Review of the AeroСool Aero Bronze 750W power supply unit / Overclockers.ua

Today, we are testing the Aero Bronze 750W power supply unit from the AeroCool company, which is famous for its components available to the mass consumer. However, this time the device is not quite budget. The manufacturer promises many features of more expensive devices — Japanese capacitors, DC/DC converters, high efficiency, low noise and quality cables. Everything looks good on paper, but we will find out how it actually is in person.

AeroСool Aero Bronze 750W

The power supply is supplied in a medium-sized white box. On the front side there is a photo of the device and information about the model, on the back – distinctive features of the product, on the side there is information about the technical characteristics of the unit.

The delivery set is standard for budget units: power supply cable, bag with mounting screws and instructions.

Power supply unit with soldered cables, their number and length are as follows:

• one for powering the motherboard (60 cm);
• one with two 8-pin (4+4) connectors for powering the processor (65+15 cm);
• two with two 8-pin (6+2) connectors for powering a PCI-E video card (55+15 cm);
• two with three power connectors for SATA devices (50+15+15cm);
• two with two power connectors for IDE devices (50+15 cm).

All cables are made in the form of loops with black insulation, the cables are quite rigid, so there may be problems with placing them in compact cases. Their length is quite large, it should be enough for cases with the lower location of the power supply unit.

The body of the block is painted with black powder paint, the cooling fan grill is stamped with a branded pattern and looks pretty good.

On the side face is a large white sticker with the parameters of the unit.

The unit is built on a not-the-newest platform with an active power factor corrector (APFC) with an input voltage range of 200–240 V. The power converter is made according to the oblique bridge scheme, the only innovation is that the group stabilization was replaced by DC/DC converters for lines + 5 V and +3.3 V, which should have a positive effect on the stability of output voltages.

A full-fledged impulse interference filter is soldered on the board at the input, some of its elements are located on the network connector, they did not forget to install a varistor. The input rectifier is made of a diode assembly GBU806 (8 A, 600 V), which was supposed to be fixed to the radiator, but the holes do not match and the bridge just stands next to it with a small gap without thermal paste. The combined controller CM6800UX is responsible for controlling the APFC and the power converter on the +12 V line. The type of power transistor and diode APFC could not be considered, there are empty unsoldered places on the board for additional components of the corrector. The high-voltage filter is made of a pair of electrolytic capacitors with a capacity of 220 μF with an operating voltage of 400 V, designed for a temperature of 105 °C of the KMR series manufactured by Nippon Chemi-Con. The total capacity of the filter is 440 μF. The description did not lie about the Japanese capacitors, it’s just a pity that all the other capacitors in the unit are not from Japan.

A pair of PTA20N50A power transistors (20 A, 500 V) is mounted on a common radiator with APFC elements. The rectifier of the +12 V line is synchronous and made of four AP9992GP transistors (180 A, 60, 2.99 mΩ), which are installed on a separate radiator. Output filter capacitors: two 470 µF 16 V polymer capacitors from NJcon and a pair of 2200 µF 16 V 105 °C electrolytic capacitors from ASIA’X. Unfortunately, some of the output capacitors are located next to the rectifier heatsink and output choke, which will heat up a lot under high load, which can affect the life of these elements.

A step-down DC/DC converter assembled on a separate board is responsible for powering the +3.3 V and +5 V lines. The converters are controlled by a two-channel synchronous PWM controller APW7159C, which is used in almost all modern power supplies with separate stabilization. The output switches are made of field-effect transistors SLD80N03T (80 A, 30 V). The board features a pair of NJcon 470μF 16V polymer capacitors in the input circuit of the converter, the output voltages are filtered by four ASIA’X 2200μF (10V, 105°C) Low ESR board-mounted capacitors.

The +5VSB standby mode power converter is made on the SC2521Q PWM controller, and its output is equipped with an electrolytic Low ESR capacitor with a capacity of 2200 μF (16 V, 105 °C) manufactured by ASIA’X. Monitoring of the output voltage is entrusted to the supervisor GR8329N from Grenergy.

The components are cooled by a fan with a standard size of 120x120x25 mm and marked EFS-12E12H manufactured by DWPH with a two-pin connection. The fan is controlled automatically depending on the temperature of the radiator of the rectifier on the +12 V line. When the unit started, the fan worked at 625 revolutions per minute and made almost no noise, with increasing temperature it should smoothly increase the speed to 1800 rpm.

The installation is satisfactory, some components are installed unevenly, the diode bridge is not pressed against the radiator, although the soldering itself is of good quality and the board is properly washed from the flux.

Testing methodology

The power supply unit was tested using a linear electronic load with the following parameters: current adjustment ranges on the +3.3 V line — 0–16 A, on the +5 V line — 0–22 A, on the +12 V line — 0–100 A , all contacts for connecting power supply cables with the same voltage are connected in parallel and loaded by the corresponding load channel. The current on each channel is smoothly regulated, and it is stable regardless of the output voltage of the unit. A Zotek ZT102 True RMS multimeter was used to accurately measure voltage and temperature. Fan revolutions were measured with a Uni-T UT372 tachometer. For each power line, the required current was set, and the voltage on the load contacts was measured to account for losses on the wires.

Test results

The first test for the load capacity of the +12V main line, the current on the +3.3V and +5V lines was constant with a total load of about 120 W.

According to the test results, we got good indicators of the stability of all voltages, along the +12 V line, the voltage gradually decreases with increasing load, the +5 V and +3.3 V lines almost do not change their values. A measurement was made on an unloaded SATA cable to obtain the output voltage directly at the output of the power supply unit at maximum load without taking into account the voltage drop on the wires. It can be seen that the voltage drop compensation system on the wires works correctly, and the losses on the wires themselves at maximum power are relatively small for a budget power supply unit, so they did not lie about the high-quality wires in the advertisement.

To check the load capacity of the +5V and +3.3V lines, tests were made at a constant load of +12V to assess their influence on each other.

According to the test results, we have good stabilization on the +3.3V and +5V lines, the load distortions have almost no effect on the output voltage, which, although slightly overstated, is within ~2% tolerance.

The unit efficiency test was carried out at a voltage of about 230 V.

The efficiency of this unit meets the 80 Plus Bronze standard for a voltage of 230 V, and at low and medium power with a large margin.

The test for heating the components of the block was carried out at an air temperature of 21 °C. Temperatures were measured using a Scythe Kaze Master Pro panel, the sensors of which were fixed to the main components of the unit, including the diode bridge. The unit was loaded at maximum capacity and worked until the temperatures stabilized. At the end of the test, the temperature reading was fixed, after that the block cover was removed and the temperatures of other components were measured using a multimeter and its thermocouple. The test results are shown in the following photo:

The temperatures of most components are typical for modern power supplies, but the temperatures of the power transformer and the output choke on the +12 V line are overestimated, the reason being the suboptimal setting of the fan control circuit. Under sustained maximum load, the cooling fan only reached 1,400 rpm from the claimed maximum of 1,800 rpm, while it was quieter than the rest of the fans in the test bench. The temperature of the diode bridge rose to 75 °C, which is not so critical, but it could have been lower if there was normal pressure to the radiator. The manufacturer decided to please buyers in terms of noise, but at the cost of high temperatures, which leads to a shorter life of the capacitors of the output filters, since they are located close to the output choke.

Conclusions

The tested Aero Bronze 750W power supply looks quite original due to the stamped grille and flat cables, but the white sticker stands out a little from the overall style, which will not be to everyone’s taste. The promised features of the unit were partially confirmed, for example, there are high-quality wires, and the noise level is not high, but there were only two Japanese capacitors, while the rest are far from the first echelon, which under harsh operating conditions can shorten the life of the device. Disadvantages are compensated by the presence of DC/DC converters, stability of characteristics and high efficiency. However, in this case, you will have to be satisfied only with 230 V networks, since the APFC module is not designed for a wide range of input voltage. As a result, Aero Bronze 750W is suitable for medium-level systems, the maximum power consumption of which does not exceed 550 W, which will have a positive effect on the noise characteristics of the assembled PC and low heating of the power supply unit.