Hardware Bistro

Product: GP-AL650A
Manufacturer: GlacialTech
Supplied by: GlacialTech
Price: USD90/RM316 
Launch Date: July 2008

Looking for a new power supply or thinking to upgrade your existing computer/peripherals but having a drawback of the power supply? Then you should have a look on this GP-AL650A from GlacialTech or GlacialPower. This GlacialPower GP-AL650A can be considered value for money with its features and performance among the rest of same range of PSU.

 

Company Profile

GlacialPower, was established in April 2006 by a talent engineering team from the Switch Mode Power Supply (SMPS) Industry. The team members of GlacialPower has averagely 12 years rich experience in designing, quality controlling and manufacturing SMPS products. During past years the team designed for A brand companies of Acer, Asus, Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens, Gateway, HPQ, IBM, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Wistron. The team also invented the solid quality control manufacturing process approved by companies of Dell, HPQ, IBM, etc.

The company goal is to be one of the leading SMPS solution provider in the world and will use solid design to deliver quality products that possess the features of innovation and usability for customers. We will work closely together with our customer and our slogan is Power Your Idea.

 

Features

- ATX12V Version 2.2
- Design with active PFC function
- Dual +12V rails and +5Vsb capability 15 W
- Full output power from 0°C to 50°C
- Full protection features of SCP, OVP, OCP, OPP, OTP
- Power efficiency meet Energy Star 80 plus program criterion
- Fan speed control and delay shut down to extend components life time
- Fan switch off (0 dBA) at low load and selectable between 8cm and 12cm
- RoHS compliance and 2 yesr warranty
- Manufactured with high reliability and in strict processes

 

Specifications

AC Input

Parameter	Min.	Nom.	Max.
Vin	90 Vrms	100 – 240 Vrms	264 Vrms
Vin Frequency	47 Hz	50 / 60 Hz	63 Hz

DC Output Regulation

Output	Tolerance	Min.	Nom.	Max.
+5V	5%	+4.75	+5.00	+5.25
+3.3V	5%	+3.14	+3.30	+3.47
+12V1	5%	+11.40	+12.00	+12.60
+12V2	5%	+11.40	+12.00	+12.60
-12V	10%	-10.80	-12.00	-13.20
+5Vsb	5%	+4.75	+5.00	+5.25

 

DC Output Load

DC Output	+5V	+3.3V	+12V1	+12V2	-12V	+5Vsb
Nominal Output V.	5	3.3	12	12	-12	5
Min. Current (A)	1.0	0.5	1.0	1.0	0	0
Max. Current (A)	22	30	25	20	0.6	3
Peak Current (A)			26	21		3.5
Max. Power (W)	110	100	300	240	7.2	15
Combined Max. P.	180		504		7.2	15
Total Max. Output P.	650

Hold Up Time
16 mS @ 230 Vrms / 50 Hz, Full Load

Rise Time
2 ~ 20 mS

Acoustics Noise
0 ~ 25 dBA (Under 70% ROL and 35 OC ambient temperature)

 

Packaging

 

GlacialPower GP-AL650A comes with pretty standard packaging. The outer packaging box is quite plain and neatly. Features and detail information of the GlacialPower GP-AL650A were written on this packaging clearly which is a good reference for customer to have brief idea about this PSU in case he/she haven't done any homework yet.

 

The connectors types and quantity of GlacialPower GP-AL650A were stated clearly with picture on the packaging as well and this important information is where most of the end users will surely check it out to ensure they will get a correct PSU to suit for their rig. Besides that please ensure the power cord and fan size are right as well. Power cord selection should not be an issue if you purchase this PSU from local shop as they should not bring in the wrong power cord package.

 

After we opened the packaging, we found that the GlacialPower GP-AL650A is protected by two foam caps for top and bottom area to minimize the vibration and shock impact during shipping and transferring.

 

Overall same with other PSU, GlacialPower GP-AL650A only comes with PSU itself, a power cord, a simple user guide and 4 screws. The Multilanguage user manual provides all the technical and product specifications of this GlacialPower GP-AL650A. Detail can be downloaded from GlacialPower; Here

 

GlacialPower AL-650

GlacialPower GP-AL650A is considered midrange and value compare for its same range of PSU. This PSU has estimated MTBF of around 100,000 hrs which is quite standard life span except for those extremely low end cheap PSU. GlacialPower GP-AL650A is an active PFC PSU with Energy Star 80 Plus qualified which is good for environment to reduce the power waste. Besides that GlacialPower GP-AL650A also comes with standard PSU protections like overvoltage (OVP), overload (OPP), overcurrent (OCP), over temperature (OTP), and short-circuit (SCP).

GlacialPower GP-AL650A have the standard PSU dimension which will fit well in most of the casing except those HTPC chassis which normally have smaller size and require specific PSU. Some higher wattage PSU like 1000W where it may have bigger size and this might not fit your casing well so we would recommend standard dimension for PSU because you won’t know when you will move out from giant casing to extremely slim chassis. 

GlacialPower GP-AL650A comes with 2 version; 8cm and 12cm fan. If you are able to afford a 650W good PSU then we don’t see any point why not getting the 12cm version as it should cool down the PSU more efficiently and provide a reliable system. GlacialPower GP-AL650A has a very good feature where the PSU fan will not operate during idle or low load condition to provide total silent solution to end users and another great feature is this PSU has delay shut down for the fan to extend components life time by cooling them with additional cycle times although the system is already turned off. Both of these features are really useful.

 

GlacialPower GP-AL650A PSU casing is quite different with other PSU casing whether it need to be opened in horizontally which is harder for opened up and manufactured but we believe such design will help to protect the PSU much better at least not allow end user to open up so easily; don’t simply open the PSU as warranty will be void.   

After opened up the PSU casing, there is a deflector and it almost covers half of the 12cm fan. This deflector helps to centralize the air flow to the important components that need to be cool down.

GlacialPower GP-AL650A weight around 2.2KG and most of the time people will choose a PSU which is more heavier because they believe that a heavier PSU is built with better components and it is always true unless the manufacturer purpose add some unnecessary weight on the PSU; better have some research before purchase unbranded PSU. If you have a chance then compare with your current cheap PSU internal components then you will understand better that GlacialPower GP-AL650A is definitely built with high quality components and this is what the good quality components are.  

At the back of the PSU of the GlacialPower GP-AL650A, it is covered by honeycomb ventilation which is pretty standard for PSU design since last few years as it can dissipate the heat better. Besides that at the back of the PSU, it has a ON/OFF switch controller.  

 

GlacialPower GP-AL650A doesn’t come with modular cable management which is one of the great features that PC enthusiasts will look for because it can reduce those unnecessary cables to have better internal air flow and it looks for tidy especially for those casing comes with transparent side panel. If cost for modular cable is expensive maybe GlacialPower can consider semi modular cable management to have a win win solution for both supplier and end users; not expensive but can have great feature. GlacialPower GP-AL650A is an ATX12v Version 2.2 PSU and it can support old and new motherboard; 20 and 24pins for the main connector.

 

GlacialPower GP-AL650A also comes with 4P+4P for CPU connector and dual PCI-E (6+2P) to support latest graphic card; of course no issue for SLi or Crossfire. Besides that there are 6 SATA power connectors, 6 Molex connectors and 1 FDD connector. In order to reduce the manufacturing cost, GlacialPower only sleeved the main connectors; 24pins which the rest of the cables are still naked; maybe GlacialPower should consider launching another version for full sleeved PSU.

GlacialPower provides very detail information for their product; here is the exact mechanical outline of this GlacialPower GP-AL650A.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

Test Bed
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard : Asus P5K SE/EPU
Heatsink : CoolerMaster X Dream P775+
Memory : 2GB 800MHz DDR2 Memory
Hard Drive : 250GB 7200RPM Western Digital
Graphic Card : OEM Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
PSU : GlacialPower GP-AL650A
Optical Drive : DVD RW HLDS
Operating System : Microsoft XP Pro
Benchmark Software : Prime 95, 3DMark06
Ambient Temperature : 28 Degree Celsius

 

Installation is pretty simple and easy if you have experience of this before. Nothing much would like to talk about but due to GlacialPower GP-AL650A isn't has cable modular management, it would take some time to manage the PSU cables in order to make it looks neatly and for better air flow efficiency.

 

+3.3V	+5V	+5Vsb	+12V1	+12V2
3.30	4.94	5.08	11.93	11.98
3.28	4.97	5.10	11.90	11.95

 

The testing for idle load will be without any hardware attached to it and the full load will be running intensive software for 30mins. As you can see the there isn't any significant voltage variance between idle load and full load. It is always good to have such PSU as fluctuating voltage of the PSU will affect the system reliability. All the DC outputs of the GlacialPower GP-AL650A are within the spec and the voltage rails are quite stable and not fluctuating a lot but the +12V1 is a little bit low but still acceptable. Below the voltages rails are taken by PSU tester where the values are not same with the data above because its accuracy only have 1 decimal number only so we use window software to read the voltage rails as stated above.

 

During the idle load starting, GlacialPower GP-AL650A PSU fan only spin for a while and it will stop after that. At first we thought it is a failure but after browse through the user manual and GlacialPower website that only found that this is as per design to deliver a total silent solution to end users for idle and low load condition. Please refer to the graph above that showing all the load that is under 10%, the GlacialPower GP-AL650A PSU fan will stop running and the fan speed will adjust accordingly to the load and temperature. During our testing, GlacialPower GP-AL650A is running pretty silent even at our full load condition. it only provides little bit warm air even at full load which mean that the cooling system of GlacialPower GP-AL650A is pretty good.

 

Conclusion

GlacialPower GP-AL650A is a pretty decent PSU and the most important selling point of this PSU is the cheap price compare with the same range of PSU where GlacialPower GP-AL650A; 650W PSU only cost at 90USD. GlacialPower GP-AL650A provides stable DC voltage output and with its silent operation, we would recommended this PSU for you if you are thinking to get a higher wattage PSU without spending much and not hunting for luxurious features like cable modular, and full sleeved cable PSU.

Pros:
* Cheap
* Noiseless & Silent Operation
* Dual 6+2 PCI-E Connectors
* Delay Fan Shut Down To Extend Components Life Time

Cons:
* Non Modular
* Not all cables are sleeved

 

Thanks to GlacialTech for providing this sample for us to review.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only registered users may post a comment.

cc	5.0 / 5	Tue 30 Jun 09
AL650AA should be newer version of AL650A as I can't find any AL650A at Glacialpower website anymore.

Punnyabrata Chakraborty	5.0 / 5	Tue 30 Jun 09
Very nice review. I just got this PSU for my system yesterday. I wanted to know if there is any difference between AL650A and AL650AA.