Hexus Throws Down on PSUs

[Rys]

Terrific, Rys. The FSP Green Powers interested me, and they look great but for their high idle output: curious, for a "green" unit that's otherwise so efficient. I'm pretty shocked at the 400-GLN's low temp. delta, given the teeny heatsinks in the Green Powers (to reduce shipping weight, per FSP), but their high efficiency no doubt helped.

Yeah, high efficiency helps there but at the same time measuring temps for the 120mm fan PSUs was a bit of a lottery at times. I placed the sensor from the Fluke in the same place on all the PSUs (where a 'normal' PSU exhaust would be) but that spot, especially on some PSUs, didn't catch the heat exhaust airflow as much as I'd have liked.

Given your picks, though, I'll have to give the Akasas a second look. Don't really see them over here.

Yeah, they don't sell into the US at all as far as I can tell. Bit like PCP&C in the UK in that respect.

Re: active and passive PFC. Forgive me if I unload a bit of what I've picked up, but I found it interesting and useful. (This is probably for us more than Rys, who no doubt knows all of Dan's article by heart, and in fact dictated it to him via VoIP while sipping a Guinness and telling him to "funny it up." ) Do you UK and European fellows pay per kilowatt-hour or per volt-amp-hour?

I certainly pay by the kWh here in the UK and I think most other folks over here will be the same.

I was under the impression it was the latter, and that's where PFC (AFAIK, usually ~70% for passive, >99% for active) becomes important. As most/all residences in the USA get charged by the kWh, PFC isn't a big deal. The fact that all yours showed close to 100% probably indicated PFC is important in Europe, no?

Nope, which is why I left PFC out of the final efficiency calculations pretty much, since it doesn't seem to matter in a PC PSU, active or passive (and almost all PSUs sold today will have an active PFC circuit).

Rys, can I ask a simple Q? My PSU starts off at ~12.55V on the +12V rail, and can climb as high as ~12.75V if I run 3DM01SE Nature. Most PSUs promise +/-5% rails, but is this required for system stability? (And, yes, this was measured with a DMM and not my MB meters.) Only reason I ask is because my PC hangs or restarts fairly often when gaming, and while I lean heavily toward blaming ATI's drivers, I don't know how a high 12V rail (which my 9800P feeds off of) may affect things.

12.75 is only 6% and I wouldn't be too concerned. But then again, each component has a different tolerance for input voltage. Definitely something to investigate in your case, should a new set of Cats not do the trick!

If people want Antec reviews, I've found SilentPCReview.com (SPCR) offers excellent ones, and quite regularly. They're also big on Seasonic, which is itself big on efficiency and quiet, and so is favored by the SPCR crowd.

SPCR do a great job, recommended reading (especially if you want Antec evaluations as Pete says).

A post this long deserves a summary, so, again, great article, Rys (and PD).

Cheers!

And we'll do PCP&C and Antec next time

 

[Bolloxoid]

It's a good thing that certifications are noted in the review because they offer some chance for the consumer to avoid dubious or outright dangerous models. However, only ones granted by independent inspection labs should be recognised. The CE marking should be disregarded as, like noted in the article, it really just is a declaration of conformity like the FCC statement found on devices sold in the American market, and, as such, just a formality. Every device sold in Europe has to have the CE marking so every device has it, it does not differentiate devices in any way.

And oh yes, if you've got a chance to visit an anechoic chamber by all means do so. It's a revelation.

 

[fallguy]

Again, logistics. PCP&C don't really sell into the UK, which was the biggest reason we didn't take one or two of their units.

People from other countries read this forum, and reviews, so whats the point?

Its not like anyone that doesnt live in the UK wont be reading your site. In fact, Id say more US people read it, than UK people.

PC P&C is simply the best. Antec is very good too. Not including them was a bad choice to me. There are not many reviews that compared more than one PSU at a time. An article like this would be very useful to people trying to compare all the top PSU's out there. Sadly, they cannot as you dont include all the top PSU's.

edit, just saw that you said that you would include Antec and PC P&C next time. So there really isnt anything to fuss about. Good news for all.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Hit up Newegg.com for one of their Rosewill housebrands, I like 'em.

 

[Unit01]

Hrm just did a quickcheck on the pus list and i was wondering where PC Power & Cooling and seasonic was, but after reading here i can understand why.
PPC&P ships international though