INTRODUCTION

   Professionals, serious gamers and even enthusiasts always use quality components in their PCs and although their needs are not exactly identical still they all agree that quality PSU is always a good investment (at least judging from the people we all know). Although however finding a quality PSU is not really hard (the easiest way is to check its 80 plus Certification and price) some people have a hard time figuring out just how much juice they need for their PCs. I've always believed that having a PSU with ore output power and never use it is far better than to need the extra juice and not have it but at the same time when i see PCs that can never possibly surpass the 500W mark recommending a 1KW model to those people makes no sense at all. FSP released the Aurum PT line of power supply units over a year ago and long after our review of the top PT model we decided to take a look at the 650W 92+ one released quite a bit earlier.

FSP Group is the 5th largest power supply vendor in the world. Since the company was established in 1993, our outstanding management team has drawn together our R&D expertise, our sizeable production capacity, outstanding product quality to consistently excel in this competitive marketplace. FSP group is a publicly traded company listed in the Taiwan stock exchange, symbol: 30.15.TW, with revenues exceeding over 600 million USD. FSP group provides OEM/ODM power conversion products and services to the majority of well-established manufacturers and is the leading volume supplier of desktop PC ATX power supplies. In recent years, FSP group has expanded its R&D and manufacturing capabilities to become one of the major power conversion supplier of power adapters, industrial PCs, servers, LCD/LED monitors, LCD/LED TVs, heavy duty industrial products (UPS), portable battery chargers, Uninterrupted Power Supply as well as providing off-the-shelf consumer products, partnering with many strategic manufacturers.

   The Aurum 92+ line may not be part of the higher end PT line of PSUs again by FSP but it shares most of the same features (lacks the full-modular design however) and so here we find the 80 Plus Platinum efficiency certification, four 18A +12V rails, MIA IC technology (active-clamp), active PFC, industrial grade Japanese capacitors, flat cabling system, 120mm fluid dynamic bearing silent fan and a full suite of electrical protections including OCP (over charge protection), OVP (over voltage protection), SCP (short circuit protection), OPP (over power protection) and UVP (under voltage protection). Finally the 650W model which we have here with us has a peak output (max combined power) of roughly 700W.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The box has a large product image at the front along with the company logo and its main features.

For more product information FSP recommends users to visit their website at the bottom of the box.

The product features and specifications are listed at the rear right next to the available connectors and two graphs showcasing the efficiency and noise levels.

Packaging is perfect with the PSU placed inside a formed piece of foam and the rest of the bundle placed inside a cardboard box.

Together with the Aurum 92+ 650W you will also get the modular cables, power cord, 4 cable straps, 4 mounting screws, case badge and the user manual.

THE AURUM 92+ 650W EXTERIOR

Flat modular cables are not something we haven’t seen in the past but it’s always a plus.

Unlike the PT series the 92+ line is not fully modular (it still looks great however largely thanks to the scratch-resistant powder).

Once again FSP has used a 135/140mm fluid dynamic bearing fan so nothing really new in that area.

The FSP logo is placed on both sides of the housing.

A large sticker placed at the base of the PSU contains the electrical table.

Again perfect cable sleeving (we didn’t expect anything less).

Unfortunately although the modular connectors are different in size they are not tagged.

The typical arrow-like perforation is placed at the rear along with the power plug and the on/off switch.

THE AURUM 92+ 650W INTERIOR

The 140mm fluid dynamic bearing fan used in the Aurum 92+ 650W is supplied by Protechnic Electric and can spin up to 2400RPM.

Much like with most low-wattage models the interior of the Aurum 92+ 650W is very clean.

The primary capacitor is 105 degrees certified and is manufactured by Nippon Chemi-Con.

Secondary side is filled with 105 degrees certified capacitors by United Chemi-Con.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

     Using a dedicated measurement instrument such as a Chroma or a SunMoon to test power supply units is without doubt the most ideal and accurate way (not to mention the fastest) to do that currently. However it's certainly not the only way there is and so pretty much anyone can test a power supply unit just by using a computer. Certainly limitations do apply and so you can't really test a 1000W power supply if your system only uses 500W at peak loads and that's why during the past 5 years i have saved certain hardware components for the purpose of building a dedicated PSU test rig. True it may not be as accurate as the above mentioned solutions but it comes really close and is in fact closer to real world usage. So as always we ran several games with maximum graphic options enabled at a resolution of 2560x1600 in order to stress every hardware component and increase the overall power demands of the system. The Passmark BurnIn Test was also used to overstress the components in an effort to provide the most accurate results possible. As a final test we also used the latest OCCT 4.4 software and its dedicated PSU testing suite since it can really bring a power supply to its knees after inside a few minutes.

       Rail stability was checked/measured with the CPUID Hardware monitor and a Metex multimeter which also recorded the system load in idle and in load. As always try to remember that the power consumption numbers listed in the graph are the highest (Peak) ones recorded during the entire duration of the tests and not the average ones. Noise levels coming from the fan were recorded using the high precision HD600 ExTech Sound dBA Meter from the rear of the unit and at a range of no more than 5-10cm. Readings under load are recorded the exact moment we manually switch the fans of all graphics cards from full speed to almost zero, that way the fan of the power supply does not have enough time to slow its RPM and so by doing this we get very accurate noise level readings. Needless to say in order to get 100% accurate readings you need to have a noise isolated room for that exact purpose, something which is quite impossible unless you are working inside a real lab (some people use very small noise insulated boxes but due to their size both heat and noise exceed normal levels and so the results can't really be considered to be 100% accurate). Also do take into account that since all noise measurements take place from just 5-10cm away the final noise levels to reach your ears will be considerably less.

TEST RESULTS

RAIL STABILITY

I didn’t expect it but the Aurum 92+ 650W produced solid rails.

POWER CONSUMPTION

Unfortunately since the peak output of this unit tops at around 700W we had to use one of our three test graphics cards and thus we couldn’t climb over 600W.

NOISE LEVELS (SPL)

40.3dBA max during our tests is a small number indeed but if you squeeze more power from the unit (over 600W) chances are it will climb even more.

CONCLUSION

   It took quite a while for FSP to finally focus their efforts in the retail market (OEM always did well but that doesn't make you very popular with consumers) and make a strong come back and so although before the very good Aurum Pro line and recently the excellent Aurum PT line of PSUs FSP was almost nowhere in the "serious" consumer oriented market. That's no longer the case however and although we're not saying that the Aurum 92+ PSU line is perfect still the 650W model produced very solid rails with low noise levels (at least up until the output we managed to squeeze out of it). At first some people may not like the lack of a fully modular design but as we've already mentioned numerous times in the past it makes very little sense for a company to do that in low-wattage models since end users will probably use most if not all modular cables.

   It may already count almost 3 years in the market but 80 Plus Platinum certified models still don't come cheap and so the current price tag of USD119.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 136.99Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) might seem as a tad high to some people. However judging by how much other 80 Plus Platinum certified units at around the same wattage cost we really don't think that's accurate. Overall FSP has produced many excellent 80 Plus Platinum models and although the 92+ 650W falls a bit short compared to the higher wattage models of the PT line still it's definitely one of the best 650W models in the market currently and that's why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Solid Rail Stability
- Flat Modular Cables
- 5 Years Warranty / 5 Million Product Insurance
- 80Plus Platinum Certified
- Electrical Protections (OCP/OVP/SCP/UVP/OPP)

CONS

- Availability