FSP Aurum PT 1200W Power Supply Review

Conclusion

FSP developed the Aurum PT 1200W unit to engage in direct competition with the other companies that are already marketing 80 Plus Platinum certified 1200W units. It is a very limited market, but manufacturers do feel the need to have an advanced top-tier product, as it reflects on the company's prestige and competence. This is especially true for ODMs such as FSP, as they sell their designs and manufacturing capabilities to other companies, so they need to convince them that they can develop high performance designs as well. The Aurum PT 1200W unit can be found retailing for $240, the same price as Seasonic's Platinum 1200XP3 and significantly less than similar products from other manufacturers.

The quality of the Aurum PT 1200W is very good overall. From the Japanese capacitors to the inversion/conversion transistors, FSP is using some of the best quality components available today, which also explains the 7-year warranty. The assembly quality is good but it could have been better, as we spotted several odd-looking soldering joints.

The Aurum PT is also very well made externally, with the uniformly applied textured paint and octagonal openings creating a visually unique appearance. The only aesthetic dissonance is the use of two kinds of modular cables: flat, all black SATA/Molex cables and typical sleeved cables with color-coded wires for the CPU/GPU/motherboard cables.

When it comes to performance, the Aurum PT 1200W unit actually disappointed us a little. Even though the overall performance of this PSU is excellent, we had higher hopes regarding the "E-Sync" technology that allegedly improves the power output quality. The power output quality of the FSP Aurum PT 1200W unit is comparable to that of its primary competition, which is good but not exceptional by today's standards and considering the target market.

The Aurum PT 1200W is also a very quiet 1200W unit, but the side effect is that it has very high operating temperatures. Using it in environments with high ambient temperatures or running it with a heavy load for prolonged periods of time is not a wise idea. We would not recommend this PSU for use with cryptocurrency ASICs. Gamers should enjoy it very much though, as it is one of the quietest 1200W units available and the temperatures inside a well-designed gaming system should not be overly high.

In conclusion, the Aurum PT 1200W is a well made, reasonably priced product that offers good overall performance. The only actual problem of this product is the very limited market that it is trying to appeal to, as a very small percentage of users actually need this kind of power. It may not generate great sales, but we feel that FSP mostly wanted to prove that they could create a high quality and reasonably priced top-tier product. If you are a gamer or a professional with three or more high end GPUs, the FSP Aurum PT 1200W will not disappoint. We'll also likely see other brands of PSU use FSP's design in the coming months, and those may improve on what few blemishes exist.