Gigarefurb Refurbished Laptops: FSP’s New SFX Dagger PSUs Are Now Available

Monday, 27 March 2017

FSP’s New SFX Dagger PSUs Are Now Available

FSP announced its new Dagger line of PSUs during Computex 2016. Now, just a few months before the next Computex, the fully modular and highly efficient Dagger SDA500 and Dagger SDA600 are finally available. That’s good news for anyone who needs quality PSUs that don’t require a lot of space.

The manufacturer said these PSUs are ideal for mini-ITX or micro-ATX gaming systems that will also be used for VR. The 500W / 600W of power should be more than enough to meet the demands of every high-end graphics card out there, but some will probably require a stronger PSU if you want to have some headroom. A typical GTX 1080 needs around 190W in a worst-case scenario, for example, while the first GTX 1080 Ti cards require close to 270W.

The platform upon which the Dagger units are based uses DC-DC converters for the generation of the minor rails, which means there won’t be any problems in scenarios where the loads between the rails will be highly unbalanced, e.g. a very high load at +12V and a minor load on the secondary rails, or vice-versa.FSP used Japanese electrolytic capacitors to increase reliability, but we are very curious to check on the specific models of those caps to learn their exact lifetime. There can be a huge difference in the longevity of the caps despite their manufacturing origin.

For example: There are Japan-made caps with only 1,000h lifetime (Chemi-Con KRG) while the Chemi-Con KZE caps, which are widely used in quality PSUs, have a lifetime of 1,000-5,000 depending on their size. We also usually find KY Chemi-Con caps, which are of higher quality and feature between 4,000-10,000h lifetime at 105℃, in high-end PSUs. So the description “Japanese caps” doesn’t mean much if you don’t know the exact model used.

Still, given the five-year warranty backing up the Dagger units, we’re pretty sure FSP used good quality Japanese caps.

Line	Dagger
Models	SDA500, SDA600
OEM	FSP
Max. DC Output	500W, 600W
PFC	Active PFC
Efficiency	80 Plus Gold
Modular	✓ (fully)
Intel C6/C7 Power State Support	✓
Operating temperature	no info
Protections	Over Voltage Protection Over Current Protection Short Circuit Protection Over Power Protection Over Temperature Protection
Cooling	80 mm Dual Ball-Bearing Fan
Semi-passive operation	✗
Number of Connectors	SDA500 / SDA600 EPS: 1 PCIe: 2 SATA: 5 Peripheral: 2 Berg: 1
Dimensions	125 mm (W) x 63.5 mm (H) x 110 mm (D)
Compliance	SFX 12V 3.3, ATX12V v2.4
Warranty	5 years

Both units share the same cable/connector configuration and are equipped with a couple of PCIe connectors along with a single EPS connector. The number of SATA and peripheral connectors is restricted as well. According to FSP, the Dagger units are already available on the market with an MSRP of $99 and $109 for the 500W and 600W models, respectively.