Circling back to the ‘big eight’ protection features, we have already gone over the two new features MSI was able to include by opting for a better CWT platform than their last gen. The last six are Over-Current Protection (OCP), Over-Temperature Protection (OTP), Over-Power Protection (OPP… “yeah you know me”), Short-Circuit Protection (SCP), Over-Voltage Protection (OVP), and Undervoltage Protection (UVP).
(Photo Courtesy of tracopower.com)
OCP is easy to explain. On startup, your system components are going to demand more ‘power’ than they typically use. For example, in a hard disk drive,e the motors have to overcome friction and inertia, which takes extra current. If the total current is way, way too high, the PSU’s built-in protection mechanism will shut the system down as something (or things) is drawing way beyond spec and is probably about to catch fire. Think of it as the same as a 15Amp or 20Amp circuit breaker in your home’s electrical panel for point of reference.
(Photo Courtesy of omega.com)
OTP is a rare occurrence, but say your older power supply’s fan stops running, and yet the PSU is still under high load. Eventually, the capacitors are going to reach their maximum rated temp… and catastrophically fail (aka pop like popcorn). OTP is basically a group of thermal sensors (e.g. thermocouples/thermistors/linear IC sensors/RTDs etc. etc.) attached to the various heatsinks. All of which report to the onboard controller the (close to) real-time temperature of said heatsinks. Once any one of the heatsinks hits their predetermined safety limits… the PSU shuts itself down before the expensive caps go snap, crackle, or pop.
(Photo Courtesy tracopower.com)
OPP (not the song) is pretty much covering the same thing as OCP but goes about it slightly differently. Instead of (typically) using shunt resistors that are rated for a given total current load (and are veryyyy quick to react… as they exist just out of spite), OPP is done at the controller level and allows for short term surges of 10 to 40 percent (it varies) more than the total rated power of a given rail. However, while tolerant of short-term overloads… if you try to constantly pull more than say 120 watts off the 3.3 and 5v rails, it will pitch a fit to protect itself and your system, as you should never be pulling that kind of load on that rail on a mere 1K PSU!
(Photo Courtesy of tracopower.com)
Short-Circuit Protection (SCP) is pretty much what the name implies. The PSU monitors the resistance on each rail and if it senses an ‘open’ circuit (AKA less than .1 Ohm of resistance), it will shut the rig down before a fire occurs.
(Photo Courtesy of matsusada.com)
Over-Voltage Protection (OVP) monitors and keeps the rails within PCI-SIG specifications. Mostly important on analog DC-DC only PSUs (as the digital controller monitors and adjusts the rail voltages in real-time to keep them in spec), but basically if, say, the 12V rail goes above 10 percent out of spec, the A1000GS will shut down… as something has gone terribly wrong.
(Photo Courtesy of elprocus.com)
Undervolt Protection (UVP) does the exact opposite of OVP, and if the rails’ voltage goes beyond 10-ish percent below PCI-SIG standards, it shuts the system down. Once again, semi and all-digital based PSUs rarely have this problem (unless you live in, say, Cali, who suffer from seemingly constant brownouts). Instead, it is more a throwback to the bad old days of analog PSUs, where ‘Brown Outs’ could nuke your system PDQ, which was never a fun experience.
Moving on. The included fan is rather good for this price range. To be precise, it is a 135mm fan made by ZIC. To be even more precise, this 135mm fan (model ZFF132512H BAX3) is a 12V 0.45A, Fluid Dynamic Bearing Fan that can pump out some pretty decent amounts of high-ish) pressure air, and do so for 60+K hours. Which is on the conservative end of the spectrum for FDB-based fans… but that is a good thing.
MSI are not trying to promise the sun, the moon… and stars here. They want to set your expectations appropriately. Just as they should… even if it is hilarious that an under-7-year (“60,000 hours”) rated fan is being used in a PSU with a ten-year warranty.
Mix in the integrated fan shrouds to focus the air to the proper areas, and it is a decent choice. Certainly no Delta… but Zeta is making good kit these days. Which, in conjunction with a fairly decent fan speed profile baked into the A1000GS, helps explain why Cybenetics gave it a Gold noise rating. Though with that said, we do feel the ‘Zero’ RPM starting point is a bit wonky. It kicks in at an rpm that does cause more noise than it needs to be, and for many, the highly aggressive “always on” fan profile baked in will be quieter… at certain points of the power load spectrum. This narrow band, however,r is going to be rarely encountered as the fan does quickly get outside of this “womp womp” rpm range. At which point the noise becomes more easily ignored. Just expect the fan to get loud at full loads. Especially if you live in as,y Phoenix, AZ, or other parts of the country where the ambient temperatures are higher than up here in Canada.
Overall, the only main issue we have with this power supply (from a hardware point of view) is the fact that it can come with an additional 8-pin “PCIe 6+2” connector. All MSI had to do was tell CWT what type to solder to the contact pads, and this power supply would have gone from being… NVIDIA-centric to a great all-rounder. Since it did not, we are going to have to consider this self-inflicted injury when doing our final tally.
