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 must be taken into consideration. Certain criteria consist 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 create useless test results 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, the initial consumption was 9W as measured by our wall meter unit, indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is very good. Independent reviews from websites with professional load testing equipment showed the FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W delivered good efficiency for its class and good regulation and ripple across all rails. 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 Power Good or PG delay is well within the general power supply standard of 330ms, but follows an older ATX specification. The ATX design specifications state a PSU's PG is required to be between 100ms and 500ms, with 250ms maximum for Non-Alternative Sleep Mode and 150ms for Alternative Sleep Mode.
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 they all have the same physical units, it is not the same thing as aforementioned. 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 divided by S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. The FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W has active PFC, and the power factor will approach 0.99 with a nominal load.
The FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W is a silent to quiet power supply, depending on the amount of power being drawn. Under idle level loads, or less than approximately 30%, the Hydro G Pro 1000W is inaudible because the fan can be shut off completely in Eco Mode. Under moderate loads above 30%, the Hydro G Pro 1000W is reasonably low noise until about 70%, which then becomes quite audible. Personally, I found the Protechnic Electric MGA12012XF-O25 to be reasonably smooth, but will become audible at high speed. While this is very subjective, I am quite a picky person on noise. On a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W to be at 0.0/10 when the fan is off, because, well, the fan is off. Above that, I would peg it at 2.0/10 acoustically under moderate loads. If you are a silent PC enthusiast, the FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W is a respectable choice.
FSP provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
The FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W is a fully modular power supply that delivers a lot of power in a very compact package with a depth of only 15cm. As an added bonus, it is certified to reliably operate in environments with up to 95% relative humidity. The kilowatt-spec Hydro G Pro features an excellent fluid dynamic bearing fan and supports fanless operation for loads up to 30% like all the PSUs in the Hydro series. There is a great selection of excellent components inside the cleanly laid out interior as well. I could not find any test results for this particular wattage variant, but according to our affiliates with professional load testing equipment on the 850W model, the overall performance was decent. At a retail price of $200 at press time, the Hydro G Pro 1000W is one of the most competitively priced PSUs given its specifications in the market today.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
