FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review

FSP's new Raider 750W power supply proves to be quite the value for those seeking enough wattage for a pair of video cards while saving a little coin.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: FSP
7 minutes & 44 seconds read time

Introduction, Specifications, Availability and Pricing

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 01

Whether you know it or not, you've probably used a power supply or adapter at some point in time from FSP Group. FSP is the fifth largest power supply vendor in the world, growing exponentially since they were established in 1993. They do quite a bit with OEM/ODM power conversion products. Aside from its off the shelf power supplies, you'll often find FSP power supplies in a wide variety of monitors, TV's, and more.

We've taken a look at a few of their power supplies the last few years, including the FSP Aurum Xilenser 500W last month. All of the units we have taken a look at have been geared more towards the high-end and enthusiast segments and have done very well. This time around, we are taking a look at something a little more mainstream and cost effective. The new Raider series of power supplies from FSP is available in wattages from 450W to 750W.

We have the 750W model on the test bench today and it is most certainly geared more towards mainstream users who are seeking a better cost/performance ratio. The unit has less frills than most as it lacks modular cables, half of the cables aren't sleeved, and only comes with an 80 PLUS Bronze efficiency rating.

As we all know, performance is the single most important aspect when it comes to powering a PC and that's just what we are here to check out. Let's check out the specifications and see how well it looks on paper.

Specifications, Availability and Pricing

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 02

FSP delivers a majority of the power for the Raider 750W via a single 12V rail. The power supply is capable of 60A of power on this rail or a total of 720W. The Raider 750W features a very impressive set of minor rails. Both the 3.3V and 5V rails are rated for 26A with a combined 170W. Compare this to the recently reviewed PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1200W and you'll see that the minor rails are capable of 70% more than a power supply of nearly double the total wattage. Over engineering is often a great thing, especially those seeking to push things to the limit. The 5VSB rail is rated for the typical 3A or 15W. Combined total output for the power supply is 750W.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 03

The list of features is definitely something that we find a bit lacking on the FSP Raider 750W. The important protections are present, such as SCP, OVP, OCP, and OPP. Over Temperature Protection is lacking, however. The Raider 750W is 80 PLUS certified for Bronze level efficiency. The power supply features all native wiring. Unfortunately, not all of the cables are sleeved. While the Main, PCI-E, and ATX 4+4 cables are sleeved, the four peripheral cables are not. FSP does not rate the unit for 100% continuous output. Being that this is a more mainstream power supply, it should rarely see those kind of temperatures anyway.

Things get very better looking considering the FSP Raider 750W has an MSRP of $109.99. Newegg currently lists the unit for $80.98 after $10 mail-in rebate and $5.99 shipping. This makes it one of the cheapest 750W 80 PLUS Bronze power supplies on the market and, depending on performance, gives it one of the best cost/performance ratios as well. FSP backs the Raider 750W with a five year warranty.

Packaging

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 04

Keeping with the trend of less frills, even the packaging is very bland. We weren't even able to tell what model we had received until opening the box and looking at the I/O specification label on the power supply.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 05

Rotating things around, we find a little information on the unit. The most interesting of these appears to be the SATA array cable design with the SATA connectors spaced only 50mm apart. This will be very nice for those who have may drive stacked on top of each other and trouble getting the case side back on due to excess cabling.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 06

Both sides display nothing more than the FSP logo and website.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 07

I/O specifications are located on the back as well for those who are curious.

[img]08[/img]

The top just points us to their website for more information while the bottom repeats the design on the front.

Inside the Box

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 10

Short of the bubble wrap to provide a tiny amount of protection for the power supply itself, this is as basic as it gets. It worked well enough for our Raider 750 to arrive without any damage.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 11

The I/O specification label can be found on top as well as the serial number. This was the first time we were for certain which model we had received since there wasn't anything specific on the outside of the box to identify the model.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 12

The FSP lettering is stamped into the case on both sides. It is inverted on the other side in case the power supply is installed in the bottom of the case.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 14

The back is very straightforward. Here we find the AC input as well as on/off rocker switch.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 15

The front is blank since there aren't any modular cables. There is a rubber grommet protecting the cables where they exit the power supply. Here we can also see that some of the cables are sleeved while others are not.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 15

The power supply has a small footprint, measuring only 5.9 inches x 5.51 inches. As such, FSP is only able to fit in a 120mm fan to cool the power supply.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 17

Also included with the power supply are the user manual, AC power cord, and mounting screws.

Cabling Arrangement and A Look Inside

Cabling Arrangement

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 19

FSP provides a great list of cables and connectors for a mainstream power supply. There are four PCI-E connectors, nine SATA connectors, three Molex connectors and a single FDD connector. The short SATA cable is very nicely spaced for those that have numerous drives stacked on top of each other as there isn't any extra cable waste between the connectors to deal with. On the other hand, the cable with the SATA + Molex + FDD connectors all in one is a little odd, but still usable. What is most annoying about all this is that none of the peripheral cables are sleeved.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 20

Rail distribution is kept simplistic with a single 12V rail.

A Look Inside

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 21

Opening things up, we find that things are very minimalistic here, including the passive cooling. At least the fan will be able to push fresh air just about everywhere to help cool things off.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 22

A single Teapo capacitor resides on the primary side of the Raider 750W power supply.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 23

More Teapo capacitors are found on the secondary side. We hope for the best out of these as we have often seen some very mixed results when the entire power supply relies on Taiwanese capacitors.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 24

FSP turns to Yate Loon to keep the power supply cool. The model this time around is the 120mm D12SH-12 fan.

Test Results and Final Thoughts

Test Results

Our load tests utilize a couple of FAST ATE active load testers and a variety of other equipment such as an oscilloscope, power conditioner, temperature probe and a power consumption meter. You can read more about our standard testing approach here.

The tests performed are based around six conceivable setups that are out there and progressively load down the PSU up to the power supply's limits or 1000W, whichever comes first. Since our test equipment's limits are higher than that of the RSP Raider 750W power supply, we can test it to the maximum.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 25

The above tests represent typical loads that we have measured from various systems and are meant to give a rough idea of where your computer might fall in line with our tests. Please keep in mind that each system is different and actual loads can vary greatly even with similar hardware.

FSP Raider 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review 26

Let's start by taking a look at the voltages to see how well this unit did during testing. Starting with the 12V rail, we see voltage regulation stayed within 2% and had a totally voltage drop of .35V. The 5V rail managed to stay within 3% of specification with a total drop of .20V from start to finish. Moving towards the 3.3V rail, we see that regulation was within 4% of specification with a total voltage drop of .16V.

DC Output quality for the FSP Raider 750W was okay and well within specification. During Test 1, we saw 27mV of noise on our scope, which was better than we had expected considering the Teapo capacitors. When we increased the loads in Test 3, the ripple climbed to 48mV at around 75% load. During Test 6 under a load of 750W, the oscilloscope showed a maximum of 87mv on noise on the 12Vrail. This isn't impressive, but nowhere near falling out of ATX specifications.

The FSP Raider 750W is rated for 80 PLUS Bronze efficiency. This means that the power supply must perform at 82%/85%/82% efficiency at 20%/50%/100% loads respectively. As you can see, the Raider 750W passed on our bench and wasn't close to failing at any point.

Final Thoughts

It is very clear right from the start that FSP gears the Raider 750W power supply for those who are conscious about price. Mainstream users typically aren't concerned about having the best performance possible, but rather the best performance for their money. These are the guys that will try to keep to sub-$250 processors, sub-$300 video cards, and sub-$150 power supplies. Many people are often surprised at the performance you cans squeeze out of a computer on a budget and it is because of little jewels like the FSP Raider 750W power supply that we can do so.

The unit sacrifices many of the things enthusiasts have demanded come standard with a power supply such as modular cabling, high efficiency, full cable sleeving, and sometimes even cable ties. It even gives up a little bit of build quality with the use of Teapo capacitors and some silence with the utilization of a 120mm fan instead of the more standard 140mm fan we are accustomed to seeing.

What FSP doesn't give up on is performance. Many times we have low budget, mid-range wattage power supplies fall out of specifications which can lead to system instability or blown components. The FSP Raider 750W doesn't have the super tight voltages we've seen with the $200 and $300 units that we've been testing as of late, nor is it meant to. It does a great job of utilizing the tolerances built into the ATX specifications.

What impressed us the most here though is the efficiency of the unit. Almost every unit we test follows the typical bell curve where voltage starts out low, rises toward peak efficiency at ~50% load, then falls again as it reaches full load. The FSP Raider may be Bronze rated, but it starts off with Gold level efficiency. The best part about this is that this is where the power supply will sit most of the time and give you the best efficiency while checking email, browsing the web and sitting idle.

All of this makes the FSP Raider 750W power supply very attractive. Things only get better when you factor in the five year warranty and the super low price of $81. One simply couldn't ask FSP to come up with a better bundle for such a low price, and those on a tight budget would be a fool not to consider the FSP raider 750W in their next build.

What do TweakTown.com awards mean? Click for details!

PRICING: You can find products similar to this one for sale below.

USUnited States: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.com

UKUnited Kingdom: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.co.uk

AUAustralia: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.com.au

CACanada: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.ca

DEDeutschland: Finde andere Technik- und Computerprodukte wie dieses auf Amazon.de

Zac provides professional IT support by day, but plays the role of enthusiast by night. He's been building high-end custom computer for the nearly fifteen years and writing PC hardware reviews for the better part of a decade. Aside from computers, he also dabbles in quite a bit of home A/V equipment. Throughout the years, Zac has picked up an extensive knowledge of power circuitry and leverages this to provide the PSU reviews. When not found testing or writing, you can often find him speeding through the winding countryside on his motorcycle.

Newsletter Subscription
We openly invite the companies who provide us with review samples / who are mentioned or discussed to express their opinion. If any company representative wishes to respond, we will publish the response here. Please contact us if you wish to respond.