FSP Epsilon 80Plus 600W
by Christoph Katzer on August 5, 2008 8:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Introduction
Many casual computer users might not be familiar with the name FSP Group (aka Fotron Source), but their power supplies are found in many PC systems from major system integrators. They come to you with bearing other names such as Zalman, OCZ, or be quiet!, but the actual products are produced by FSP. FSP is one of the largest manufacturers of power supplies in the world. I have been to their Taiwanese headquarters several times when I was living in Taiwan back in 2002. The large complex in Tao Yuan is a little outside of Taipei and houses research equipment most techies can only dream of using. The equipment includes an anechoic room and a setup to test electromagnetic interferences.
FSP sent us several of their units that we will be reviewing shortly, beginning today with the Epsilon 600W 80Plus power supply. FSP Group sells power supplies to many of the familiar names in the PSU market, and they also sell them direct under their own two brand names: FSP and Amacrox. We have already reviewed two Amacrox power supplies, but now we'll be looking at a couple FSPs models. The FSP products come with a blue exterior to separate them from other companies. As one of the largest quality PSU manufacturers, one can expect to find only the best components in their own products.
This power supply design first became famous about two years ago, when FSP partnered with a large number of companies and released numerous slightly tweaked models all based off the same basic topology. Today FSP's market share has decreased, with other ODM competitors like Channel Well Technology (CWT) getting the design wins. We hope that FSP is working on some newer models, as competition is always welcome. be quiet! released a very nice FSP-built model last year that delivered efficiency of up to 88%, a design we haven't seen elsewhere, so they certainly have the capacity to produce some very good PSUs. We saw the same topology at the CES booth earlier this year, but it wasn't at their CeBIT booth. We can only guess what happened to that design - perhaps it was simply too expensive to be practical - but it never really made it to the mass production stage.
The Epsilon comes with four 18A 12V rails, which is a good start. The 3.3V rail delivers up to 36A and the 5V rail 30A. The combined power for both the smaller rails shows is 155W, while the combined power for the 12V rails remains unknown since FSP shows 575W together with the maximum of 155W for the both smaller rails. We could hazard a guess of 420W, but that's more of a worst-case scenario. Worth noting is that the Epsilon 80Plus 600W is not the same as the Epsilon FX600-GLN, which many mistakenly assume. The 80Plus certification immediately indicates that this version is a more energy efficiency revision, although it seems to only be available in Europe right now.
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Amart - Wednesday, August 6, 2008 - link
-1FSP Epsilon above 500W are known to have Ripple/Noise problems, and the "spec" for maximum is much higher then anyone would want to buy.
Capacitors age, and Ripple/Noise increases over the lifetime of this product - so starting out very-low is a requirement for a quality unit. I've seen plenty of tests of $80+ units that failed to provide the quality they promised.
C'DaleRider - Wednesday, August 6, 2008 - link
Fucktard? My, my, little boy games calling names....makes you such a big boy, doesn't it?I guess despite the education proper testing sites have attempted to do in testing power supplies has eluded you. Ripple and noise is quite important...but since you care not for ever seeing the values presented, and it's not hard to get them, AT's vaunted Chroma gives them so why cannot they be presented is beyond me.
And to show the ripple/noise graphing is very simple, too. An oscilloscope is all that's needed....and if a website can afford a Chroma, it certainly can afford an oscilloscope.
Without proper presentation of ripple/noise generation at given output levels, their testing is incomplete. To be within spec is rather meaningless as 115mV of ripple on the +12V rail at full rated output is within spec, but I wouldn't buy a power supply that produced that much ripple/noise.
Come on AT, get with the program and show us complete information, or is HardOCP, Hardware Secrets, and JonnyGuru's sites the only ones that will do proper testing and leave you as an also-ran testing site.
strikeback03 - Wednesday, August 6, 2008 - link
If you don't trust them to say "Ripple Results are fine" then why would you trust a graphic? Never heard of Photoshop? Or use Labview to generate a signal to be read by an oscilloscope? If a reviewer actually wants to deceive, a picture isn't any harder.JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 6, 2008 - link
That's pretty much my thoughts as well. Christoph did include ripple tests and charts in some previous articles (http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.a...">for example, this roundup), but didn't feel like the amount of time required to generate all the charts really added anything to the results. Given that he HAS done those tests in the past, I see no reason to think that he's not conducting those tests now. That he condenses a bunch of charts that take a significant amount of effort to create into a short statement on ripple doesn't really bother me at all. Though I do have to say, at least reporting the mV ripple values as he's done in the past would be good.Amart - Thursday, August 7, 2008 - link
He does NOT condense. If he wanted to condense he would give the average number he's getting from the calculation.Simply saying that something is "within spec" is unacceptable in a professional review, for reasons outlined in the above replies.
He must show the numbers, whether in a graph or simply writing them down. It won't take more space or time - if he's actually doing the testing.
JarredWalton - Thursday, August 7, 2008 - link
Usually Christoph has listed the ripple values. I'm not sure why he didn't put them in this article. Compare to the last article, where he mentions 8mV or whatever. I'll flog him and make sure we get some numbers for future PSUs. :)Amart - Friday, August 8, 2008 - link
Why not for this one? This isn't paper print, you can edit.Both methodology and results for such key testing should be posted or linked within the article - just like on other sites.
HOOfan 1 - Thursday, August 7, 2008 - link
I personally would rather see specific values for ripple rather than oscilloscope shots. By the same measure, I would rather see specific values for voltage regulation, rather than line graph. I would rather see specific AC input versus DC output numbers instead of a line graph for efficiency. All of these should be simple and quick to whip up into a chart. As for the FSP Epsilon, for most in North America where the superior Corsair CWT and Seasonic designs can be had for the same price or even less money, I say going with the superior designs of CWT and Seasonic is a no brainer. Same for the new BFG LS line that has popped up...they need to drop the price by about $15-$20 before they can even hope to compete with the value that Corsair is putting out there.larson0699 - Wednesday, August 6, 2008 - link
I'll take their word for it....especially having already concluded that this is a good unit but still nothing on Seasonic's S12II/M12II line. Their testing is sufficient to validate that.
You can say what you want about AT, but it's their game and I think they're damn good at it, and ooh look at the pretty colors *drool*. You may find yourself more comfortable reading , Hot, Tom's, I don't care, but that's _your_ preference and one I can respect, at least moreso than "boo fuckity hoo your testing is incomplete OMGWTFBBQ". I'll tell you what'll really get results: Buy the unit, suppress the mouth.
I said good day.