Amacrox Free Earth 85PLUS 650 W Power Supply Review

Posted By Gabriel Torres on Mar 29, 2010 in Power

Introduction

We’ve already reviewed a  power supply from the newcomer Amacrox (Free Style 85PLUS 650 W), which proved to be a product with an outstanding cost/benefit ratio. Let’s see if their Free Earth 85PLUS 650 W model is also a good buy.

As you can infer from the product name, this unit promises efficiency of at least 85%, being 80 Plus Bronze certified. Like the other model we reviewed, Free Earth 85 PLUS is manufactured by FSP.

Figure 1: Amacrox Free Earth 85PLUS 650 W power supply.

Figure 2: Amacrox Free Earth 85PLUS 650 W power supply.

Amacrox Free Earth 85PLUS 650 W is a short 5 ½” (140 mm) deep unit, having a 120 mm fan on its bottom , active PFC but no modular cabling system. Models from Free Style 85PLUS series have this feature, and this is the main difference between models from Free Style 85PLUS and Free Earth series (of course since we reviewed the 650 W model from Free Style 85PLUS series, we will see if there is any other internal difference).

All cables have nylon sleevings that come from inside the unit. All wires are 18 AWG, which is the recommended gauge to be use. The cables included on Free Earth 85PLUS 650 W are:

• Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector, 16 ½” or 42 cm long.
• One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form an EPS12V connector, 15 ¾” or 40 cm long.
• One cable with one six-pin power connector for video cards, 16 1/8” or 41 cm long.
• One cable with one six/eight-pin power connector for video cards, 16 1/8” or 41 cm long.
• One cable with three SATA power connectors, 15 ¾” or 40 cm to the first connector, 4 ¾” or 12 cm between connectors.
• One cable with two SATA power connectors, 15 ¾” or 40 cm to the first connector, 4 ¾” or 12 cm between connectors.
• One cable with three standard peripheral power connectors, 16 1/8” or 41 cm to the first connector, 4” or 10 cm between connectors.
• One cable with three standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector, 16 1/8” or 41 cm to the first connector, 4” or 10 cm between connectors.

The number of cables may be adequate for a 650 W product, but we wish it had more SATA power connectors “just in case.” We also would like to see a greater distance between connectors on cables that carry more than one connector.

Figure 3: Cables.

Now let’s take an in-depth look inside this power supply.

• Contents
• 1. Introduction
• 2. A Look Inside The Free Earth 85PLUS 650 W
• 3. Transient Filtering Stage
• 4. Primary Analysis
• 5. Secondary Analysis
• 6. Power Distribution
• 7. Load Tests (Sample 1)
• 8. Load Tests (Sample 2)
• 9. Overload Tests
• 10. Main Specifications
• 11. Conclusions