Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Final Analysis
Hydro is derived from the ancient Greek word "ὕδωρ" which means water. FSP's Hydro PTM has nothing to do with water. Despite its unfortunate name, though, the HPT750M proves to be a solid-performing PSU. The platform we find inside is an upgraded version of the one found in the Hydro G models. FSP is even clever enough to provide lots of cables and connectors, including the pair of EPS connectors we like to see, six PCIe connectors, and 14 SATA ones. It isn't particularly common to see a 750W PSU with this many options for hooking up hardware.
With AMD's new Threadripper CPUs on the market, and a majority of compatible motherboards needing two EPS connectors, popular 750W power supplies are running into compatibility issues. Models like the FSP HPT750M and Seasonic Focus Plus 750 Gold have a chance to play alone in this field until the competition catches up. When we were shouting for more than one EPS connector on 750W PSUs, several manufacturers failed to take our recommendations seriously. Now they're trying to work around their shortsightedness.
The HPT750M uses high-quality components, including Chemi-Con and Rubycon electrolytic caps; Toshiba, Infineon, and STMicroelectronics FETs; and a Protechnic Electric FDB fan. FSP's soldering quality isn't the best we've seen, but it's good enough. And the PSU's external design stands out from the crowd.
As far as performance goes, the load regulation we observed is decent, while ripple suppression is quite good without the need for extra in-cable capacitors. This allows FSP to ship ribbon-style cables, which we prefer for their flexibility and tendency to block less airflow. Overall efficiency is high. More specifically, the HPT750M's 5VSB rail is one of the most efficient we've tested. FSP pays a lot of attention to this rail, unlike some of its competition.
One of the HPT750M's few problems is its price tag, currently hovering around $130. For about $30 less, you can pick up Seasonic's Focus Plus 750 Gold. That's a much better bargain, given the features and performance available. To the HPT750M's credit, it's a quieter power supply. The lack of a semi-passive mode might be a let-down to some enthusiasts. But because the fan spins slowly under light and medium loads, we don't see this as a problem. More troubling is FSP's lousy EMI performance. Seeing the HPT750M's higher conducted EMI at up to 1 MHz frequencies makes us wonder why FSP didn't tune its filter better. Back in the day, a number of manufacturers were caught paying too-little attention to their hold-up times until reviewers called them out. We think something similar will happen with EMI. After all, you don't want your PSU disturbing the performance of nearby electronic devices (or the other way around). A good filter not also blocks the outgoing EMI, but also restricts incoming conducted EMI as well.
MORE: Best Power Supplies
MORE: How We Test Power Supplies
MORE: All Power Supply Content
