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 minimum load on the power supply, the initial power consumption was fluctuating between 7W and 8W. This is very low, considering how some PSUs such as the Thermaltake SMART M750W runs at 13W using our power supply tester. Obviously, this does not have a whole lot to do with its efficiency in real life, but keep in mind this is an 80 Plus Gold certified power supply, so we are guaranteed to have something that performs well in this regard. Furthermore, FSP AURUM series power supplies has always delivered excellent efficiency, voltage regulation, and ripple across the board -- right up to its rated wattage from our affiliates with professional load testing equipment.
The voltages with minimal load are generally accurate and within range. A basic requirement of all good PSUs is to deliver the right voltages through the rails at minimal load. All of the values are consistent with the rated ones; everything is pretty much as advertised with only a maximum of only 0.2V difference at most.
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 195W on the FSP AURUM S 600W had the power factor alternate between 0.97 and 0.98. As the load increases to around 200W, the power factor stabilizes to 0.98, as shown in our photo above. It should get closer to 0.99 as the load continues to increase.
In terms of noise, the FSP AURUM S 600W is fairly quiet. The included Yate Loon D12SM-12 was barely audible from the get go, even when the computer is under load. For a 120mm fan, I was quite impressed by the lack of noise, but as the fan sped up a bit, it became more noticeable. I would say this will probably not be the loudest component in all but the quietest of builds; aside from some silent case fans, not much else in a system will be quieter. On a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the FSP AURUM S 600W to be at 3.0/10 under nominal loads. As the fan spins up, the fan gets increasingly louder, as expected. Since this is a 120mm fan, the speed difference is quite audible as the noise increases at a faster rate compared to a power supply equipped with a 140mm fan.
FSP provided this product to APH Networks to facilitate this report.
The FSP AURUM S 600W is a great budget 80 Plus Gold certified power supply in the company's AURUM line of PSUs. Although it uses only 85 degree Celsius rated Teapo capacitors, the FSP AURUM S 600W is a good contender in the high efficiency budget category. The fan may be a bit loud under load due to it being 120mm, but the PSU is compact enough to fit easily into almost any type of build.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
