure Power L8 CM 430W power supply, which has recently seen some price cuts in the United Kingdom. Amazon for instance are selling the CM 430W for £50 inc vat, meaning it is only £10 more expensive than this non modular version we reviewed today.

For those people building inside a diminutive, physically restricted chassis, the non modular supply may make more sense, especially with such a minor price premium.

Pros:

• Excellent all round performance.
• exceptionally quiet.
• looks nice.
• competitive pricing.

Cons:

• non modular.
• the bequiet Pure Power L8 CM 430W (modular) model is only £3 more expensive in the UK today.

Kitguru says: A very capable little power supply targeting the budget audience.

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