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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MrSpadge - Thursday, October 28, 2010 - link
I know your plan was not to privde full market coverage.. but still, if an PSU as expensive as the Antect is included, which still gets "only" 80+ Bronze, it would have been nice to see a 80+ Gold heavy hitter like the Enermax 87+ or Seasonic X series included. In my opinion they're as good as ~500W PSUs currently get.MrS
EnzoFX - Thursday, October 28, 2010 - link
I really can't see a reason to turning to budget PSU's when there are often great ones on sale.For example, the Corsair 400 W one, every now and then, goes for $20 AR. Antec has a similar offering, at similar price, the EarthWatts 430W I believe. In higher range, another great example: The Corsair 650 TX for around $65 AR. In regards to my personal preference, all of these are known to be very quiet.
Granted, you do have to wait for the good pricing, but I consider it to happen often enough to simply pick one up when they do and have a spare ready. I suppose if you really can't wait, then you'd have to consider the other brands.
adrien_n - Thursday, October 28, 2010 - link
I've bought a Corsair CX400 PSU and it's efficient, silent, stable and it around 40 EUR I think.Bought it after reading about it on http://www.canardpc.com/dossier-36-450-Corsair_CX_... (french) (the whole article is a worthy read if you understand french). It's rated at 400W but if you sum up the powers, you get over 500W.
Stas - Friday, October 29, 2010 - link
I will always stand by Corsair PSUs. The PSU in my rig, CMPSU-520HX, has been reliable for 3 years. Outlived everything else in my machine (3 video cards, 2 CPUs, dozen of HDDs, 3 mobos, even 3 cases lol). Granted I buy quality parts or don't buy any at all, so none of those pieces actually died on me (except a 4 y.o. Hitachi HDD). I've also put in about 15 of Corsair PSUs in clients' rigs (from 400 to 850W versions, multi-12V-rails and single) in the past year and a half. Not a single one died or caused any instability. All are dead silent, too. Corsair's PSUs has become a standard in my eyes. Yes, there are more efficient offerings but they cost in the upper 100s and mid 200s. Between $50 and $150, I don't even think about what PSU to get, I just approximate the consumption and through the appropriate Corsair in the cart.chrnochime - Friday, October 29, 2010 - link
Well they either use CWT or Seasonic, so they're reliable because of these companies. IIRC they don't have any PSU that's specifically made *by* their own factory, all of their PSU are rebranded ones.strikeback03 - Monday, November 1, 2010 - link
Well, that is the case with most PSUs though. Corsair does pick good ODM designs and specify good components for the builds.HollyDOL - Tuesday, November 2, 2010 - link
I am very happy with Corsair PSUs as well and can only recommend... high efficiency, silent, very good current stability...gusc3669 - Thursday, October 28, 2010 - link
On page 1 under the Techsolo Black Mamba STP-550 I know that this PSU didn't perform but..."It just keeps getting better! This PSU is not available in the US, but it's still a nice representative of the crap-section."
Mr Perfect - Thursday, October 28, 2010 - link
Every once in a while it's good to call out the low end products like that Mamba, especially when it comes to PSUs. There are so many people who buy horribly cheap PSUs, or get one bundled with a case, and then see their whole machine go up in smoke. Which might actually make this more important the testing good supplies...It would also be helpful to explain some of the features and components of the supplies though. I imagine there are quite a few people who don't know what things like PFC are, or even that it existed.
Calin - Friday, October 29, 2010 - link
Reading only reviews from decent and high quality power supplies will suggest to the reader that all power supplies are decent or high quality. Good to know (at least every once in a while) that a certain power supply did blew up at not more than half the supposed load