550W Roundup: Three PSUs at Different Prices
by Martin Kaffei on October 28, 2010 4:00 PM ESTOCZ Noise Levels and Efficiency
| Sound Pressure Level | |
| Load | dB(A) |
| 10% | 18 |
| 20% | 19 |
| 50% | 20 |
| 80% | 24 |
| 100% | 26 |
| 110% | 26 |
Its nice to see that the OCZ Fatal1ty 550W is silent at low loads. Even at 50% you can't hear anything, provided there is a thick-walled case between the PSU and your ear. You'll definetly hear the PSU at full load, but the noise level is still tolerable. Nice work here!
Efficiency and PFC
| 230VAC, 50Hz | ||
| Load | Efficiency | PFC |
| 10% | 73% | 0.840 |
| 20% | 83% | 0.877 |
| 50% | 85% | 0.930 |
| 80% | 84% | 0.952 |
| 100% | 82% | 0.958 |
| 110% | 82% | 0.962 |
| 115VAC, 60Hz | ||
| Load | Efficiency | PFC |
| 10% | 71% | 0.941 |
| 20% | 81% | 0.949 |
| 50% | 84% | 0.976 |
| 80% | 83% | 0.983 |
| 100% | 82% | 0.985 |
| 110% | 81% | 0.986 |
Now we see why the OCZ Fatal1ty lacks the 80 Plus Bronze certification. The efficiency is always below 84% at 115VAC and very bad at 10% load. OCZ would definitely benefit from an improved design, though with gaming PCs we can pretty much guarantee that you'll be idling at closer to 20% load so it's not a huge concern for the target market. Anyhow, the power factor is good and reaches more than 0.960 on both power grids.
Overall, the OCZ Fatal1ty delivers decent voltage regulation, a nice power factor, reasonable efficiency, and low noise levels; unfortunately, there's a high amount of ripple and the efficiency could be better. Considering these results the OCZ Fatak1ty 550W is just one among many PSUs vying for your dollar. If you can find it on sale for around $50, it becomes a better proposition—and that's exactly what you get if you go with Newegg and their $15 mail-in rebate, but we'd prefer a $50 price without the hassle of an MIR.
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Gonemad - Wednesday, November 3, 2010 - link
I had a Thermaltake ThoughPower (can't remember exact model) that performed fairly for 5 years. It operated non-stop for 1 year in-between that time. I bought it separately from a Thermaltake Case, that had several fans. Worth every dime, both of them.But...
I had to replace an original case fan, so I decided "what t'e hell' and slapped a cheap-o-dozen fan in its place. VERY. BAD. IDEA.
The whole thing worked fine for 6 months, then the ASUS metering software showed steady voltage dropping, curiously on the 3.3V rail as I later found out. Then it alarmed in an intermittent fashion, for no apparent reason, as it got to 10% Low Voltage on that rail.
Guess what? The fan LOCKED, and effectively pushed the PSU to 110% or above (who knows?), FOR FREAKING 6 MONTHS.
THE PSU DIDN´T QUIT ON ME.
As I opened it for regular maintenance (hey, 6 months, remember?) I found the locked fan, and a funny smell that could be felt only very near the PSU vent. You know the smell, don't you? That's the smell of a dying PSU. The fan almost burned my hand when I touched it, proving that the PSU was not at fault; in fact, it performed above and beyond any expectation, and possibly avoided a fire hazard. It was still operational when I removed it, but the smell was ever greater each time it was turned on, even for a few minutes, proving the whole thing had collapsed after all that operating time. The fan didn't short out, which would have triggered any safety (fuse, probably?) on the PSU, it just didn't rotate anymore on its bearings, and became a power drainer on the circuit, eating away the average life-time of the component.
The good PSU purchase decision not only proved a wise decision, it avoided me lots of hassle and grief. The cheap fan, on the other hand, destroyed a perfectly good piece of equipment.
"Caveat Emptor" indeed.
gurboura - Saturday, November 6, 2010 - link
It seems right from the start that you have something against TechSolo, you also talk about how it was loud at almost 30dbA, but yet, the Antec is at 32 and the OCZ tops at 26, still close to that 30dbA level."If you want to have a silent computer, please buy another power supply and protect your ears." Couldn't this have been said the same for the Antec since it was actually louder than the TechSolo?
When doing doing these type of articles your supposed to have an unbiased opinion and its pretty obvious from the start that that wasn't true.