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're not going to try to BS 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, the initial consumption was 14W as measured by our wall meter unit -- indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is about average. It is the same as the Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W. Independent reviews from websites with professional load testing equipment showed the FSP AURUM Pro 1000W delivered decent to very good efficiency, voltage regulation, and ripple across the board -- right up to its rated wattage. This includes its 80 Plus Gold certification.
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 4.2%. The PG (Power Good) delay seems to be well within its rated range and general power supply standard of 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 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/S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. A nominal load of 82W (8.2%) on the FSP AURUM Pro 1000W had the power factor at 0.95. This figure is pretty impressive, considering active PFC usually does not work very well with such a small load. As the load increases, the PF should approach 0.99.
The FSP AURUM Pro 1000W is a very quiet power supply, especially for a kilowatt-spec unit. Under regular loads, the AURUM Pro is very quiet, but I think the Power Logic PLA13525S12M can run a little smoother -- the fan motor sounds a bit rough. While this is very subjective, I am quite a picky person on noise and the loudest component in my entire system is my Western Digital Caviar Blue hard disk. On a scale from 0-10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the FSP AURUM Pro 1000W to be at 2.5/10 acoustically under nominal loads. When you punch it to over 50-60% of its maximum capacity, the fan will begin to speed up like all products in this category, resulting in some increased noise. Because of its relatively clean internal design in conjunction with a large fan, this is not too much of an issue, since if your system is under load, other fans in your computer will need to spin up to take care of the heat anyway. Overall, in terms of noise, the FSP AURUM Pro 1000W should not disappoint most quiet PC enthusiasts.
FSP provided this product to APH Networks to facilitate this report.
The latest in FSP's AURUM series of power supplies is, yet again, an impressive product. From our affiliates with professional load testing equipment, everything seems to check out very well. The bad? Well, it is a bit more expensive than the competition, and the C20 connector at the back is not exactly desirable.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
