anyone figured this one out? i mean the laser , missile, shield, armor , et cetera.  what are their levels relative to the non strategic resource white ones?  

are the colored defense modules more powerful than white ones?

You can mouse over them to see their stats.  Yes, the strategic resource modules are better than the standard.

The colored ones are generally better over same ERA type basic white ones - though the colored ones take the extra resource needed to build so cost more -there's the blue resource type (titanium??), and yellow one (not sure name at moment) - you can research which type resource want to use as it gives both options for weapons, so best to match it to what your empire has best supply of. 

However, when you jump up in ERA - ie from 1 to 2, I noticed the white basic types for ERA II are (so far as ive seen) same stats as the ERA 1 colored upgraded modules, so no need to keep building/designing ships with the colored modules as you are wasting the extra resources.

Again as mentioned above, hover over each module to see the stats to compare to see which best and cost effective.

Marik

What was said is correct (yellow strategic resource is called Hyperium ;)), I will just add that strategic modules will eventually have specific additional effects that common ones (white ones) will never have; for example +10% critical hit chance, etc.

So even if an Era 2 common module has the same stats as an Era 1 strat module, you might still want to consider the strat module for its specific effects.

I will also add that we're progressively introducing a thematic for strategic resources ; one will unlock kinetic strategic weapons/defences (kinetic, missiles, hull plating) and the other energetic ones (laser, beam, shield).