Let us have your comments on the Fortron-Source FSP530-60GNA review.

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I'm sure the "no" was from a die-hard FSP user that hated to see my test PSU blow up.

It would've been nice if they posted a comment too.

Hey! I use FSP every day! NO PROBLEMS EVER! Most AOpen cases come with them and they're a great price point.

It broke my heart to see one blow up too!

I just happened to get a bad unit. Do you want me to blow one up and NOT say that it blew up? At least I didn't allow the fact that it blew up to tarnish it's rating.

I will say for all I know my other FSP's never blew up because I never put a 30A load on the 12V or maybe I was lucky. Who knows until I get another FSP to test.

I will grade on a curve if I have to because I know, even though I blew up an FSP and Thermaltake and an A.C. Ryan, that the actual failure rate on these power supplies is less than 3%. If they blew up like this all of the time, the failure rate would be much higher!

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

I registered so I could post a comment or two, though I'm not the one who voted no. Actually, the review methodology looks pretty good to me. Would like to see ripple testing too, but those toys you have now probably cost a pretty penny already

Just wanted to point out that this model has a minimum load spec of 2A for the 5v rail. Was wondering if you met that spec when doing the no load test. I have one of these units, and it's actually normal to see oddball readings on the 5v and 12v with no load.

That said, this is probably the most failure prone unit from Fortron. I frequent quite a few message boards, and these do pop once in a while. Not that I'm about to give mine up, they still have a lower failure rate than many other manufacturers' units out there.

There is a design flaw with them related to cooling, however... a couple months back I pulled mine totally apart to try and figure out why this was the most failure prone FSP unit, and what I found was that the intake fan presses up right against the secondary side heatsink, with only a sliver of an opening to get air to the secondary side components. This often causes the unit to run hotter than it could, as there is a huge heat producing inductor tucked back in there that gets little airflow. I fixed the situation with mine by moving that fan to the other side of the back panel - now there is plenty of air getting back in there, and the PSU runs noticeably cooler. Just thought I would mention that if people who have one of these want these running cooler and quieter

Oklahoma Wolf!!! OMG! Is that you?!?!! (assuming that you're the same OK Wolf I think you are.)

Absolutely. I load ALL of the power supplies with AT LEAST a 2A load on the 5VSB and .5 on the -5V and -12V.

Like I said in the review... >>I<< have faith in FSP. This model I had no experience with, but it was presented to me a while back and I eventually dug it up to use with the tester. I know they have a newer model that is more 12V heavy. I can't wait to see what it can do.

As for ripple: I know what you mean, but I do notice that when ripple is bad, the SM-268 does respond by bouncing the wattage readings. When you see my OCZ PowerStream sort-of-review tomorrow, you'll see what I mean. Although it had voltages within spec, it had bad enough "ripple" (as per experience with SunMoon device) during tests were the 5V were high that I actually thought that I may have had a bad PSU. You'll see.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

- don't tell me I'm that infamous already

Note I mentioned the 2A minimum is for the actual 5v rail, not the 5vsb. I too would love to see the AX500-A reviewed - it shouldn't have any problems with test 3 at all, where you might have actually had the 530w overloaded had it made it that far (the peak rating is 28A @ 12v with a really light 5v).

Odd that the 530w popped on test one... unless the 5v was outside Fortron's max spec for allowing overcurrent on the 12v, it shouldn't have died. At the worst, the unit should have called up its oversensitive protection circuitry

Looking forward to seeing the Powerstream tested.

Years ago I had correspondence with a guy called Oklahoma Wolf. Can't remember if it was here, TheTechBoard or Anandtech or even this place that was once called "Hippy's Pub."

Actually, it seems you mayhave missed Page 3 of the "Testing and Methodology." 5V was NEVER below 10A, actually. I thought you were talking about 5VSB because I don't believe I specified.

I too am surprised the FSP popped during test one. That's why I graded it on a curve. Unfortunately, my emails to FSP have gone unanswered (as have my emails to ThermalTake and PCP&C. They all have one thing in common: Don't address issues caused by running a PSU under the loads specified on the label. I can only hope OCZ is different.)

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

Hmmm... I don't really see anything in the no load test about the 5v having a 10A load on it. That 2A load being absent would to me explain the odd readings in the no load test for this unit. Like I mentioned though, I'm used to these readings and reassuring people the unit's not defective just because the unit produced odd readings without a load

The forums I frequent are OCForums (a lot), ExtremeOC (sometimes), HardOCP (often), nForcersHQ (sometimes), and PC Perspective (off and on). I've never heard of Hippy's Pub, though I might have had an account over at Anand's at one time (don't think I ever posted there).

Oh... No load. Well... The no-load is neither here nor there. I just did the no-load test primarily to test power factor and efficiency when the PC is in stand-by. ALL of the power supplies were sort of wacky during the no-load. The voltage readings should be taken with a grain of salt.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

Again... For the speed reading people....

The methodology links on the top of page one of each review ARE NOT the same pages that you will find in the review itself.

In other words, the "Testing Overview," "Wattage," "Parameters," "Methodology" links at the top of the FSP page ARE NOT the same four links that comprise "Introduction," "What's Inside," "Specifications" and "Results."

There are EIGHT PAGES you should read before you send me an email taht says, "WHAT IS TEST ONE?!?" "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY HOW MANY AMPS YOU PUT ON THE 12V RAIL?!?" "WHAT IS YOUR METHODOLOGY?!?!"

On page one of each review it says: "This review is one of a series of PSU reviews, if you have not read any of the others you can read all about the test set up and methodology below."

That's not telling you that you have to read the other reviews.... Just that you should read the methodology FIRST.

I don't mind criticism what-so-ever, but when you barrage me with emails like those I've mentioned, the only thing you're proving is that a pretty large chunk of our reader base CAN'T READ.

Thank you.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)