INTRODUCTION

   Even though I’ve never gone out of my way to avoid saying that compact PCs never really did it for me (the bigger the better) that’s clearly not the case with a somewhat large segment of the market today. Granted, enthusiasts, overclockers and gamers will probably also look at mid and full towers to house their new systems (which is why the market is primarily focused on full-size hardware components) but home and office users may see the benefit of a compact PC case. Quality components however are quite harder to come by and this is especially true for SFX power supply units. The brand new Dagger PRO line of SFX power supply units by FSP is a revamped version of their 2019 line and with me I have the 850W output model.

   FSP Group is the 5th largest power supply vendor in the world. Since the company was established in 1993, our outstanding management team has drawn together our R&D expertise, our sizeable production capacity, outstanding product quality to consistently excel in this competitive marketplace. FSP group is a publicly traded company listed in the Taiwan stock exchange, symbol: 30.15.TW, with revenues exceeding over 600 million USD. FSP group provides OEM/ODM power conversion products and services to the majority of well-established manufacturers and is the leading volume supplier of desktop PC ATX power supplies. In recent years, FSP group has expanded its R&D and manufacturing capabilities to become one of the major power conversion supplier of power adapters, industrial PCs, servers, LCD/LED monitors, LCD/LED TVs, heavy duty industrial products (UPS), portable battery chargers, Uninterrupted Power Supply as well as providing off-the-shelf consumer products, partnering with many strategic manufacturers.

   The new Dagger PRO line of PSUs by FSP is available in 550/650/750/850W outputs and features an 80 Plus Gold efficiency certification (up to over 90% electrical efficiency) and a very compact enclosure (125x100x63.5mm). The 850W model which i have here with me can deliver up to 988W (peak) and features a fully modular design (future-proof), strong 70.83A single +12V rail (can deliver 100% of the units total power output - 850W), minor rails with a total output of 138.6W, 100% Japanese capacitors, 4 PCIe 6+2 power connectors, SFX12V v3.3 compliance, semi-passive Zero RPM fan mode for inaudible operation at low loads and several industrial grade electrical protections including OPP (over-power), OVP (over-voltage), SCP (short-circuit), OCP (over-current) and OTP (over-temperature). Finally, FSP covers the entire Dagger Pro line with a rather generous 7-year limited warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The box has a product picture at the front along with the company log, main product features and the model output.

On the left side FSP has placed the available power connectors and the power cord type.

The units electrical table is printed on the right side just over the noise and efficiency graphs.

At the rear we find several product pictures used to showcase its features.

The Dagger PRO is placed in a formed piece of black foam for protection during shipping.

Along with the Dagger PRO PSU inside the box you’ll also find a midi/full tower mounting bracket, 6 mounting screws, modular cables, power cord and the user manual.

THE DAGGER PRO 850W EXTERIOR

FSP ships the Dagger PRO with slim low-profile power cables for improved cable management.

As mentioned earlier the Dagger PRO is a very compact SFX PSU measuring just 125mm in width, 100mm in length and 63.5mm in height.

I expect some of you will wonder just how compact this is so I placed it right next to the ION SFX 650G by Fractal.

An 92mm fan is located at the top of the PSU.

The company name and model are printed on stickers located on both sides of the enclosure.

On the other hand, the electrical table is placed on its belly.

All of the power connectors are tagged and different in design.

At the rear we find the usual perforation, power port and on/off switch.

THE DAGGER PRO 850W INTERIOR

The Dagger PRO 850W uses a power logic 92mm double ball bearing DC brushless fan.

For such a small PSU it’s normal for everything to be squeezed like this (still quite clean work by FSP).

This sample arrived with primary capacitors made by the Japanese Nippon Chemi-Con rated for use up to 105 degrees Celsius.

Secondary capacitors are made by the also Japanese Rubycon and are also rated for use up to 105 degrees Celsius.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

     Using a dedicated measurement instrument such as a Chroma or a SunMoon to test power supply units is without doubt the most ideal and accurate way (not to mention the fastest) to do that currently. However, it's certainly not the only way there is and so pretty much anyone can test a power supply unit just by using a test rig. Certainly, limitations do apply and so you can't really push a 1000W power supply to its limits if your system only uses 500W at peak loads and that's why over the years we saved certain hardware components for the purpose of building a dedicated PSU test rig. True it may not be as accurate as the above mentioned solutions but it comes really close and is in fact much closer to real world usage. So as always, we ran several games with maximum graphic options enabled at a resolution of 2560x1600 in order to stress every hardware component and increase the overall power demands of the system. The Passmark BurnIn Test was also used to overstress the components in an effort to provide the most accurate results possible. As a final test we also used the latest OCCT 4.4 software and its dedicated PSU testing suite since it can really bring a power supply to its knees after inside a few minutes.

   Rail stability was checked/measured with the CPUID Hardware monitor and a Metex multimeter which also recorded the system load in idle and in load. As always try to remember that the power consumption numbers listed in the graph are the highest (Peak) ones recorded during the entire duration of the tests and not the average ones. Noise levels coming from the fan were recorded using the high precision HD600 ExTech Sound dBA Meter from the rear of the unit and at a range of no more than 5-10cm. Readings under load are recorded the exact moment we manually switch the fans of all graphics cards from full speed to almost zero, that way the fan of the power supply does not have enough time to slow its RPM and so by doing this we get very accurate noise level readings. Needless to say, in order to get 100% accurate readings, you need to have a noise isolated room for that exact purpose, something which is quite impossible unless you are working inside a real lab (some people use very small noise insulated boxes but due to their size both heat and noise exceed normal levels and so the results can't really be considered to be 100% accurate, nor realistic for that matter). Also do take into account that since all noise measurements take place from just 5-10cm away the final noise levels to reach your ears will be considerably less.

* After well over 10 years of testing PSUs the Intel Core i7-920 CPU of this rig failed and so we replaced it with a Xeon X5660 (we also swapped the GA-X58A-UD7 for the G1. Assassin).

TEST RESULTS

CONCLUSION

   FSP (Fortron) has made a name of themselves over the years thanks to the many high quality and performance PSUs, not just under their own brand name but also several others. This is why the performance of the Dagger PRO didn’t surprise me one bit. Yes, it may not perform quite on par with some full-sized power supply units but it did exceptionally well for such a tiny SFX model. Rail stability was very good and as for output, well 850W should be plenty for even the most demanding CPU’s and graphics cards. Noise levels were the only “issue” during my tests but if you’re getting an 850W SFX power supply unit and plan on pushing it to around 800W you should expect that (even if the PSU didn’t make noise, the CPU/GPU /Case fans most certainly would).

   At the time of this review the Dagger PRO 850W SFX power supply unit by FSP retails for USD129.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 139.37Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price tag which is quite acceptable for what you’re getting in return. Performance, power output and build quality in a tiny enclosure, that’s what the FSP Dagger PRO 850W offers and for that it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Tiny SFX Form Factor
- Very Good Rail Stability
- Up To 850W Continuous Output
- 80 Plus Gold Certified
- Japanese Capacitors
- Fully Modular
- 4 PCIe Power Connectors
- 7 Year Warranty

CONS

- Noise Levels