FSP Launches The Hydro GE PSU Line

FSP has been quite active lately, releasing one PSU line after the other. Now the company has introduced the fresh Hydro GE line, which consists of three members with capacities ranging from 450W to 650W. All are fully modular with stealth and flat modular cables, 80 PLUS Gold certification, and the droplet-shaped thermal design of the Hydro G models. Lastly, the cooling fan has a 135mm diameter and uses a hydro dynamic bearing.

All Hydro GE units have a single +12V rail, which looks to be the preferred choice for most users nowadays, and according to FSP, at the internals of those PSUs only Japanese electrolytic caps are used. There is no mention however on the exact model of those caps, and as the most informed of you probably know, there are also low-end Japanese caps featuring a shorter lifetime compared to high-end Taiwanese caps. So the description "Japanese caps" is mostly a marketing term for most brands rather than a strong asset for the product, unless of course the manufacturer indeed uses high quality Japanese caps and not some low-end models. In our opinion, the major asset of Japanese caps is that you can take seriously the manufacturer's life expectancy claims, something that might not be so accurate in Taiwanese caps and in most cases is highly inaccurate in Chinese caps.

The Hydro GE units come replete with all the necessary protection features included, and the provided warranty is satisfactory at five years, with a two-year period for rapid replacement of the PSU according to FSP. Another interesting point is that FSP provides some spare side stickers in the bundle, which you can use to change the PSU's looks. The 450W model provides a couple of PCIe connectors and a single EPS connector, while the 550W and 650W models retain the single EPS connector but have four PCIe connectors. With a quick look at the specs of those units, we also noticed the larger-than-normal dimensions with a 17cm depth (the same with the Hydro G models). In this downsizing era, it is weird to see low- and mid-capacity PSUs with longer than 16cm chassis. Not that a 17cm depth is long enough to create any compatibility problems, though.

Unfortunately, FSP didn't provide any information about the expected availability dates in the U.S. or share the products' prices. We estimate that the street prices of the Hydro GE PSUs should be within the $60-$90 range.