Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
After removing four smaller Phillips-head screws from the sides of the PSU, the interior of the FSP AURUM S 600W is revealed to us. Again, I must warn users cracking open your power supply will void your warranty. Unless your power supply is out of warranty already, or you have a really good reason to do so, I recommend you to not open it and void your five year warranty. A five year warranty is pretty standard, and should last at least the life of the power supply. Personally, I have yet to have a problem with FSP PSUs during their warranty periods; after all, FSP makes fine products.
When it comes to size, the design of the power supply allows for a very spacious interior environment. FSP always takes a minimalist approach, and this has been a very good thing for them. By minimizing the number of components inside, they also raise the amount of free room inside, which in turn helps the airflow and thermal design of the overall product. As the FSP AURUM S 600W is not a modular power supply, there is no daughterboard at the back; all output cables are just bundled together and soldered on. In most cases, one large, or even several large heatsinks, are used to dissipate heat in a power supply. However, our unit only has a single small black heatsink used to dissipate heat generated by the components. I am surprised such a small heatsink is required. Considering this power supply is an 80 Plus Gold certified unit, it makes sense -- just looking at it makes you consider how efficient this product is. Its cooling system is designed to work with a 120mm fan.
As with most other PSUs, the fan is connected to the mainboard using a 2-pin connector. This means if your heart really desires, you can change the fan. The problem is you still have to open up the unit in order to change the fan, so even having the option would mean one would have to void their warranty in order to do so. Since this power supply also comes with a five year warranty as aforementioned, I would suggest against trying to swap out the fan.
This is the second power supply in a row for me that still has a physical power switch. I am getting so used to PSUs not having one, I thought this was a secondary switch or something when looking at it from the inside, haha. Anyway, from the back, we can see the male power connector, automatic full range (100V-240V) AC line voltage selector, and... Well, our aforementioned power switch. The first input stage into any standard computer power supply unit, the AC transient filter stage, starts at the AC input. The AC input is found where the arrow shaped mesh is located, and moves through the various X and Y capacitors. The FSP AURUM S 600W appears to have only two X capacitors and two Y capacitors at the AC input. The good news is there are two more additional Y caps on the main PCB. If you look further down the line, there are two CM chokes and a single MOV (Metal Oxide Varistor) that can be spotted.
As mentioned previously, there are no giant 'finger tip' heatsinks to be found inside this PSU, which are still used commonly in many modern power supplies. Given the little amount of components inside the FSP AURUM S 600W, this design allows for efficient cooling. This is because with parts being more spread out, there is more room for airflow, which allows the parts themselves to be cooled easily. In addition to gaining more space for airflow, there is also the added benefit of having a lighter PSU. Using only one small black heatsink and one 120mm fan makes the AURUM S a remarkably simple design.
When we look the FSP AURUM S 600W from this angle, we can clearly see the clean design and implementation of this power supply once again. There is barely any clutter or globs of glue sticking out anywhere on top of the black PCB and its connected components. In addition, all of the parts are cleanly soldered onto the PCB, including the cables. This FSP design here seems to be very solid and clean; exactly what we expect out of them, considering the excellent past contenders we have looked at from the company. One thing that really stands out here is the black heatsink we have talked about earlier, which is placed just between some coils, main filtering capacitor, and some miscellaneous capacitors. An LH series, Taiwanese made Teapo filtering capacitor is used as a general purpose capacitor. It is rated at 420v, 330uF, and operating temperature at 85c. The capacitor can run for up to 2000 hours at 85c, although I am sure you wouldn't want your PSU to ever be operating at that temperature. That said, 105c rated capacitors are probably a better choice, as they are usually made to a higher standard. Teapo is known for making decent quality products in recent years, and their capacitors can be found on a lot of modern day power supplies.
Even if Teapo capacitors are not used as the primary capacitor, it is likely to see them being used as secondary capacitors. The FSP AURUM S 600W is no exception -- Teapo SJ series secondary capacitors are used, as you can see in our photo above. Upon closer inspection, again, they are rated at 85c. There are also some Teapo SC series capacitors in use, which carries almost the same specifications as SJ capacitors. The main difference is SJ capacitors are rated for higher current ripple and lower equivalent series resistance (ESR), while SC are meant for higher frequency applications. Basically, every primary and secondary capacitor on this PSU is from Teapo.
Two Infineon IPW60R190C6 power transistors can be found in the FSP AURUM S 600W. As with modern high efficiency power supplies, all rectifiers produces the +12V out -- while the +5V and +3.3V outputs are generated from the +12V output using a DC to DC converter within the power supply unit. The IPW60R190C6's rated continuous drain current is 12.8A at 100c, and a pulsed drain current of 59A. A single STMicroelectronics STTH8R06AC MOSFET is used for the other outputs. The STTH8R06AC's rated continuous drain current is 8A at 100c, a pulsed drain current of 80A, and has a peak reverse voltage of 600V. In addition, an Infineon SPP17N80C3 can be found here, with a rated continuous drain current of 11A at 100c and, a pulsed drain current of 51A.
A Yate Loon Electronics fan is used to cool the PSU, as you can see in our photo above. Specifically, it is the Yate Loon D12SM-12, which has a maximum speed of 1800RPM, airflow of 62 CFM at 12V, and a noise level of 28.5 dB. The fan here is pretty much standard fare, and considering that the noise level is rated lower from FSP, we can deduce that the fan has been capped at a reduced maximum speed than the specified 1800RPM.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
