Peripherals

Gigabyte B700 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply Review

Gigabyte is known for many things: graphics cards, motherboards, monitors, cabinets and even keyboards but not power supplies. That space is largely dominated by a handful of names like Corsair, Thermaltake, Seasonic and Cooler Master.

Today we’ll be reviewing the Gigabyte B700H, one of the few power supplies the company still sells. The B700H is an 80 Plus Bronze rated PSU and also happens to be semi-modular. Considering just these two features, it has a sticker price of just $80 or Rs. 4,000.

Specifications and Unboxing

The B700H features a single 12V Rail with a 54A delivery promising 648W of power. The 3.3V rail carries 22A and the 5V rail addresses 18A resulting in a total of 130W. Combine the two and you get an overall 700W of power.

The Bronze rating promises 85% efficiency under load. Like most modular PSUs, it has flat cables:

  • Two PCIe 6 + 2 pin cables
  • A SATA cable with three connections
  • Two SATA cables with two connections
  • A Molex cable with three connections

The 12-pin motherboard and 8-pin CPU cables are non-modular while the PCIe, SATA and other peripheral cables are all modular.

The Gigabyte B700 has a small factor with dimensions of 140mm (length) by 150mm (width) and 86mm (height). It supports four main kinds of protections:

  • OVP (Overvoltage Protection): Shut-down in case of overvoltage.
  • OPP/OLP (Overpower/Overload Protection): Cut-off if more power is required than allowed.
  • SCP (Short-circuit Protection): Turn off the source in case of a short circuit.
  • UVP (Undervoltage Protection): Turn off the source in case of low voltage.

One important factor here is the active PFC which means that the PSU can utilize almost the entire energy supplied by the power inlet (95% compared to 60% with inactive PFF). Furthermore, it doesn’t need a 110/220V switch and can automatically adjust to any supplied voltage.

Inside the Box

Inside the box, you get the main power supply and the connectors, four screws for the case, the booklet and of course the power connector. Apart from the primary motherboard and CPU railings, you get two PCIe 8-pin connectors (6+2), three SATA connectors and a molex cable. All three are modular and can be removed.

The power supply includes a 120mm fan that is intelligently controlled as per the power usage. For the most part, it runs quietly. The double bearing also helps in that regard and should extend the life cycle.

Tear Down

Like graphics cards, we’ll have a look at the interior of this PSU to see the kind of components Gigabyte has used in the B700H.

The interior is rather neat. There are two fanless (or passive) heatsinks and all the cables are tucked nicely in one corner of the enclosure.

Surprisingly, despite being a sub-$100 PSU, the B700 features high-quality Japanese capacitors and PFC chokes. This makes it safe for a fairly high-end gaming build.

As for the fan itself, we’re looking at a Yate Loon D12BH-12. This is a very popular model used in most entry-level Corsair and CM power supplies.

Testing

For testing, we’ll be using a Ryzen 7 3700X paired with X570 Taichi and a GeForce RTX 2070 Super. For load testing, the AIDA stability test was run and the voltages were noted:

Used – Minimum – Maximum – Average

This is within the safe limits, so you can be certain that your PC won’t catch fire while intense gaming or benchmarking sessions.

Conclusion: Highly Recommended

Let’s be clear about one thing. You can’t compare the Gigabyte H700 to the Corsair HX1000i or the HX750. Those PSUs compete in a completely different space and cost 4-5 times as much. This is a semi-modular PSU with an 80+ Bronze rating. Putting it alongside the Corsair CX series, it offers many extra features and should allow for a cleaner build for the same price and in some cases even less. In the US and Europe, it’s mainly sold by Amazon while in the Asia Pacific, you may contact the following retailer:

Buy it here.

Areej Syed

Processors, PC gaming, and the past. I have been writing about computer hardware for over seven years with more than 5000 published articles. Started off during engineering college and haven't stopped since. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Divinity, Torment, Baldur's Gate and so much more... Contact: areejs12@hardwaretimes.com.
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