Solid Gear Neutron 550W
Solid Gear is a rather new company in the enthusiast realm having first popped up in around 2013. Much of their early portfolio revolved around store exclusive items at Micro Center similar to the Inland brand. Today, however, Solid Gear’s product portfolio includes chassis/cases, fans, various accessories, and power supplies that can be found online and in Micro Center still. Among this expanding portfolio, we are interested in their power supplies. Today, we are looking at the 550W entry in their Neutron series which is produced in conjunction with, we believe, Delta.
Delta Electronics Inc is part of the Delta Group and is one of the older presences in the power market in Taiwan as the Delta Group was founded in 1971. As an OEM Delta has been popular among higher-end server solutions and for a selection of prebuilt PCs from major worldwide consumer PC OEMs for many years but rarely has Delta shown up in enthusiast applications. Currently, Delta claims the title of the world’s largest supplier of switching power supplies. However, even with a lack of presence in the power supply side of the DIY market, Delta is still certainly a known commodity as most enthusiast users have certainly encountered its fans at one point or another.
Neutron Star, or SuperNova?
The Solid Gear Neutron 550W is the first power supply we have seen from Solid Gear as well as one of the smallest capacity power supplies yet to cross our test bench. One issue with small capacity units is that people often expect a small price tag but the same quality and performance that you see with higher-end/capacity products. That makes this a very tough market to play in when you are a vendor that wants to build a brand. So, it will be of great interest today to see if Solid Gear can walk this tight rope given they are one of the cheapest power supplies we have ever seen at $51.44. Before we move on to see how the Neutron 550W does, let’s first see what Solid Gear has to say about this unit:
Solid Gear SDGR-550E Deliver true and efficiency power to your system. It can supply extreme power to provide your demanding PC Gaming and multimedia softwares. To avoid overheating, Solid Gear 550W is made with a supreme powerful, ultra silent, 120mm Nano fan. Sleeved finished cables were provided, it also produce better airflow. Besides, with 78% energy efficiency, this power supply cosumes less energy.
Let’s move on now and see what we can expect when a user purchases the Solid Gear Neutron 550W power supply in retail in terms of documentation, accessories, cable count, rail layout, output characteristics, and general build quality.