X-bit labs

In Win Power Supply Units Roundup (page 7)

Category: Other

by Oleg Artamonov

[ 07/13/2005 | 10:51 AM ]

Conclusion

As I said above, In-Win system cases had used to come with power supplies from FSP Group. So when In-Win began to produce their own power supplies, a natural reaction from many users was to compare them with FSP Group’s alternatives.

Unfortunately, In-Win loses this comparison: FSP Group offers a much wider range of models (for example, In-Win doesn’t offer ATX12V 2.0 models as yet, while FSP Group’s THN series performed very well in my tests, for details see our article called FSP Group Power Supply Units Roundup ), and these models also have better characteristics. The disadvantages of In-Win’s units are the rather high voltage ripple that grows up at higher loads, the step-like control over the fan speed and the short cables in all models except the senior one. By the way, In-Win doesn’t offer high-wattage units, either. The senior model is only rated for 350 watts.

Well, the marking of the output power is quite another story. It seems In-Win decided to follow the example of obscure Chinese manufacturers who like to call their power supply something like “ATX-500W” and add “Max output power: 300W” in small print. The output power of all the five units tested in this review is a step below the number that stands in their model names and is declared on the manufacturer’s website.

Moreover, some labels have an additional marking. For example, we have “ATX12V300WP4” which seems to mean “an ATX12V power supply with an output power of 300 watts and compliant with the power requirements to Intel Pentium 4 platforms”. But there’s another marking nearby: “+3.3V & +5V & +12V = 235W (Max)”, which means that the PSU is rated for 250 watts (the remaining 15 watts is the sum of the negative voltages and the standby source), but not for 300 watts! I should acknowledge I launched an IW-P430J2-0 at a 430W load and the power supply lasted through half an hour of operation, but its heatsinks grew so hot that I didn’t risk to continue.

Yet, on the other hand, if you compare In-Win’s units with products from less renowned manufacturers than FSP Group, they will look much better, with their very neat assembly and good parameters. I mean that if you are choosing between power supplies from In-Win and FSP Group, you should prefer FSP, but if the alternative is from some obscure firm, then you may want to prefer In-Win. They are especially suitable for low-power and mid-power computer systems.

Appendix

You can download the cross-load characteristics of the tested power supplies here and view them with this program .