2003 Power Supply Roundup Part II: Better Faster Cheaper
by Kristopher Kubicki on July 31, 2003 1:58 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
A lot of Sparkle’s power supplies share similar components to Fortron, but that does not mean they have not developed their ability to innovate independently. We were pretty amazed when Sparkle told us they managed to cram a 120mm fan inside a standard ATX power supply. Getting a 120mm fan is not uncommon, but enclosing it within an ATX housing is.
We are particularly interested how this PSU will fare in the noise test. A 120mm fan can push more CFM (cubic feet per minute) of air than an 80mm fan, while doing so at a slower speed. Check out our sound test to see how this might benefit you. An interesting note about this power supply is that the fan starts up at full revolutions, then throttles down to the correct RPM.
This power supply features no ATX cable sheathing, so you may wish to invest a few dollars in some cable management. For us, plastic twist ties do the trick.
Features on the Sparkle FSP350-60PN are relatively light. There are neither serial ATA connectors, nor motherboard monitoring connectors either. The honeycomb grill on the rear of the unit should provide enough passive airflow, which is a necessity if the 120mm fan is to operate properly.
Wattages
|
|
3.3V |
5V |
12V |
-12 |
-5 |
+5vsb |
combined theoretical |
actual combined |
advertised total |
|
Sparkle FSP350-60PN |
92.40 |
150.00 |
192.00 |
9.60 |
1.50 |
10.00 |
242.40 |
220.00 |
350.00 |
The important thing to realize is the combined wattage on the +3.3V and +5.0V rails. Even though PCs are ever increasingly dependant on the +12V rail, AMD users need to keep a close eye on the +3.3V power line. The FSP350 produces a very good 220W on the combined rail.
The Sparkle FSP350-60PN retails for under $50, which makes it a fairly reasonably priced power supply, albeit only 350 watts.
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Anonymous User - Friday, August 1, 2003 - link
1. No amp measurements were listed, a serious deficiency because without them there is no way to know how well each PS met its amp specs, and many brands are known to fall short.2. No overload testing results for shorts, excessive power draw, excessive temperature.
3. Ripple is not just slow voltage variation also short term variation, such as for each AC cycle (60 Hz for the incoming AC, about 60,000 Hz for the output DC). I would have liked to see how the latter correlated with the memory noise test results.
4. I hope you were careful when you tested the PS heatsink temperatures because some heatsinks are live with high voltage.
Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
Well for the observent people who can differentiate between orange and blue, its not an issue. Also waiting a full second before clicking it reveals the location on both the bottom left and the mouse cursor. but i can see how it does get annoying.Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
yeah those in page advertisements are REALLY annoying...those have got to go. i never know when i'm going to link to another anandtech article or to an ad...i guess that's the point but it's still unacceptableAnonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
I would like to see the review include a Heroichi Electronic power supply, I hear they are very good but I haven't used one.Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
Some of your "In Page Advertising" links seem to be missing closing links tags or something so that it results in having a <link> in the middle or end of a sentence. Ex. "We had a lot of troubles with Vantec’s last power supply, the Stealth. We found an error in the production label<link>, which quickly led to a change in all the labeling on all Stealth power supplies."KristopherKubicki - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
#3 and #4, thank you for spotting these errors. I have updated and fixed them.Cheers,
Kristopher
Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
I hope the ripple for the PC Power & Cooling 3V wasn't 2.295.. Possibly 3.296??? 1 volt drop is unacceptable.Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
The REAL price of the pc power&coolinghttp://www.directron.com/pcpower.htmlAnonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
a little more content per page in some cases would be nice too......but good to see content on the site at all...and seemingly more regularly too...
Anonymous User - Thursday, July 31, 2003 - link
woah guys, the tables need some work...