The units

600 unit

650 unit

600 rear

650 rear

The bottom of the units are covered by a 120mm fan, which is placed towards the left side of the unit instead of the middle. The rear is covered by small round holes which allow the air to escape towards the rear of the case. There is no 110V-230V switch as it is unnecessary; the units are auto-switching. And there also is a typical on-off switch. The chassis is painted with a highly reflective black chrome color, which creates a very nice mirroring effect. The only problem with that kind of paint is that it is prone to scratches, so a little extra care is needed when handling the unit.

650 cables

Be-Quiet has supplied very long cables, the shortest of which measure 60cm long. All of the cables are fully covered with black sleeving and have black connectors, save for the PCI-E power cables which have blue connectors. The >450W units lack SLI/Crossfire support and the >500W units have only 4 SATA connectors instead of 8.

600 inside

650 inside

600 inside

650 inside

600 inside

650 inside

650 inside

600 fan

650 fan

The internals of the StraightPower units are neat and tidy. There are no cables loose inside or extruding large components, everything is well placed in order to aid airflow. Despite the ‘value’ character of the series, Be-Quiet is still using high quality material inside which is refreshing to see. The fans are made by Protronic Electric, a company which we are not familiar with but the fans appear sturdy and have several certifications (such as TUV and CE). The black heatsinks are not large but they are well designed and enough to keep the unit cool, as the cooling depends more on the 120mm fan. Both units are using the same PCB and also appear to be using the exact same components down to the last capacitor. Upon indepth analysis however this is not entirely the case.

Unit Overview Internals

600 Capacitor

650 Capacitor

600 Capacitor

650 Capacitor

We found out that the main difference between the 600W and 650W units are the capacitors used. The 650W unit is using considerably larger capacitors and probably has slightly stronger power lines. On paper, both units are almost the same in terms of amperage output, but the 650W unit can handle a higher continuous load.