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diffence between fortron and sparkle

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I have the Fortron FSP 350W. As far as I know, the difference is the Fortron has a "Noise Killer" that turns down the fan when it isn't too hot. On mine that meant no fan for five minutes after booting up, then five or ten minutes of jet engine noise, then quiet again. And constant jet engines while gaming. Okay, not jet engines, but way too loud for me. All my fans are 30dB 2500 rpm models, even on my slk-800. The fan in the Fortron seems twice as loud as all my other fans at once (two intake, one cpu, two exhaust).
So the Sparkle has the fan on all the time.
I took the fan out of mine and replaced it with two 2500 rpm fans which I wire-nutted onto the same power lead that the loud fan was connected to. The extra fan is an intake fan bolted on to the side of the psu. The fans I used run at half the amperage of the fan I took out of there and work very well. Plus they only cost 2.99@ at SVC.com.
The FSP400 may not have the noise killer. It does come with the same fan my FSP350W came with. I don't know how they can call that quiet.
I think they are both equally good psu's.
 
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Well, that 400 watt fsp400-60pfn psu has pfc and is the latest version of the fortron psu, has a power switch on the back and after alot of looking around,reading what some other people have around here at oc.com forums that is what I decided on getting...its going to be MUCH better than my OLD 300 watt antec original 303x with 160watt combined 3.3+5v rail hahah yeah i know... Anyways, I will drop by and respond to how it turns out, chances are either the 350 or 400 watt would be ok but the 400 watt has active pfc and is a newer design from what i understand.
 
I saw the sparkle refurb at newegg...whats everyones opinion on thier refurb stuff?
 
wildfrogman said:
Well, that 400 watt fsp400-60pfn psu has pfc and is the latest version of the fortron psu, has a power switch on the back and after alot of looking around,reading what some other people have around here at oc.com forums that is what I decided on getting...its going to be MUCH better than my OLD 300 watt antec original 303x with 160watt combined 3.3+5v rail hahah yeah i know... Anyways, I will drop by and respond to how it turns out, chances are either the 350 or 400 watt would be ok but the 400 watt has active pfc and is a newer design from what i understand.

The Fortron/Sparkle 350 is a marked improvement over the PP303-X Antec. My PP303 blew hair dryer hot air after I went to a P4, and the Sparkle 350 (quiet fan fitted) is a stark contrast. It powers my rig with ease and blows cool air.
 
Insyder said:
I saw the sparkle refurb at newegg...whats everyones opinion on thier refurb stuff?

It's pretty damn hard to hurt a Sparkle. The 400W for 47 bucks shipped looks like a deal to me. The active PFC feature on the directron unit is easier on the local power company, but I'm not sure it's a performance issue. Be prepared to fit a quieter fan if you have sensitive ears, other than that it's all good.
 
yeah i went ahead and got one. I am hoping this will do the trick, as far as noise, I live in a door room which drowns out most else. We also have a small box fan running to ciruclate air that is probably louder then any power supply fan.
 
refurbs from newegg have ruled for me since i found them, three mobos so far, and a dvd burner on the way. the only two things i wouldnt buy from refurb are ram and cpu for the reason that there is a high chance that part was overclocked(or at least tried to be) and did not fair well. just my .02$
 
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