by Oleg Artamonov
12/26/2005 | 06:09 AM
Hon Hai Precision Industry, a major contract manufacturer of electronics (EMSNow ranks it second after Flextronics), has also been actively promoting its produce – mainboards, coolers, system cases and power supplies – under the Foxconn brand. In this review you are going to see two Foxconn WinFast power supplies that are meant for retails sales apart of a system case; PC cases come with other models of Foxconn PSUs which will hopefully be covered in our upcoming reviews.
The other PSUs to be reviewed today come from Hiper Group that manufactures and sells retail products only. Hiper Group does not make system cases, except for some rather narrowly targeted MicroATX models for home multimedia centers. The company currently offers six inexpensive PSUs ranging from 350 to 525W (I’m going to test the junior, 350W unit) and two more expensive models with up to 580W wattage.
As I learned during my tests, these two models are absolutely identical in appearance and functionality as well as in circuit design, but they differ in the specified wattage and, accordingly, in the ratings of some of the components. I’m going to describe them both together.
These PSUs come in black cardboard boxes which are identical, save for the model name.
Their appearance is ordinary enough. The case is painted matte black and is cooled with one 120mm fan. The samples I actually tested could only work from a 220V AC source. You couldn’t switch them to any other input voltage.
WinFast FA-380A
WinFast FA-550A
The interior of the cases betrays their real manufacturer. It is Channel Well Technology whose products have already been to our labs under the Antec brand (see our article called Powerful Power Supply Units Roundup ). These PSUs from Foxconn are very much alike to Antec’s, having the same components and the same shape of the heatsinks with the characteristic large rectangular +12V load resistor on one of them. And they feature independent regulation of the output voltages, too, as indicated by the three coils on the unit’s output. Well, there are differences (for instance, the active PFC device resided on a separate card in the Antec PSU), but the similarity is still beyond doubt.
It’s funny, but even a part of the marking alludes to Antec. Antec sells its PSUs under the TruePower brand and the word True is also present on the label on the Foxconn PSUs. The WinFast FA-380A and FA-550A not only meet the requirements of the ATX12V 2.0 standard they are declared to comply with, but even permit a very serious load on the +5V rail. The maximum allowable current on this rail is 40A for the senior model, while the standard requires only 15A (for 450W PSUs – the current version of the standard doesn’t describe higher-wattage models).
By the way, you may have noticed that the combined allowable load on the two +12W outputs is lower than the total of the currents specified for each of them independently. As I wrote in my previous reports, this is because the PSU does not really have two independent +12V outputs. There is only one +12V circuit in it, but it is divided with current limiters into two physical outputs. There’s nothing wrong in the inconsistency between the total load and the sum of the separate currents – the manufacturer just provides a more flexible load distribution among the PSU’s power rails by setting up the mentioned current limiters like that. You must only make sure that the declared maximum combined load is not too low because some unscrupulous manufacturers have already “redesigned” their older power supplies with a relatively low-current +12V output into new ones by editing the label. Foxconn is blameless, though. Even the junior 380W unit can yield up to 28A which is above of what the standard recommends for units of such wattage.
The junior model (FA-380A) is equipped with the following cables:
The senior model differs in three points: 1) it has an 8-pin EPS12V connector instead of the ATX12V (they are backward-compatible – the ATX12V connector is exactly one half of the EPS12V, so you can easily plug it in if the neighboring mainboard components do not interfere), 2) it has one more cable with two SATA connectors and 3) a second graphics card cable with a 6-pin connector.
The Molex connectors on both units have the now-popular side lobes for easy extraction.
The FA-380A is cooled by a Top Motor DF1212BC fan, the FA-550A by a Top Motor DF1212BB-3 (with blue LED-based highlighting). The former fan was silent (I could only hear the noise of the air stream as it was passing through the case of the PSU), but the latter produced a quiet buzzing sound with its blades.
The cross-load diagram looks exactly how it must for a PSU with independent voltage regulation. The diagram’s border is determined by the maximum allowable load on the PSU rather than by some voltage going out of the allowable limits. On the other hand, the stability of the +3.3V might be better. As a side remark, PSUs with independent voltage regulation have no advantage over PSUs with group regulation as concerns the +3.3V output. In both types of PSUs there is a separate magnetic-amplifier regulator on that rail.
It’s not so well with the FA-550A. The +12V and +5V voltages remained stable as the load was being increased, but the +3.3V voltage sunk so heavily that the top and right borders of the graph go along the line where this voltage was below the lowest acceptable value. The graph doesn’t look very pretty as a result.
It doesn’t mean that the FA-380A is better than the FA-550A, though. These units have the same circuit design, but the FA-380A had a higher +3.3V voltage initially, i.e. under the minimal load, and reached the maximum output power before that voltage violated the recommended limits. Things may be different with two other samples of these PSUs – some other FA-380A may have a lower initial +3.3V voltage and its cross-load diagram will look exactly as the FA-550A’s. I hope that it was our sample of the FA-550A that was a deviation from the rule rather than otherwise, especially since the mentioned PSU from Antec, designed in generally the same way, had boasted good voltages stability.
The senior model didn’t quite pass the output voltage ripple test, either. At 360W load the voltage ripple was 38 and 60 millivolts on the FA-380A’s +5V and +12V rails (both within the required limits), but the ripple on the FA-550A’s +5V and +12V rails, at 530W load, was 65 and 80 millivolts, respectively, the allowable maximums being 50 and 120 millivolts. The pulsations are half low-frequency (at the double AC frequency or 100Hz in our case) and half high-frequency ones (from the power supply’s inverter).
The fan speed is quite efficiently controlled in these PSUs. It linearly depends on the load and the max speed is almost two times the minimal one. The PSU is not quiet under high loads – the 12cm fan becomes audible at 1500rpm and higher. Moreover, as I said above, the fan’s blades emitted a quiet buzzing sound on the senior PSU model.
The efficiency of these PSUs is average by today’s standards. It is a little over 80%, but only at high loads. The power factor is 98% and more at 150W and higher loads thanks to active PFC.
So the Foxconn WinFast FA-380A and FA-550A power supplies are not definitely good or bad. On one hand, they are neatly assembled, have all the necessary connectors and long enough cables, and are potentially very stable due to the independent voltage regulation. Unfortunately, the potential is not fully revealed in practice. The +3.3V regulator was not very stable in the junior 380W model, but without any consequences. In the 550W unit, however, it was the reason for a very poor cross-load characteristic. The output power of the FA-550A is in fact limited to 350-400W because if the load on the PSU is higher, the +3.3V voltage goes down below acceptable level. The senior model’s output voltage ripple isn’t very good, too. It is higher than normal on the +5V rail and the strong 100Hz ripple betrays poor design or assembly of the high-voltage section.
Every feature of this product speaks out its belonging to the low price range – the plain gray case, the thick punched grid of the fan, the short cables. However, the manufacturer declares a high enough wattage of 350W (330W without the negative polarity sources and the standby source).
The interior doesn’t bring any surprises. This is just a typical inexpensive PSU. The regulator is based on the TL494CN; the capacitors of the high-voltage rectifier on the PSU’s input are 680µF each; the line filter and the rest of the components are all present here. Two things are disturbing, though. I mean the very thin heatsinks which are, however, excusable in a cheap PSU (if it normally holds the load, that is) and the overall sloppiness of assembly – the components that rise above the PCB (capacitors and coils and others) stick out irregularly to all sides, leaning at different angles.
The PSU is equipped with a passive PFC device. You can’t see it in the snapshot above as it is attached to the removed cover of the case, but you do see the thick wires that go to it. Note also the heatsink-attached card that controls the fan speed.
The cables are few:
Moreover, all the cables have a 20AWG section which is too thin for a 350W PSU. The 18AWG section is more common, especially since there’s a high enough specified current on the +12V rail (but there is a 16A F16C20 diode pack installed in the +12V rail).
The specification of this PSU falls a little short of the ATX12V 2.0 standard. The maximum load on the +12V rail is just 4W smaller than is required from the typical 300W ATX12V 2.0-compliant power supply, and the mainboard’s connector is 20-pin, too. The allowable load on the +5V and +3.3V rails is, on the contrary, closer to the earlier versions of the standard in which it was higher. Thus, the Hiper HPU-3S350 appears to be a kind of transitional product.
The cross-load characteristic of this PSU looks bad. None of the three output voltages is really stable. The +12V, so very important for modern computer systems, easily goes the whole way from the minimum to the maximum, depending on the +5V load, and the +5V voltage itself is in fact too high initially.
Constructing the cross-load diagram is the first item in our test program. It is then followed by checking the stability of the power supply under load and measuring the speed of the fan(s). Unlike building the cross-load diagram which takes only 15-20 minutes, such tests require the power supply to work for quite long at various loads, including the highest. The whole test session may take as long as a few hours of constant operation.
And that’s where I was really seriously disappointed. The PSU quickly passed the cross-load test at all allowable loads, but refused to sustain a load of 300W and higher for more than 3-4 minutes – the protection circuit would intervene. My attempts to squeeze this output power by varying the distribution of the loads on the different rails failed and… what’s this smell? My patience ran out sooner than the combustible materials in the PSU, so it was still alive when I shut it down – if you could call that “alive”. More exactly, I just didn’t turn it on again when it had automatically shut down at the fool load. The subsequent autopsy showed that a part of the plastic pipe that covered one of the output LC filter’s coils had burnt out.
By the way, I didn’t deflect the coil by 30 degrees from the normal to take a better snapshot – the coil was originally soldered awry!
Moreover, at a load of about 260-270W the power supply’s PFC coil emitted a low-frequency hum which was very irritating in combination with the buzz of the loose cover.
So I can only state that the maximum load power this power supply can be stable at is not higher than 250W, and it is absolutely impossible to make the HPU-3S350 stable at 300W.
The voltage ripple was as high as 46 millivolts on the +5V rail and 117 millivolts on the +12V rail and most of it is due to strong 100Hz pulsations (as shown in the second, 4msec/div oscillogram).
The efficiency of the PSU is not high, never reaching 80%, while the power factor is quite typical for a model with passive PFC.
The fan speed is linearly and quite effectively adjusted depending on the temperature of the PSU (I couldn’t measure the speed at the maximum output power due to the reasons explained above). Of course, the HPU-3S350 is not quiet. Its fan is easily audible at 200W load, but quiet operation cannot be demanded from a PSU of this category.
So, the Hiper HPU-3S350 is a very poor power supply with overtly overstated characteristics. There is no talk about 350 watts – the PSU can’t normally work under loads above 250W. Moreover, there’s a strong low-frequency voltage ripple and a poor cross-load characteristic; the thing is even assembled shoddily. You can get much better products for the price of a HPU-3S350 which is over $30.
Hiper’s Type R series is positioned as high-wattage and high-quality power supplies for PC enthusiasts or just owners of advanced computer systems. The 480W model is the lowest-wattage PSU in the family.
The PSU’s case is quite originally designed – not only its back panel, but the top and side panels too are perforated. The technical point of this solution evades me, however. The additional perforation is less of an obstruction to the air stream if the power supply just lies on the desk, but in the system case some of the hot air will get back into the computer through the PSU’s side panels, with a negative effect on the cooling. Save from that, the design of this power supply is ordinary. It is cooled with a 12cm fan, is equipped with non-detachable cables, and lacks any manual controls or status indicators.
The internal design is a typical circuit with an active PFC device (it is installed on a separate card fastened on the heatsinks; the card is holed so it is not an obstacle to the airflow) and without independent voltage regulation (such PSUs have three coils on their output, while this model has only two).
The PSU is assembled neatly, not like the HPU-3S350. The components stand upright, and everything is well fitted together. Alas, I can’t but complain at the quality of soldering which varies from normal industrial soldering to very shoddy manual soldering like on the PFC card:
It is rather surprising to see this, considering the overall neat appearance of the PSU.
The specified parameters are a lucky combination of versions 1.2 and 2.0 of the ATX12V standard. On one hand, the max current on the +12V rail may be as high as 29A (as demanded from the typical 400W ATX12V 2.0 unit), but on the other hand, the combined load on the +5V and +3.3V rails may be as high as 240W which corresponds to the capabilities of ATX12V 1.2 units (I want to remind you once again that the max load on these rails was greatly reduced in the newer version of the standard; it is not required to exceed 130W for a 400W unit).
The PSU offers you these cables:
The PSU is cooled by a 12cm DFS122512L fan from Young Lin Tech Co., Ltd. When the PSU is shut down, the fan still works for some time at a low speed, feeding from the standby +5V source.
The stability of the output voltages is acceptable, with two drawbacks – the +5V voltage is originally set too high and the +3.3V voltage lacks stability.
Under a load of 450W the output voltage ripple amounted to 34 millivolts on the +5V rail and to 37 millivolts on the +12V. Both are within the acceptable limits.
The fan is not very fast, speeding up to only 1400rpm even at the max load. As I said above, the fan continues to work for some time at a low speed and cools the PSU after the unit has been shut down.
The efficiency parameters of this PSU are typical: an efficiency factor of about 80% (this is more than the industry standard demands, but less than many other PSUs can offer) and a power factor of almost 1.
The Hiper Type R 480W has the characteristics of a good power supply and is quite competitive against rivaling products from other manufacturers. My only concern is about the soldering quality – it is downright poor where some elements were soldered to manually.
While the Type R 480W came to our test lab in an ordinary cardboard box, the packaging of the Type R 580W is probably the most original I ever saw. The PSU sells in a plastic container that has a handle and a locked lid. It looks like some tool box, especially as you will find a plastic tray with compartments for the PSU’s cables inside – various fasteners would lie there in a tool box. After you’ve taken out the tray, you gain access to the power supply proper.
The front view resembles the previous model, except that there is now an additional 80mm fan. The case is all perforated as well. The top and side panels are virtually “transparent” for the air stream, but I don’t quite grasp the technical point of this solution.
Here’s the main difference. The Type R 480W has standard non-detachable cables, but the 580W model has a non-detachable mainboard cable and six connectors (cables are connected to two of them in the snapshot above). These cylindrical connectors in metallic cases differ from the plastic connectors (like on other PC components) the manufacturers of such PSUs usually employ. The cables are fixed on the thread (the metal cap on the cable is put on the connector’s case) for both high reliability of the connection and easy unplugging.
The only design flaw, quite widespread among PSU manufacturers, is the use of male-type connectors which are always alive. Any metallic thing falling on them will result in a short circuit. It is usually recommended to use female connectors in such circuits or male connectors with separated pins so that two contacts could not be closed.
The connectors for different devices (for hard drive, processor, graphics card) have a different number of pins, so you can’t confuse them.
The internal design is fully analogous to the above-described 480W model (the active PFC card is taken out in this snapshot). The case is just a little larger to accommodate the output connectors.
The characteristics do not differ much from those of the junior model – the load capacity of the +12V rail, the crucial power channel for modern computer systems, is only 10W higher. So I can even say that there is no much practical use from the extra 100W of the PSU’s total power because the opportunity to put a higher load on the +5V and +3.3V rails doesn’t matter much in practice. I would also remind you once again that you should judge the +12V load capacity of an ATX12V 2.0 power supply by the combined load rather than by the currents on each of the +12V outputs since these currents are kind of virtual ones (they are artificially limited, so the manufacturer can specify 18A for each of them right away). In this case, it seems the current has got considerably higher (38A against 34A), but the wattage indicates that the allowable current has been increased by 1 ampere only.
The power supply is equipped with a 43cm mainboard cable with a 24-pin connector (a 4-pin part can be detached if necessary). The remaining, detachable cables include the following:
You’ll also find the following items included with the PSU:
Double connectors are put on all the adapters and extension cables where they are attached to the cables going from the PSU. They resemble the connectors that used to be widely employed with system fans at those times when they were usually connected directly to the PSU rather than to the mainboard.
So, you can connect the 15cm extension cable to the HDD power cable (with its own single Molex connector) to transform it into a cable with two Molex connectors. This offers the user much configuration flexibility. You can use only such cables as are necessary for your particular computer. The downside is that too many connectors reduce the overall reliability of the circuit, so I don’t recommend you to use the adapters and extensions without real need.
The cross-load characteristic resembles the previous model. It seems that the too-high +5V voltage is not an accident, but a family trait of the whole PSU series. The low stability of the +3.3V can be noted here, too.
At 550W load the high-frequency ripple on the PSU’s output was 45 millivolts on the +5V rail and 55 millivolts on the +12V rail, the allowable maximums being 50 and 120mV, respectively.
The speed of the 120mm fan is lower than the speed of the junior model’s fan, but now it is aided by an additional 80mm fan which works at a considerably higher speed (well, its speed remains acceptable even at the max load). When the PSU is shut down, the smaller fan still works for a while at the min speed. Both fans are highlighted in blue.
I should tell you that at loads higher than 300W the low noise of the fans was accompanied with a noticeable buzz of one of the coils inside.
The efficiency of this model is a little better and the power factor a little worse than those of the 480W model. The difference is negligible, though, amounting to about 1%.
So the 580W model differs from the 480W one mostly in having the detachable cables and the pretty plastic container. The circuit design and most parameters of these units are identical, while the difference in the max output power is not going to play any big role for a modern computer as it falls mostly on the less loaded +5V and +3.3V rails. So if you don’t need the detachable cables, there’s no sense in seeking after the senior model.
Five power supplies from Foxconn and Hiper Group have marched before you in this review. I was generally pleased with them. They are not exceptional products, but are not inferior to the available PSUs in their market sectors, either.
The only exception is the Hiper HPU-3S350. This allegedly 350W model cannot actually hold a load of above 250W and is shoddily manufactured. I am really astonished to see such a PSU coming from a company that positions itself as a manufacturer of expensive and high-quality PSUs. The HPU-3S350 is made with no higher quality than the numerous low-end models, including no-name ones, but it costs much more! So I just can’t honestly recommend it to you. You are free to choose a better model for the same money.
The other two models from Hiper belong to the more expensive Type R series and are not at all disappointing. These high-quality products fully comply with their specifications and are capable of yielding the specified full power. As for the drawbacks, the +5V voltage is set too high (this is not an accident as it was at about the same level in both PSUs) and there are some problems with the soldering quality (I do hope Hiper’s quality control is all right and does not let such problems pass too often). The choice between the senior and junior model should be based on their comparative functionality (the senior’s detachable cables, in particular), but not on the difference in their max output power which is going to be negligible in practice.
The power supplies from Foxconn aren’t very beautiful or original on the outside, but they feature independent voltage regulation to ensure a nearly ideal stability of the +5V and +12V voltages. Alas, the +3.3V voltage let down both models, especially the senior one, as it is unstable and spoils the cross-load diagram. Moreover, the output voltages ripple of the senior model is stronger than allowed at high loads.