In the PC world, brand-new technologies are often adopted by full-size desktops first, and only then move on to compact systems. This is what happened to Intel's ATX 12VO (ATX 12 Volts only) standard for power supplies, which came to ATX systems first. But new tech eventually moves to the majority of form-factors, and this week FSP introduced the industry's first SFX 12VO (12 Volts only) power supplies for compact systems and builds.
FSP's STX 12VO PSUs are fully compliant with Intel's ATX 12VO specification and feature a single-rail 12V+12Vsb circuit design. The ATX 12VO standard replaces the traditional 24-pin power cable with a 10-pin one and eliminates 3.3V/5V peripheral rails and cables completely. So FSP's FSP750-27SCB, FSP650-27SCB only have one MB10 pin connector, a 4+4-pin EPS12V connector for CPU, and two auxiliary power connectors for graphics cards (one 8-pin, one 6+2-pin).
FSP says that it uses high-quality Japanese electrolytic capacitors for its SFX 12VO PSUs, and equips them with multiple protection mechanisms, including overcurrent protection (OCP), overvoltage protection (OVP), short circuit protection (SCP), overpower protection (OPP), and overtemperature protection (OTP).
Due to a major simplification of internal PSU architecture, FSP's STX12VO PSUs are considerably simpler to make than their ATX-compliant SFX counterparts. Unfortunately, we have no idea yet whether this simplification will have any effect on the price of these PSUs--although the first of anything rarely comes cheap, especially in the middle of a global pandemic and related supply shortages. But, since circuitry that converts 12V rail to 3.3V/5V is now located on the motherboard with the 12VO standard, the platform will gain some additional elements that will likely affect pricing.
FSP has not announced an availability date for its SFX 12VO PSUs, but since the company announced them on its corporate website, expect them to be initially available to FSP's OEM customers.
That said, expect SFX systems with a 12VO PSU to hit the market in the near-term future. Keep in mind that in California and some other states requirements for PC power consumption in idle mode are getting stricter. And one way to comply with the is to adopt ATX 12VO, so the emergence of SFX 12VO PSUs is likely to get a boost from companies aiming to comply while still delivering powerful PCs.
