Page 4 - Minor Tests and Conclusion
Power supplies are interesting products, because often, reviews of products in this category are conducted and tested in methods that make it difficult to distinguish one power supply from another. Many aspects have to be taken into consideration, of which certain criteria consists of efficiency, noise, power ripples, and of course the ability to pull out the rated specifications. Because many cannot afford such equipment to obtain results regarding those aspects, articles covering power supplies often come out with less than adequate and acceptable information. As this is a product report -- not a review -- what we are doing is a close examination of the power supply, and the internal hardware and build. But what we can do for you is do some minor testing with the results we can present to you with and let other review sites with professional equipment show you the actual test results. We are not going to try to misinform you by installing the power supply into the latest gaming rig and try to take readings from that, as this is not even remotely the correct way to test power supply units. We understand that many websites do that as a means of load testing, but the results, even if you use an oscilloscope and multimeter at each output location, it is not sufficient, nor does it accurately reflect the performance of the power supply.
Using our power supply tester, which exerts minimal load on the power supply, initial consumption was 9.0W as measured by our wall meter -- indicating the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is great. Independent reviews from websites with professional load testing equipment have shown decent efficiency and voltage ripple control, with some ripple on the +12V. rail This is an 80 Plus Gold certified power supply unit.
Voltages with minimal load are generally accurate, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. In this situation all are within 4%. The PG (Power Good) delay seems to be well within its rated range and general power supply standard at 290ms.
Active power correction is important to correct AC load line loss. In AC power, there are three components to it as there is a phase difference between current and voltage. This makes up the power triangle, which consists of the following: Average usable power (P, measured in watts), reactive power (Q, denoted as VA-R), and total power (S, written as VA). While these components all measure power, they are not the same as each other. What we want is the average usable power, with as little wasted reactive power as possible. The total power provided over the AC line is the magnitude of the two combined (sqrt(P^2+Q^2)). Power factor can then be easily calculated by P/S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. Under nominal loads, the power factor value of the FSP Dagger Pro 650W was 0.94, indicating that the active PFC function is working well.
FSP notes this uses a semi-fanless mode of operation, turning off the fans at loads under 10%, while maintaining a single speed for everything under 60% before ramping up linearly to the full 100%. On our APH Networks scale, where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the FSP Dagger Pro 650W at 3.5/10 acoustically under nominal loads. This power supply is quiet when the fan is off for obvious reasons. At the lower load levels, the fans do spin up and kept a reasonably low noise output. However, at the higher loads, the fan curve made the noise more noticeable.
FSP provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
According to our affiliates with professional load testing equipment, the FSP Dagger Pro 650W seems to fare a bit better than the original Dagger, but it still not the best performer for SFX power supplies. It was able to meet 80 Plus Gold efficiency rating at operating temperature, but there was some ripple noticed on the +12V rails. Furthermore, the Dagger Pro 650W generated a bit more noise than its predecessor, though it is not too loud. Finally, there is a limited number of included cables and connection points, even with the dual CPU sockets, so you have to be very careful about your component selection. In many ways, this is still an improved power supply, especially with its better cooling solution and improved +5V rail capacity. However, the end result is still a similar story. At press time, this FSP Dagger Pro 650W retails for $125 USD, and the competition still offers better performance for your money.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
