W1zzard
03-17-2005, 02:39 PM
[PAGE=Introduction & Packaging]
Introduction
I would like to thank Fortron Sparkle for supplying me with the unit for review.
FSP Group is a leader in the power supply industry in Taiwan and one of the top manufacturers in the world. Since the company's establishment in 1993, the management team has constantly improved R&D expertise, production capacity and product quality to consistently excel in this competitive marketplace.
FSP Group was founded from the companies Fortron Source and Sparkle Power Intl., the P means Power Supplies.
Today we have a very special PSU on the test bench - it is completely passive. Fortron trusts their design so much that they say a backup fan is not needed. When it gets too hot it will just turn off.
The FSP ZEN is also called FSP300-60GNF, in case you need to search for it at vendors. It has active PFC and a wide input voltage range of 99 to 265 V (auto-switched).
Shipping of the first units has already started and it should be widely available in May.
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<th>PSU Efficiency</th>
<th>Full Load</th><th>Typical Load</th><th>Light Load</th></tr>
<tr>
<td>115V Input </td>
<td>>85%</td>
<td>>85%</td>
<td>>80%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>230V Input </td>
<td>>87%</td>
<td>>87%</td>
<td>>82%</td>
</tr>
</table>
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package2.jpg)
Box contents:
Power supply unit
Manual (english, german, french, traditional chinese, simplified chinese)
Power Cord
Screw package
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package4.jpg)
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<th rowspan="2">Connectors</th>
<th align="center">Main Power</th>
<th align="center">5.25"</th>
<th align="center">Floppy</th>
<th align="center">4 Pin CPU</th>
<th align="center">SerialATA</th>
<th align="center">PCI-E Aux Power</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">ATX 24 Pin</td>
<td align="center">4</td>
<td align="center">1</td>
<td align="center">1</td>
<td align="center">2</td>
<td align="center">-</td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/cablelength.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/power.jpg)
When switched on, the power switch is lighting up blue. Awesome!
[pagE=Inside Shots & Test Equipment]
Inside
If you open your PSU, your warranty is gone. We still had to peek inside it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside1.jpg)
The two leftmost heatsinks carry current, even when the PSU is just plugged in and the switch on the back is lit. The rightmost heatsink is grounded. This is also the one which gets hottest, in our tests up to 65°C (measured directly at the heatsink).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside3.jpg)
The inside looks well cleaned up to me. There are no untidy cables or other messy things. The three heatsinks are massive in construction and seem to be able to handle the heat load pretty well.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside4.jpg)
All capacitors I could spot are high-quality 105°C flavour.
Test Equipment
The PSU is connected to an APC SmartUPS which supplies clean 220V input.
AC current is measured using a Peaktech 4010 desktop RS232 multimeter with 0.01A accuracy.
To measure DC output voltages of the PSU we use a 20-bit data acquisition system calibrated to 10uV accuracy.
Power Factor is measured using a generic Power Efficiency Meter.
Heatsink temperature was measured using a HP 2801A thermometer calibrated to 0.01°C.
Measurements for Ripple Voltage were obtained using a 30 MHz HAMEG Analog/Digital Oscilloscope.
[PAGE=Performance, Value & Conclusion]
Performance
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/label_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/label.jpg)
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<th colspan="7">FSP ZEN 300W</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>AC Input</th>
<td colspan="6">99V-265V 1.5-3.5A, 47-63 Hz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>DC Voltage</th>
<td align="center">+3.3V</td>
<td align="center">+5V</td>
<td align="center">+12V</td>
<td align="center">-12V</td>
<td align="center">-5V</td>
<td align="center">+5VSB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th rowspan="2">Max. Output</th>
<td align="center">20A</td>
<td align="center">20A</td>
<td align="center">22A</td>
<td align="center">0.8A</td>
<td align="center">1A</td>
<td align="center">2A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" align="center">120 W</td>
<td align="center">280 W</td>
<td align="center">10 W</td>
<td align="center">5 W</td>
<td align="center">10 W</td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/psugraph.gif
Tested on: P4 3.0E @ 4.0 Ghz, 1.55V. ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE, 1GB OCZ PC2-5400 EB, Radeon X850 XT, Maxtor DiamondMax 10 SATA.
All lines are fluctuating a bit, but nothing too serious. Considering the load we put on this small 300W PSU, it is suprising that it kept the system stable.
All lines are well within the limits set by the ATX Specification.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/ripple.jpg
Above image shows the Ripple Voltage measurement (10 mV per vertical division, 0.1uS per horizontal division). With 20mV from peak to bottom it is nothing special. Ripple Voltage was measured at idle.
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<th>Standard deviation 12V</th>
<td align="right">27.210 mV</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Standard deviation 5V</th>
<td align="right">7.351 mV</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Standard deviation 3.3V</th>
<td align="right">7.849 mV</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Power Factor</th>
<td align="right">0.95</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Ripple Voltage 12V</th>
<td align="right">20 mV</td>
</tr>
</table>
Standard deviation is a statistical term, which tells how far away from the average the measurements are. In other words it's the average of the average.
A large standard deviation indicates that the data points are far from the average and a small standard deviation indicates that they are close within the average.
Power Factor is a measurement of how efficient a power supply is converting AC voltage to DC voltage. The perfect power supply has a Power Factor of 1.0. Using Passivce or Active PFC increases the Power Factor. In the European Union all power supplies >70W must have either Passive or Active PFC.
As additional safeguard, the PSU is constantly monitoring all output lines, as soon as measured current draw exceeds a certain maximum, it will turn off:
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<tr><th>Voltage</th><th>Limit</th></tr>
<tr><td>+3.3V</td><td>50A</td></tr>
<tr><td>+5V</td><td>48A</td></tr>
<tr><td>+12V</td><td>41A</td></tr>
</table>
What I noticed, is that even though the PSU is fanless, it emits some electric noise. During normal operation it is not noticable, but when you put your ear right on the PSU case, you can hear it.
Also when load is high, you can hear the sound coming out of your case. What is even more disturbing is that the tone constantly changes with the load, so you notice it much more, compared to a constant high pitched sound.
The lack of a backup cooling fan can be seen as good or bad.
It removes fan cost and adds more available space to the inside of the PSU. This allows the heatsinks to be bigger for more cooling performance.
On the other hand a fan might come in handy in some critical situation where overheating might happen.
However, we tried a few things to break the FSP ZEN but it always came out top.
Value and Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The FSP ZEN is selling for about $150 which is expensive but definitely worth it for a passive PSU.
</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Completely passive
Stable voltages
Beautiful blue paint
Two SATA connectors
Screw package included
Sleeved cabling
Wide input voltage range
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Electrical noise during operation
Only 300 W
No PCI-E power connectors
Cables could be longer
</td></tr>
<tr><th>8.0</th>
<td>I was surprised to see the Fortron Sparkle ZEN power our demanding test platform without any load problems. While the electrical noises were definitely annoying, they are only noticable on higher power systems. If you plan to use this PSU on a smaller machine you should be perfectly fine. Overall the ZEN is a good product and a good start into the silent PSU market for Fortron Sparkle.</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td></td></tr>
</table>
Introduction
I would like to thank Fortron Sparkle for supplying me with the unit for review.
FSP Group is a leader in the power supply industry in Taiwan and one of the top manufacturers in the world. Since the company's establishment in 1993, the management team has constantly improved R&D expertise, production capacity and product quality to consistently excel in this competitive marketplace.
FSP Group was founded from the companies Fortron Source and Sparkle Power Intl., the P means Power Supplies.
Today we have a very special PSU on the test bench - it is completely passive. Fortron trusts their design so much that they say a backup fan is not needed. When it gets too hot it will just turn off.
The FSP ZEN is also called FSP300-60GNF, in case you need to search for it at vendors. It has active PFC and a wide input voltage range of 99 to 265 V (auto-switched).
Shipping of the first units has already started and it should be widely available in May.
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<th>PSU Efficiency</th>
<th>Full Load</th><th>Typical Load</th><th>Light Load</th></tr>
<tr>
<td>115V Input </td>
<td>>85%</td>
<td>>85%</td>
<td>>80%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>230V Input </td>
<td>>87%</td>
<td>>87%</td>
<td>>82%</td>
</tr>
</table>
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package2.jpg)
Box contents:
Power supply unit
Manual (english, german, french, traditional chinese, simplified chinese)
Power Cord
Screw package
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/package4.jpg)
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<th rowspan="2">Connectors</th>
<th align="center">Main Power</th>
<th align="center">5.25"</th>
<th align="center">Floppy</th>
<th align="center">4 Pin CPU</th>
<th align="center">SerialATA</th>
<th align="center">PCI-E Aux Power</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">ATX 24 Pin</td>
<td align="center">4</td>
<td align="center">1</td>
<td align="center">1</td>
<td align="center">2</td>
<td align="center">-</td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/cablelength.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/power.jpg)
When switched on, the power switch is lighting up blue. Awesome!
[pagE=Inside Shots & Test Equipment]
Inside
If you open your PSU, your warranty is gone. We still had to peek inside it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside1.jpg)
The two leftmost heatsinks carry current, even when the PSU is just plugged in and the switch on the back is lit. The rightmost heatsink is grounded. This is also the one which gets hottest, in our tests up to 65°C (measured directly at the heatsink).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside3.jpg)
The inside looks well cleaned up to me. There are no untidy cables or other messy things. The three heatsinks are massive in construction and seem to be able to handle the heat load pretty well.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/inside4.jpg)
All capacitors I could spot are high-quality 105°C flavour.
Test Equipment
The PSU is connected to an APC SmartUPS which supplies clean 220V input.
AC current is measured using a Peaktech 4010 desktop RS232 multimeter with 0.01A accuracy.
To measure DC output voltages of the PSU we use a 20-bit data acquisition system calibrated to 10uV accuracy.
Power Factor is measured using a generic Power Efficiency Meter.
Heatsink temperature was measured using a HP 2801A thermometer calibrated to 0.01°C.
Measurements for Ripple Voltage were obtained using a 30 MHz HAMEG Analog/Digital Oscilloscope.
[PAGE=Performance, Value & Conclusion]
Performance
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/label_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/label.jpg)
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<th colspan="7">FSP ZEN 300W</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>AC Input</th>
<td colspan="6">99V-265V 1.5-3.5A, 47-63 Hz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>DC Voltage</th>
<td align="center">+3.3V</td>
<td align="center">+5V</td>
<td align="center">+12V</td>
<td align="center">-12V</td>
<td align="center">-5V</td>
<td align="center">+5VSB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th rowspan="2">Max. Output</th>
<td align="center">20A</td>
<td align="center">20A</td>
<td align="center">22A</td>
<td align="center">0.8A</td>
<td align="center">1A</td>
<td align="center">2A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" align="center">120 W</td>
<td align="center">280 W</td>
<td align="center">10 W</td>
<td align="center">5 W</td>
<td align="center">10 W</td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/psugraph.gif
Tested on: P4 3.0E @ 4.0 Ghz, 1.55V. ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE, 1GB OCZ PC2-5400 EB, Radeon X850 XT, Maxtor DiamondMax 10 SATA.
All lines are fluctuating a bit, but nothing too serious. Considering the load we put on this small 300W PSU, it is suprising that it kept the system stable.
All lines are well within the limits set by the ATX Specification.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/FSP/Zen/images/ripple.jpg
Above image shows the Ripple Voltage measurement (10 mV per vertical division, 0.1uS per horizontal division). With 20mV from peak to bottom it is nothing special. Ripple Voltage was measured at idle.
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<th>Standard deviation 12V</th>
<td align="right">27.210 mV</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Standard deviation 5V</th>
<td align="right">7.351 mV</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Standard deviation 3.3V</th>
<td align="right">7.849 mV</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Power Factor</th>
<td align="right">0.95</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Ripple Voltage 12V</th>
<td align="right">20 mV</td>
</tr>
</table>
Standard deviation is a statistical term, which tells how far away from the average the measurements are. In other words it's the average of the average.
A large standard deviation indicates that the data points are far from the average and a small standard deviation indicates that they are close within the average.
Power Factor is a measurement of how efficient a power supply is converting AC voltage to DC voltage. The perfect power supply has a Power Factor of 1.0. Using Passivce or Active PFC increases the Power Factor. In the European Union all power supplies >70W must have either Passive or Active PFC.
As additional safeguard, the PSU is constantly monitoring all output lines, as soon as measured current draw exceeds a certain maximum, it will turn off:
<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
<tr><th>Voltage</th><th>Limit</th></tr>
<tr><td>+3.3V</td><td>50A</td></tr>
<tr><td>+5V</td><td>48A</td></tr>
<tr><td>+12V</td><td>41A</td></tr>
</table>
What I noticed, is that even though the PSU is fanless, it emits some electric noise. During normal operation it is not noticable, but when you put your ear right on the PSU case, you can hear it.
Also when load is high, you can hear the sound coming out of your case. What is even more disturbing is that the tone constantly changes with the load, so you notice it much more, compared to a constant high pitched sound.
The lack of a backup cooling fan can be seen as good or bad.
It removes fan cost and adds more available space to the inside of the PSU. This allows the heatsinks to be bigger for more cooling performance.
On the other hand a fan might come in handy in some critical situation where overheating might happen.
However, we tried a few things to break the FSP ZEN but it always came out top.
Value and Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The FSP ZEN is selling for about $150 which is expensive but definitely worth it for a passive PSU.
</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Completely passive
Stable voltages
Beautiful blue paint
Two SATA connectors
Screw package included
Sleeved cabling
Wide input voltage range
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Electrical noise during operation
Only 300 W
No PCI-E power connectors
Cables could be longer
</td></tr>
<tr><th>8.0</th>
<td>I was surprised to see the Fortron Sparkle ZEN power our demanding test platform without any load problems. While the electrical noises were definitely annoying, they are only noticable on higher power systems. If you plan to use this PSU on a smaller machine you should be perfectly fine. Overall the ZEN is a good product and a good start into the silent PSU market for Fortron Sparkle.</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td></td></tr>
</table>