This PSU is manufactured by Enhance, and it's supposed to be a very solid and stable unit. We asked Akasa to send us some review samples, and the first model we received is the 500W Green Power. Today, the Taiwanese company has a subsidiary in England that's responsible for the European market. Like Arctic Cooling, Akasa was famous for its coolers at the beginning of this millennium, but they lost business over time to increased competition. We had quite a few requests from readers in the past asking us to look at some Akasa power supplies. Will save comparisons until the end where we can provide a high-level overview. Gallery: Arctic Cooling Fusion – InternalsĪ detailed analysis of the voltage regulation and quality at the end of the article.Įach power supply will have detailed results on the performance page, but we Ostor might be one of the cheaper capacitor options, but we didn't encounter any problems with these components. A Nippon Chemi-Con capacitor fills the primary role, with Ostor capacitors in the secondary. A heatsink on the side won't get much airflow, but since there aren't many components attached to that heatsink it shouldn't be a problem. A plastic shroud is also present to help channel airflow into the optimal locations, further helping control heat. Right in front of the fan is a large heatsink that will get plenty of airflow for cooling. When we open the casing, we find a standard Seasonic layout. Gallery: Arctic Cooling Fusion – Exterior Arctic Cooling does however have a multiple input version now that comes with the real certification.
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We will see later that the Fusion 550 does manage to achieve 80% or higher efficiency, but since this power supply did only come with 230VAC it was not able to be certified by the 80 Plus programme. This sticker has nothing to do with the 80 Plus certification from, despite some striking similarities. In a case of interesting marketing, don't be fooled by the Eco 80 emblem on the top of the power supply. This fan will funnel air into the PSU, and possibly do so with less acoustic noise than the competition. Arctic Cooling mounts one of these fans on the front of the PSU, with the fan actually located outside of the casing. The difference is that Arctic Cooling uses their own fans, which are supposed to be nearly silent while still providing good performance. The Fusion 550 is the first power supply from Arctic Cooling, and given their previous use of Seasonic power supplies in their cases, it should come as no surprise that the Fusion is manufactured by Seasonic. That leads into today's review, with Arctic Cooling now selling power supplies under their own brand - a potentially lucrative proposition, provided you have a product that can stand out from the competition. Eventually, Arctic Cooling started selling cases with power supplies made by Seasonic. With prices of around $20-$25 and very good performance, they sold a ton of these coolers. More likely is that you have to balance all five areas, but we will see which models rise to the top in this roundup.Īrctic Cooling is famous for their CPU coolers, which were very popular in the late 90s and early 2000s. If two units have similar voltage regulation and efficiency but one unit is quieter, cheaper, or has better thermals then you can safely choose that option. Comparing units from different manufacturers can be a lot easier, as a basic component quality will be similar. They try to make a “unique” design, but the goal is to do this with as little effort as possible.Īll of the similarities do have some positives. Before, everyone at least tried to be different, but now the primary differences are in the fans, case color, and/or cable lengths. Unfortunately, that makes it hard to find real innovations from the various PSU brands. These days, one manufacturer brings out a new top-notch design, and brands from all over the world jump on the bandwagon. Last year we saw a lot of power supplies manufactured by Channel Well Technologies (CWT), but they don’t tend to compete in the lower wattage market segments. We have four units manufactured by Enhance, four more from Seasonic, two by Sirtec, one Enermax, and one Topower. Honestly, this roundup is more of a two-way shootout, with a few extras thrown in for spice. This particular sector is where we really start to see higher quality designs and better technologies, in part because these tend to be more expensive PSUs. Today, we have 12 more power supplies on our test bench, this time targeting a slightly higher range of 500W to 550W. These are great for entry-level or even midrange systems, with optimal efficiency typically falling in the 100W to 200W range. Last month, we reviewed 20 power supplies ranging from 300W to 450W.