In Win GreenMe 650W
by Martin Kaffei on June 6, 2012 5:10 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- In-Win
- 650W
- GreenME
Conclusion
The In Win GreenMe 650W is a power supply which is not as green as it could be. For sure the environmental friendly packaging is a welcome change, but we should keep in mind that we can't protect the environment by buying a new PSU. If you're really looking to help the environment, it's better to keep your current PSU as long as possible and avoid contributing to landfills. In addition some of those extras in the package won't help to make the product much greener. Customers don't need a coloured user manual or various cable ties in a plastic bag, and these days even 80 Plus Bronze is often not enough to satisfy "green" customers.
Another point of criticism is the cable configuration. In Win provides not more than three HDD and six SATA plugs. Moreoever two connectors for graphics cards are not as much as we would like to see. As if this were not deficient enough, the GreenMe products have short cables (such as the one with 24 pins at 45cm). Even so all peripheral harnesses reach 80cm length or more and the cable sleeving is upscale.
From a purely technical viewpoint In Win didn't do anything wrong. The extensive EMI filtering including a MOV is just one out of many welcome features. Furthermore, the case has a good shielding. The PSU provides active PFC, all the important safety functions, and not least DC-to-DC VRM with all solid capacitors. All other parts have components from reliable sources except the caps. In Win has chosen capacitors from Samxon for the output filtering. We would like to see a better solution here. The GreenMe doesn't need active rectifying with modern transistors to reach 80 Plus Bronze. They still use Schottky diodes.
Currently we can't rate the market price. Let us assume, that the price will be about $80-90. For midrange systems (that won't be heavily overclocked or run two high-end GPUs with two connectors each) the GreenMe 650W is a good offer. However, the cable lengths are not suitable for larger cases, there are not enough connectors for the target market and some caps on the secondary side are very cheap. Build quality, voltage regulation, and efficiency are very good anyway.
The efficiency is relatively high with 87% at 115VAC and even better 88% with 230VAC. Considering the good efficiency, the fan could be quieter, particularly at high loads. 32 dBA is too high for a silent product when other manufacturers are able to stay under 30dBA with low temperatures. The ripple and noise results with more than 70mV on +12V are relatively high but still within ATX specifications.
The In Win GreenMe 650 may not be the greatest in all areas, but it does have some advantages such as the voltage regulation, even with all the opponents it has to face. However, Antec's EarthWatts EA-650 Green 650W shows a great performance as well and the current price is low. Only the missing power cord is too much of a good thing. The Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W is another strong competitor, but the price is somewhat higher ($89.99 after rebate; $119.99 otherwise). The design is almost the same as well, since they use a two-transistor forward converter and DC-to-DC modules for the smaller outputs. In summary, it can be stated that In Win is not able to deliver the "greenest" product ever, but an average offer. In terms of quality the GreenMe series is a common product like most power supplies are.
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Onus - Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - link
Preaching to the choir, brother; preaching to the choir...The parasitic load on our society is simply incredible. They didn't come here with the colonists; where'd they all come from?
Well, this is a tech site, so I'd best not get started...
kmmatney - Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - link
I don't know about global warming etc, but I did grow up in the Los Angeles area, and when I was younger we had days that were so smoggy, we weren't allowed to go outside for recess. This was in the late seventies, and smog was pretty bad in those days. However, since CA enacted stricter smog rules on cars and on industry, things have gotten much better, and the no-recess smog days are now a thing of the past. the air is noticeably cleaner - just shows that legislation can be a good thing sometimes.zinfamous - Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - link
patheticEnzoFX - Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - link
Your ignorance is appalling.garcondebanane - Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - link
Science grants aren't handed out to get to a particular conclusion, they're handed out to find out if such a conclusion can in fact be made about reality. And regarding disagreements, there are plenty out there in science, but global warming isn't high on that list.Don't believe everything your politicians tell you - look up peer reviewed journals in reputable publications - you don't have to read everything, even the titles are telling. Think for yourself if you really believe in making good choices. You're right that it's all about legislation, money, and control over your lives. But make sure you know what's fact and what's propaganda before you go shitting on people in comment threads.
And did you just make the jump from talking about climate science to communist revolutionaries? Because that's just a whole new level of crazy, man...
ggathagan - Thursday, June 7, 2012 - link
"Science grants aren't handed out to get to a particular conclusion, they're handed out to find out if such a conclusion can in fact be made about reality."Ahhh... Hahahaha!!!!
One of the funniest things I've read all day.
Here, let me help you on that:
Science grants aren't SUPPOSED TO BE handed out to get to a particular conclusion, they're SUPPOSED TO BE handed out to find out if such a conclusion can in fact be made about reality.
Global cooling/warming/climate change is a very lucrative market.
garcondebanane - Thursday, June 7, 2012 - link
I can't fault your distrust for science, but do you really have good reasons to think the way you do? Reports from impartial sources, perhaps? Or intuition?Regulations are expensive industry as a whole. If corporations could have it their way, they'd completely ignore the possibility of manmade climate change until the damage it does starts affecting the bottom line. From where I stand it looks far more lucrative to downplay the human effect on climate.
amosbatto - Saturday, June 9, 2012 - link
Actually, you can't find much disagreement among the scientists about the basic idea that the planet is heating up and that humans are the chief cause. There is less disagreement in the scientific community about global warming than about many commonly accepted ideas, like evolution and the standard theory of physics. The evidence is so overwhelming that almost every national and international body of scientists which has bothered to issue a statement on the issue agrees.Among real scientists there are only a handful who question that the planet heating up and that humans are the chief cause. Yes, there are huge lists of papers like the one on populartechnology DOT net
(Sorry, I tried to give you the link but the spam blocker wouldn't allow it.)
However, almost none of the authors of those papers are doing active research and their arguments have been overwhelming debunked. There are a few accredited scientists in the list with PhDs, like Richard S. Lindzen and Fred Singer, but almost none of them are doing any active research (at least any that has been published). Suspiciously almost all of these scientists have received funding in one way or another from organizations like the Western Fuel Association or Exxon which have a financial interest in opposing the measure to reduce greenhouse gases. The arguments against global warming which have been most cited by doubters have come from statisticians (such as Ross McKitrick, Patrick J. Michaels, etc) who don't have any deep knowledge of the material and their arguments are rapidly debunked by real scientists. If you look at almost all the scientists who are deniers listed by wikipedia, almost none of them have published a peer-reviewed article about the matter. In most cases, they are quoted making some comment, but offering very little to back up the argument.
See: wikipedia's "List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming"
The best evidence of a scientific consensus on the matter was a study by Naomi Oreskes, who did a search for peer-reviewed papers which mention global warming and climate change published between 1993 and 2003. She took a random sample of those papers and analyzed 928 of them. Out of those, she was unable to find a single paper which questioned the scientific consensus that global warming was occurring. Google this to find the article: "BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change", Science 3 December 2004: Vol. 306 no. 5702 p. 1686.
As for the argument that scientists have been changing their mind, it is true that in the 1970s, a minority of scientists thought that the planet might start to cool, but that was a minority opinion among climatologists and during the 1970s global temperatures were not rising very much. Good science demands that you look at the data and once the temperatures began to rise dramatically in the 80s and 90s, almost all scientists looked at the data and came to the same conclusion. Most of the 0.8 degrees C of warming which has occurred since 1980, so it isn't surprising that the consensus was only reached after the warming became a very clear trend.
You will read lots of utter junk on this subject because many interests do not want it to be true, so I suggest that you start by reading Robert Strom's book, Hot House for a good introduction on the subject. Then read James Hansen's book Storms of My Grandchildren. Once you understand the basic science, you will start to understand why the denialists' arguments don't make any sense. For example, the radiation from the sun is cyclical and is currently reducing, yet denialists love to claim that the sun is causing global warming. Another favorite argument is that volcanic activity is causing the warming, but scientists say that a big volcanic eruption actually blocks the sun, so it lowers temperatures. Scientists can very accurately measure its effect as James Hansen did with the eruption of Pinatubo in 1992. Denialists also love to point to the scientific coverup of "climategate", but when you actually analyze what happened, the scientists were talking about how to represent proxy data which didn't agree with direct measurements from thermometers. There was no coverup. They clearly told everyone that they were adjusting the proxy data and it was duly argued about in the IPCC.
Any time you read a denialist argument, you should go to Joe Romm's thinkprogress.org site and see what climatologists say about the argument. You will quickly see that most of the denialist arguments don't hold up under scrutiny. Take the time to educate yourself on the subject, before accusing thousands of climatologists of being wrong.
Narcofis - Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - link
WWF reminds me of my youth for the World Wrestling Federation... That was my first though anyway. I'm not a big fan of these types of Marketing Campaign. As a tech consumer always looking for the best bang for the buck these type of advertisement deters me from purchasing the product. To me, the word eco-friendly doesn't associate with longevity and quality build of a product. Eco-friendly is suppose to deteriorate fast in the environment; in a PSU I'm looking for a product that will last for a long period of time.MikeNCtrlPHX - Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - link
Just a thought.Mike