Hi all,

I'm looking at building a low end NAS, and I'm considering the FSP Aurum Gold 400 as a PSU. It's compact (important for the case I'm aiming for), seems to have decent efficiency, and would cost me about half of what a Seasonic X400 or X560 would.. The only thing I'm concerned about is the noise level - the info I've found on the web is not encouraging. Was wondering if any existing owners could share their experiences.

Worst case I was thinking I could swap the fan for a Noctua, but again I was hoping to get some feedback on whether that would be effective.

Hi,
Though been reading articles from this site for many years, it's my first post in forum.
Hope it will be usefull.
I recently bought FSP Aurum Gold 400 , it's half the price of Sesonic x400.
Pro's:
1 Super efficient at low loads, as comparison my former PSU 300W 80Plus draw 35.6W AC ( 220 V 50Hz)at idle for the following hardware PC E5400 2 x2GB SSD Asrock G41 and 2 *80x80 fans Nexus the PSU included ( switched the PSU original one for Nexus).
I do not use any kind of gate power save in CPU ( eg Speed step , etc), just minimum Vcore stable Voltage at its max speed
With FSP Aurum I recorded 32W at idle for the same PC only 5 min after.
With Winmate 130 W DC-DC Silent Efficient PC PicoPSU and Gateway 150 W brick I recorded 36.3 W at idle
No problem whatsoever with minimum power for the PSU to boot or to function flawless
2 The included fan was very good , it did not make clicking noise , just the smooth rush of air . I suspect it has some sort of fluid type of bearings.

Bad ( Con's)
1 As soon as I switched the pc on , the PSU buzzed loudly ( one can clearly hear from 50 cm the 50 hz buzz made from some transformer), and on top of that a slight whining of some coil. It did not rise with the load , but at less than 50 cm it is irritating.
2 The fan speed rose quicly , even when the load was the same ( idle ) , and will increase at a hearing level as soon as you lightly increase load ( scroll web pages )
I returned it the next day at the vendor, even it was very efficient , I cannot stand the buzziing and whine noise made

Thanks. Seems to be little info about it on the web. Maybe because it is a low power unit and 650+ W seem to be popular among enthusiasts...

Trouble is I'm looking for a PSU for a Lian-Li PC-Q25. From what I've read, a 160 mm long modular PSU won't fit in there. Also, seems PSUs are either non-modular and 140 mm long, or modular and 160 mm long, so I'm limited to the former category. Among those, there seems to be very little choice.

Locally, I can't even find the Corsair CX series, so I haven't been able to consider those.

I could do a fan swap to deal with fan noise, but is it also possible to do anything about the buzzing?

One of the websites i do trust on PSU tests is hardwaresecrets, and they reviewed same series but the higher, but hard to say if it would be similar, FSP Group AURUM GOLD 700W (AU-700) ATX12V/EPS 12V SLI Certified CrossFire ready 80PLUS GOLD Certified Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply, here is the review, link. FSP in the past has been totally slaughter by reviews, but this new line seems decent, shame there is no more reviews of their PSUs, seems like a viable option.
Since you are set on the Q25, checking newegg reviews of the LIAN LI PC-Q25B Black / Silver Aluminum Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case, you can search inside, one uses the SILVERSTONE Strider Plus ST50F-P 500W ATX 12V v2.3 & EPS 12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply, dimensions 5.91" x 3.39" x 5.51" = 140mm (most this days are 6.3'' = 160mm like the Seasonic X series, Corsair AX/HX Series, Kingwin, etc), and its fully modular but not sure how it will be in terms of noise (fan and coil). Here is a review from it, HardwareSecretes Review Silverstone Strider Plus 500W Power Supply, in the review you can even see the fan it uses, Yate loon D12BH-12, you could try a fan swap if its too noisy. There is even a Silverstone Short Cable Set For Silverstone Strider Series Modular PSU Model PP05 that might make your life easier on building with the Q25, because of the limited space, but crosscheck it works with it before buying.

Few reviews seem to say anything about fan speeds, or detail the fan profile. Fortunately, Silverstone publish this information for the Strider Plus ST50F and this shows that the minimum fan speed is around 900 rpm. This is held until to about 50% load, and then it rises to a maximum of around 1600 rpm. So if you bought this PSU expecting it to be quiet, you would probably be disappointed.

A 140mm PSU which is modular is the Enermax Modu82+ II series, available in 425w, 525w and 625w. These PSUs are very quiet, the fan profile holds the fan speed down to around 450 rpm until about 50% load.

I have been using two FSP Aurum 400w for 6 months now and all I can say is that the efficiencies below 40w are amazing. Noise issue is also not an issue even if my desktop is 2 feet away from me.

Here is a detailed review of the FSP Aurum 400w but it is in German. I don't speak German myself but the chart at the bottom is pretty much self explanatory (81.9% efficiency at 5% load).

http://www.pc-experience.de/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=31516

I think I should probably have added in more information about my plans - I was looking at a PC-Q25 chassis to house a low end NAS for home use. So something efficient would be nice to have, but I think quietness is a bit more important as I can be quite sensitive to noise. Also, the idea is for this box to be as inconspicuous as possible (hence the small case).

For reference, my desktop for the past five years has been an Antec solo with a Corsair VX450. Unfortunately I don't think the VX450 is sold anymore, or I'd probably get another one. This box is real silent. Right now it's on the table next to me, max 2 feet away, and I can't hear it at all. Sometimes I can hear the faint sound of air blowing though it (more like I can tell when it's on or off, if the room is silent enough), but nothing that I could call fan noise.


Thanks, that forum is useful. They've reviews quite a few other PSUs, so it's a good comparative reference. For your own Aurums, can you hear any coil buzz at all? Does the sound change with loading? Fan noise I can deal with, as I'd probably just do a fan swap, maybe with an in line resistor, depending on the fan and the ramp profile.

I'll have to look around to see if those are available locally. Problem with the PC market in my country is a relatively narrow range of choice, and the market is tilted towards high wattage units. Not much choice below 550 W.

I don't hear any coil buzz from my Aurums. My system doesn't exceed 180 watts when fully loaded so I haven't had a chance to study the fan behavior. Even at 180w I only hear a very faint movement of air.

[quote="erikerik"I don't hear any coil buzz from my Aurums. My system doesn't exceed 180 watts when fully loaded so I haven't had a chance to study the fan behavior. Even at 180w I only hear a very faint movement of air.[/quote]

Thanks again. I figure my system will also run at low power, 65 W TDP CPU which shouldn't be loaded much, no discrete graphics, and at most 6 hard drives. Would you know if your local mains is 50 or 60 Hz? (Just wondering if that has any effect on buzzing.)

Our powerline is 60Hz.

Not sure if this is relevant but when I used a Corsair HX620 before, the PSU would emit electrical noise when using battery on a non-sinewave UPS.

I've had an Aurum 400w for a while -- perhaps 6 months or so -- and have not noticed any noise from it at all. Definitely no audible coil whine or buzzing, as that would drive me nuts. My build does have very modest power requirements, so it's possible a more taxing load would produce disturbing noise.

BTW, from what I've read, Antec's new platinum units (which start at 450w) are made by FSP.

If the Aurum is anything like the Everest I'd stay the hell away. Efficient or not.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na ... 4&reid=120

The Aurum is not anything like the Everest. But at least some of the Listan (Be Quiet brand) E9 range are based on the FSP Aurum Gold platform including the 680w model, see http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=269.

Neat, looks like FSP got their act together. I know they were reaching the high end of the middle class PSUs but this is pretty nice. Prices are pretty good too.

Interesting read. Thanks.

The Antec Earthwatts Platinum is also interesting, though with a low power machine I doubt the efficiency gain will make that much of a difference. Also, it's not readily available yet.

I recently bought the FSP Arnum Gold 400W from Newegg. It is very quiet, on par with the Seasonics/Corsairs I've used in the past.

Gigabyte H55M-2SH
Core i3-550 @ 3.2GHz @ 1.216v
8GB Gskill Sniper @1.5V
500GB Black WD 2.5" drive
Win8 beta on the desktop - power saving mode

Ultra 400W PSU came with old Microfly case - 44W idle (with Gigabyte "power saver" 42-43W)
older Seasonic 330W 80+ (no "color" rating) - 38W
Seasonic 300W Bronze - 32W idle
FSP 400W Gold -30W idle
Switched CPU to 1.15V and RAM to 1.4V = no difference

Measured with Killawatt

Gripes about the FSP Gold PSU
1) 4 pin not clipped to the 20pin power connector
2) there are two siamesed 4 pin connectors, I only needed one, the other is in the way