Sparkle Power Supplies

[bgavin]

Re: Sparkle Power Supplies

I ordered two FSP350-60PN for stock, and will recap them when the arrive.

I was reading on the PC Power and Cooling site where they downplay using 120mm fans. They favor an 80mm fan at the rear of the PSU instead. The large fan is one of the things I like about this model Sparkle supply. Replacing it with a Panaflo during the recapping procedure should make this PSU pretty much bullet proof for the long haul.

[999999999]

Re: Sparkle Power Supplies

PC Power & Cooling has a good point, in that adding a 120mm fan usurps a lot of the space available in a PS2 form factor PSU, will limit the design on a higher wattage model. 350W isn't as bad though, doesn't need components as large to support it's wattage.

The sleeve bearing 120mm fans Sparkle used were pretty much junk and ought to be replaced or relubed at regular intervals for long term use but some 120mm now are dual ball bearing, there really isn't a need to replace those unless your hearing is particularly sensitive to the high pitched noise of ball bearing fans in general, though that noise is only slight on the lower RPM of the 120mm fans.

[gdement]

Re: Sparkle Power Supplies

My sister's computer has a Sparkle 300W ordered from newegg a couple years ago, but I don't know the exact model number. About maybe 9 months ago they told me their computer was sounding an overheating alarm. I was surprised, because it's a rather cool running P3 chip. Turned out the PSU fan had died. The whole PSU and adjacent parts of the case were burning hot. I opened it up and all the caps were still good, it just needed a new fan and it's been running fine since then. I was impressed with those caps holding up like that.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, my brother had an Athena brand microATX PSU for about 2 months before it's fan siezed and it killed itself. Turned out to have 85C caps inside, what a joke.