You've made sure it definitely has the revised connector with the version that is shipping, right? Since I assume that's why you're buying it?
FSP are a pretty old brand, been making PSUs since I remember being into PCs, so I don't think there's much risk on that end of things
I have to admit, I never take much time looking at that, even when I do specs in the buying advice forum, I never consider the case, the PSU and the cable length
If so, that PSU definitely should not have had Chinese caps! I know it is common that manufacturers do a bait and switch after reviews (they do this with SSDs a lot), but that's rarely when they state what the components are supposed to be on their website. Would be interested to know if this was a US retail model and which supplier it was from. I should imagine Corsair would have wanted to respond to the review too, since they're usually pretty active on social media.
Well, I'd take what fan profile their engineers have set over me, I'm just some Internet random.
But, if I were to comment, the main thing I'd be looking at is the exhaust temperature and from what I can gather, it never exceeded 50 degrees.
The lifetime of a 2000 hr @ 105c rated electrolytic capacitor (usually the most heat sensitive part) is 10 years @ 50 degrees and 20 years @ 40 degrees.
In the thermal imaging (without a cooling fan), they're relatively cool, I think, since they're located near the modular board, but there's one or two around components that are 60-70 degrees. The only problem is, this thermal imaging only has one load level, so I don't know what their regular temperature is likely to be.
At a typical idle load of around 50 watt, the waste heat of a gold rated PSU will be pretty low (a few watts) and there should be some passive airflow over the heatsinks in most cases, so it shouldn't trouble the PSU in the long-term.
At a load of 200 watt before the fan turns on, there's a potential for a lot more waste heat inside the PSU, though still spread over a fairly large area, with decent sized heatsinks. This is starting to be a level that could impact the long-term lifetime though, which is probably why the fan comes on.
A fan is usually a lot easier to replace than any other component and from the pictures, it is not soldered, so I think (if I was willing to replace it) I'd rather wear the fan out than the insides of the PSU.
If the PC spends most of the time (the 6-8 hours) idle (e.g. browsing the web), then it wouldn't concern me, but if you're managing to do several hours worth of gaming without the fan coming on, then I'd want to turn it on manually.
www.anandtech.com
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