Introduction

Its tough to find a right power supply for a right pc. Sometimes you might think you are getting the best of the best but are you really sure about that? There are alot of power supplies manufacturers that produce power supply's with less efficiency than recommended for a general use. What it is basically comes down to is the PFC. What is PFC? "The power factor of an Alternating current electric power system is defined as the Ratio of the AC power flowing to the load to the AC power apparent power, and is a number between 0 and 1 (frequently expressed as a percentage, e.g. 0.5 pf = 50% pf). Real Power (physics) power is the capacity of the circuit for performing work in a particular time." Wikipedia. So to summarize, the best and highest values you can have is 100% pf or 1. Today we are going to take a look at Fusion 550 RF power supply. There is something very promising about this power supply, 99% FPC. Arctic Cooling also promises to save you money with this unit. We are going to see if this is true or even close.

About the Product

Following information is taken from the Arctic Cooling website.

Specifications

Payment Saving Unit

Fusion 550RF follows the default ATX-Form-Factor and thus will fit into every ATX PC-Case. It fulfils the ATX 2.2 specifications and can offer a continuous power of 550 Watt - enough for every High end System. Equipped with two 6-pin- and 8-pin PCIe connectors the PSU is ideal for powering a Crossfire- or SLi-setup.

• Ultra quiet  80mm PWM fan with low noise impeller
• 550W output power, ATX 2.2
• 82-86% efficiency, 99% PFC
• 80mm ARCTIC F8 Pro fan
• Intelligent fan control (700 - 2,000 RPM)
• Controller for case ventilation
• Over-Power, Over-Voltage, Short Circuit protection,
• Over-Current Protection
• SLI and Crossfire compatible

High Efficiency = Less Power Loss = Quiet Cooling
With an efficiency of at least 82 to 86%, less heat is generated inside the PSU. As a result of this a single 80-mm-fan is enough to cool the PSU. The rubber-mounted fan is spinning in a range between 700 and 2000 RPM making it virtually silent. Additionally to this the PSU comes along with two external fan-connectors giving the possibility to control the case ventilation based o­n load and temperature and thus lowers the noise level of the complete system to an absolute minimum.

Effective energy-use preserves nature and saves money 
By making appreciated use of natural resources, especially energy you can contribute to lower CO2 - Emissions. Additionally you save electricity cost of about 100 €, so the Fusion 550RF is a true Payment Saving Unit*.

* In 4 years, 200 d/y with 4 h/d full load at 0,15€/kWh

Save and stable PSU
With a PFC-factor of 99 % and two separated 12-volt-rails, which are supporting each other if necessary the Arctic Fusion 550RF is a very save PSU, that manages to come along with highest demands. The overload, overvoltage and short-circuit protection safeguards the hardware as well as the user from damage.

Now that we got basic information out of the way, lets take a closer look at Fusion 550 RF.

Closer look

Box Front		Box Back

Fusion 550 RF comes in a plastic casing with see trough design. You can literally see the power supply from outside of the box which makes a very helpful and stylish at the same time. A unique design really helps in a marketing of Fusion 550 RF.

Cool and Quiet		Money Saving

Fusion 550 RF is manufactured by Arctic Cooling and they promise that this is a money saving unit. In addition this particular model of Fusion is very quiet and stays cool at 25 C loaded. So how much money can we save with Fusion 550 RF? Oh about 132$ USD, in 4 years.

3 Year Warranty		Specifications

Fusion 550 RF comes with a whooping 3 year warranty. A good warranty on power supplies is hard to come by. Most give anywhere from 1 to 2 years. On the back of the Fusion 550 RF we found Specifications of the unit. What throws in the eyes is the 550 watts(peak). Why so low? Well why would you need more? If this unit as good as they say it is, there is no reason to have more wattage in the case.

Out of the box		Fusion 550 RF

Taking Fusion 550 RF out of the box was easy and fast. Nothing to it! Fusion 550 RF comes with a power cord, mounting screws, case badge and of course instruction manual. The actual body of Fusion 550 RF is wrapped in the protective plastic to protest the casing from scratches during shipping.

Logo		Serial Number

On left and right of Fusion 550 RF Arctic Cooling placed stylish stickers of the unit to add that special something to it. On one side of the Fusion 550 RF we found a Hi-POT & Grounding OK and serial number.

Specifications		Rear of Fusion 550 RF

On the top of the Fusion 550 RF we found a specifications sticker. One thing i didn't understand was the 80 PLUS. Not 100% sure what that's about but i am assuming its the efficiency of the Fusion 550 RF. From the back of the unit we can clearly see inside of the Fusion 550 RF. This unit comes with a handy power switch.

Arctic Cooling fan		Famous vibration mounts

The front of the Fusion 550 RF is equipped with Arctic F8 Pro fan for maximum cooling and low noise. The Arctic F8 Pro comes with a signature vibration dumping mounts which help with lowering the vibration and noise levels of the fan.

Fan Connectors		Installed

Fusion 550 RF comes with all the necessary cables you need to hook up the most resent SLI crossfire video cards and other peripherals. Installing Fusion 550 RF was pretty easy just like a standard power supply. The cables are nicely tacked in the mesh and this makes them nice and flat. I am a neat freak as you can see from the pictures so i took extra care on hiding all the cables. hahaahh

4 pin connector		Neatness

One thing threw me off was the lack of the 8 pin motherboard connector. If you have a high end set up like.. a quad core machine, then you might need additionally power. Fusion 550 RF only comes with a 4 pin connector. Please keep in mind that it is important to have 8 pin motherboard connector for some applications.

Installed and ready to go		Fusion 550 RF

This is pretty much concludes the installation of the Fusion 550 RF. Lets take a closer look to some of the data.

Testing

The way we have performed our testing was by running Prime 95 on all 4 cores of quad core proc and taking measurements with our trusted Seasonic meter.

Prime95

Prime95 was ran in the maximum power consumption mode while we were taking the measurement readings.

Fan Speed

We also took a sample reading with Fan Speed program. As you can see from above, all 4 of our cores were pretty hot and drawing maximum power.

Volts		Amps

Under full load the following values were drawn 118.6 V and 1.74 A.

Watts		Voltamps

Under full load the following values were drawn 204 W and 207 VA.

Kilowatt per hour

Under full load the following values were drawn 2.90 KWH.

Power Factor = Watts/Volts x Amps.

VoltAmps = Volts x Amps.

After calculating Power Factor we come to a conclusion that Fusion 550 RF is highly efficient with power factor of 0.99%.

Conclusion

Fusion 550 RF definitely stands out in the crowd. The real fact that plays a big role in this unit is the 99% power factor. This unit is definitely going to save you some money in the long run. As predicted Fusion 550 RF is capable of saving close to 140$ in 4 years. Being equipped with an Arctic F8 Pro fan, Fusion 550 RF stays as cool as possible under heavy loads, 25 C. One thing that make a complication in installation of Fusion 550 RF is the lack of 8 pin motherboard power connector for high end motherboards. Even thought it is not required for you to have 8 pin power connector, it is recommended. The cables of Fusion 550 RF are nicely packed in the mesh which is very stylish and helps to decorate your case. What this power supply could benefit is the modular cables. If you have a small case and do not require a crossfire set up for your video cards, why would you want to have 4 additional wires. Over all Fusion 550 RF performs and look great. With our testing we have gotten a power factor of 0.99% which is exactly what does Arctic Cooling promises. Fusion 550 RF deserves a strong 10/10 award! Great job guys, keep it up!

Some pros we found:

Silent and very cool

Stylish and has many options

99% Power Factor

Mesh wires

Some cons we found:

4 pin motherboard connector only

Could benefit by having modular wires