Specifications

The 500B is Bronze certified and EVGA states that it is Haswell ready, though it isn't according to our testing following Intel's guidelines. Here we should note that Intel's requirements for Haswell compliance look crazy and are unofficial, since they still haven't been released to the public. They are only distributed to manufacturers and engineers of various companies enrolling into the field, but would normally be included in the latest ATX spec (v.2.4). We strongly believe that we will have a new ATX spec with an updated Haswell-compliance methodology soon and will continue to use the suggested methodology until it is released. That said, let's continue our description of the unit's specifications and its available protection features. Protections include all the popular ones, which is rare for a PSU of this category.

The 120 mm fan probably uses sleeve bearings. The 500B doesn't feature a semi-fanless mode, which is not a surprise in a Bronze PSU. Its dimensions are compact, so it will easily fit into most cases. Finally, the warranty period is long enough and the price tag is pretty low, so we expect a very high price/performance ratio if the unit performs decently in our tests.

The single +12V rail is strong enough for the specifications of this unit, and the minor rails can deliver enough power to a mid-level system. With 3 A maximum current output, the 5VSB rail is stronger than the average.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

All cables are long enough. The unit comes equipped with one EPS and two PCIe connectors, which corresponds to the normal number of connectors for a unit of this capacity. There are also enough SATA connectors, but we would like to see one or two more peripheral one. All wires are AWG18, which is the normal size for PSU cables.

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail, we do not have anything to comment on about its power distribution.