Xilence Performance A+ III Series 550w PSU Review

Xilence may not be the first name that rolls off the tongue if you're looking for PC components. They are, however, a brand that has never failed to impress us with their high-quality designs at very decent prices. With the launch of the Xilence Performance A+ III Series power supply, however, this certainly looked to be an interesting proposition. Xilence Performance A+ III Series With a semi-modular design and bronze-rated efficiency rating, this 550w power supply we're reviewing here would (at least on the surface) appear to be a highly-excellent choice for those looking for a new PSU. Is it any good though? Well, to find that out we need to take a closer look and get into some testing! Let's start by looking at some of the key features and specifications! Features Extremely silent cooling: large 120mm fanmodular cable managementModular cable system from 550WFull safety design:OVP (Over Voltage Protection)UVP (Under Voltage Protection)OCP (Over Current Protection) OTP (Over Temperature Protection) SCP (Short Circuit Protection)OLP (Over Load Protection)Low stand-by consumptionHigh energy efficiency: 80+ BRONZE® certified (complies with ErP2014 norm)Active-PFC Specifications For more details specifications, please visit the official product page via the link here! What Does Xilence Have To Say "The 80+BRONZE certified Performance A+ III series, using the high standard of DC/DC technology, supplies increased efficiency and maximum electrical stability even during excessive gaming. Because of its modular cable system (models with 550W and 650W only ) the power supplies offer a built-to-order usability. This individual use of the cables supports an optimized air flow for each computer case and improve heat dissipation. Six integrated safety circuits provide an all-time safe operation and the sleeved main cable harness ensures order in the PC case." Connections As a semi-modular design, Xilence has been rather sensible in providing you with both the main motherboard and CPU connectors along with a twin-split VGA cable as part of the non-modular aspect. As such, outside of SATA connections and other peripherals, the chances are that, out of the box, you should have everything you need to hook up your PC directly connected to the power supply. If you do need more though, the good news is that Xilence has you covered! Packaging The front packaging gives you a nice clear image of the power supply as well as all of the key details and features available at a glance. While space hasn't been used to its best potential (with a lot of open white areas), it's a nice strong way to kick things off and at least highlights the semi-modular style of this power supply within the main image. While the rear of the packaging is light on written details (likely to prevent regional language issues) you are given plenty of diagrams and charts so you know exactly what you're getting in terms of cabling and power output. As you can see, the cable diagrams are nice and clear telling you not only what you get, but their individual lengths. Useful information if your system chassis is a little unusual in terms of cable management. Accessories As this is a power supply you clearly don't expect the packaging to contain a lot of accessories. What you are given the in Xilence Performance A+ III Series, however, is notably light. You're given a pretty flimsy manual along with a warranty extension card. And that's about it. While about what we usually expect, they've certainly spared some expensive in this regard! A Closer Look Out of the box, one of the most instantly eye-catching aspects of the Xilence Performance A+ III Series is the bright red fan. While we have seen a number of manufacturers color their fans in an attempt to make their product a little flashier, this is, without a doubt one of the best implementations we've encountered. It is, admittedly, a little disappointing that, when upon closer inspection, it's revealed that you can actually see the fan recessed into the top of the PSU. Not only that but with a very slight mismatch in color, it clearly wasn't the overall intended design. Particularly since you can just peek around the edges of it to (just) see the interior of the PSU. As this is a semi-modular power supply, you do have a small number of additional ports that allow for additional peripheral connections. These are rather cramped and being set directly above each other, don't make cable removal/insertion as easy as you might like. With the non-modular part containing the 24-pin motherboard, CPU and a double strip VGA connector, however, this should be perfect for the vast majority of users. In terms of the main power input, the area has lots of vents which should help promote a good and clean airflow. As you can see in the picture below, nearly all available space has been used for ventilation which should, all going well, result in some nice and quiet fan speeds. The Xilence logo is lightly embossed to the side of the power supply and while it generally looks good, it isn't overly clean. It does, again, indicate that some costs have been cut in the overall design of this power supply. At least, in terms of aesthetic presentation. Cabling The cabling is both of nice quality and of a decent length meaning that it should be more than suitable for the vast majority of PC chassis designs. With each cable labeled depending on its specific function, there is also a degree of 'fool proofing' in the design. A factor which is always reassuring for the inexperienced PC builder. Internals - A Look Inside! Opening up the Xilence Performance A+ III Series, its firstly reassuring to see a generally clean and tidy presentation. There are no masses of cables and everything (at a glance) seems well spaced and organized. Starting with a closer look of the can, as we can see here, this has not been designed by Xilence. It is, instead, a third-party Chinese component which does tie into the background feeling that a cheaper component/design quality has been used in the Performance A+ III Series. That being said, a power supply fan has a really basic job and as long as it's not overly loud, they're usually never problematic. While the main PCB looks generally good, it does again speak of some generally inexpensive components. It might sound like a weird or trivial point, but you do some to associate less-expensive manufacturing processes by the overall coloring. Put simply, we see a lot of yellows, reds, and even a bit more exposed copper than we'd usually expect! We were unable to ascertain the manufacturer of the two main capacitors for this power supply. We would, however, suggest that they are either Chinese or Taiwanese which clearly are (nearly always) not as well designed as their Japanese counterparts. With them both being rated to 105C, however, they do at least appear to be of a decent quality. Overall Thoughts! On the whole, the Xilence Performance A+ III Series appears to be a very decent power supply, but with more than a few areas of very moderate concern in terms of the build quality. It, quite frankly, speaks of a design that has been made to look better than the sum of its parts and while it succeeds in some areas, it fails in others to the more scrutinous eye. The main crux, however, will all boil down to it actually performs. So, let's see how it handles our testing! Methodology & Testing At eTeknix we take the power supply testing procedure very seriously and have invested a lot of resources into acquiring the appropriate testing equipment. For all power supply reviews, we test the power supplies with dedicated power supply testing equipment. This means we are able to get the most accurate results from our testing as opposed to using software benchmarks (such as OCCT) or multi-meter readouts which are broadly inaccurate. Testing Hardware Sunmoon SM-5500ATE Active Load Tester (1200W rated)Stingray DS1M12 USB OscilloscopeVoltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer What the eTeknix Test Procedure Involves Testing each power supply at 20/40/60/80/100% load (with load balanced across all rails) and measuring PFC (power factor correction), efficiency (actual power divided by power "pulled at the wall") and voltage regulation (deviance from expected voltages of 3.3/5/12 on the main rails).Measuring ripple with an oscilloscope at 20/40/60/80/100% load.Measuring fan speed after a stabilisation period of five minutes at each load scenario using the Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer and a reflective strip on the fan.Testing each power supply's OPP (Over Power Protection) mechanism and seeing how many watts each power supply can deliver before shutting down Other Things to Consider We recognise that a single 12-volt cable can provide only 6 Amps before overheating (which corrupts voltage regulation and efficiency) and so we used an adequate number of cables for each power supply to ensure there is not efficiency loss from poor cables selectionOur Sunmoon SM-5500ATE power supply tester is not capable of testing more than 300W on each of the 12-volt rails so where a power supply provides more than 300W on a 12-volt rail that power is distributed over multiple 12-volt rails on the load tester. For example a power supply with one 12 volt rail supplying 750 watts would be spread equally over three 12 volt rails on the load tester, a power supply with two 450W 12v rails would be spread over four 12v rails on the load tester, two 225W 12v rails for each of the 12v rails on the unit.We use the same time scale and horizontal millivolt scale on our oscilloscope for all ripple tests, that is a 20ms T/DIV (horizontal) and a 0.02 V/DIV (vertical) meaning the scale is from -80mV to +80mV, ATX spec dictates that the 12v rail must fall within 150mv of ripple and the 3.3/5 within 50mv so that scale allows us to include both 150 and 50mV peaks. (Some older PSU reviews use different scales which were later ditched as the visual representation they give is inadequate, in these reviews written measurements are provided only).Deviance is the terminology used to represent the way voltages diverge from the expected values Voltage Regulation To test voltage regulation we load the power supply to five different load scenarios that give an equal spread of load across every single rail. So that means 20% on all rails, 40% on all rails and so on. We then calculate the average deviance of each rail from its expected voltage. Ideally, anything of +/- 2% regulation is seen as a very good result. Power Efficiency Power efficiency is measured by calculating actual supplied wattage divided by the wattage drawn at the wall/plug, multiplied by 100 to give a percentage. We then compare that to the particular 80 Plus certification the company claims to see if it meets that. You can see the 80 Plus certifications below, we always test power supplies at 230v. Power Factor Correction Power Factor Correction is the ratio of the real power flowing to the load, to the apparent power in the circuit. The aim of PFC is to make the load circuitry that is power factor corrected appear purely resistive (apparent power equal to real power). In this case, the voltage and current are in phase and the reactive power consumption is zero. The closer the number to one the better as this allows the most efficient delivery of electrical power (Source - Wikipedia). Ripple Noise and Ripple can easily be measured by an oscilloscope. These show how much voltage fluctuation there is on a particular rail. We tested the rail stability of the 3.3-volt, 5-volt and 12-volt rails using an identical time and millivolt scale for all graphs. millivolt ripple is measured by the peak to peak size of the voltage curve. The latest ATX 12 volt version 2.3 specifications state that ripple from peak to peak must be no higher than 50 millivolts for the 3.3-volt and 5-volt rails, while the 12-volt rail is allowed up to 120 millivolts peak to peak to stay within specifications. Millivolt figures are stated to the closest increment of 5 given their variability. OPP Power supplies often quote as having various protection mechanisms such and the most important of these is Over Power Protection. In our testing we crank up the power draw until the power supply either shuts down (meaning the OPP mechanism is present and working) or blows up (meaning it is either not present or not working). We then note the maximum power consumption before the power supply shut down, or before it blew up. Fan Speed When testing in a power supply laboratory it is difficult to take fan noise readings as the noise from the Sunmoon test equipment and air conditioning corrupts everything. The next best thing in our circumstances was reading off the fan speed with a tachometer to get an idea for the noise. The ambient temperature during testing held constant at 22 degrees, with 1 degree of variation. Each power supply had a consistent time period of 5 minutes to stabilise between each load scenario. In my experience, the following general relationships apply between noise levels and fan speeds, though it can vary greatly between the type of fan used. Below 800 RPM - Inaudible/Silent800 to 1000 RPM - Barely audible1000 - 1200 RPM - Audible but still quiet1200 - 1400 RPM - Moderately noisy1400 - 1800 RPM - Noisy1800 RPM or above - Intolerable Efficiency Despite this only being a bronze-rated efficiency power supply, our testing provided results well in excess of that remit. At times bordering on Gold, the bottom line is that this power supply performs in an efficiency tier nearly 2 ranks higher than its official rating. This, if you hadn't guessed, is very, very, good indeed! I mean, look at that chart below! It basically operates between 88%-91% across the entire range of load outputs and, to quality as bronze, the minimum is 81% by EU standards. PFC (Power Factor Correction) While a little on the low side at 20% load, when pushed harder the PFC rating for the Xilence Performance A+ III Series is, similar to the efficiency rating, excellent and much higher than you might have expected. Between 60%-100% this averages around 0.97 which is honestly as good as you could've wished and a clear indication that this power supply has (despite some concerns) been built to a very high standard. Voltage Regulation While there is a little movement in the figures (based on the overall output) the main key factor is consistency and as you can see from the deviance, the results are nice and tight! As such, no matter how much power you're asking from the Xilence Performance A+ III Series, it'll have no problem obliging you at a nice smooth level! Ripple While the Xilence Performance A+ III Series doesn't make any big whup about 'low noise' or 'ripple', the results we found suggest that they really should think about making one! With the highest result being 16.2, this is well below the required maximum of 50. In fact, with most results in the single digit remit, the Xilence Performance A+ III Series is honestly excellent! Load (%) 3.3V Ripple 5V Ripple 12V Ripple 203.64.48.8 405.24.49.4 6065.411.6 808.6614 10010.26.616.2 Over Power Protection and Max Wattage Despite being rated to 550w, it's important to know that if you get a little greedy and try and push it too hard, that the power supplies OPP will successfully kick in to prevent any damage to either the power supply itself or the components within your PC. So, how did the Xilence Performance A+ III Series do? Well, drawing an extra 221.2 watts over the rated amount, this is not only impressive, but we can confirm that the OPP worked perfectly! As such, this gets two big thumbs up from us. Fan Speed The Xilence Performance A+ III Series provides a nice solid fan curve based on the overall power output. Running at around 450rpm at minimum and 770rpm at maximum, the noise levels are remarkably quiet and, as such, even when at full tilt (in terms of power load), you'll probably never notice this power supply running within a system and all the other (generally louder) noise-making things within it. How Much Does it Cost? Although no exact retail price could be found at the time of the review (for specifically this 550w design), we did find a number of similar models from the Xilence Performance A+ III Series to give us a good idea. As such, we would expect this power supply to have a price of around £60 which, for one of this quality (as shown throughout our testing), represents some amazing value for money! Performance Despite this power supply looking like a rather generic (and cheap) model (sorry Xilence), the performance figures clearly show that this is much more impressive than initial impressions might indicate. As can be seen in our testing, the performance figures provided were excellent and in terms of efficiency, we found this to perform way beyond the required remit of its 'bronze' certification! Practicality & Functionality With this specific model running at 550w, this would be suitable for the vast majority of gaming PCs and with its very smart semi-modular design, it's a very practical design to work with. Put simply, if I needed a power supply right now, I'd consider this a solid option! In addition to this though, that distinctive red fan design does give this PSU a look that stands out from the pack. It's a small touch, but in such a crowded market, one that definitely helps. Should I Buy One? You're not exactly spoiled for choice when it comes to power supplies, but if you do your research, there are plenty of understated bargains to be had out there. Of these, the Xilence Performance A+ III Series is definitely one of the most impressive options. Not only does it look good, but it also performs at a level well beyond the usual consumer's expectations and, in terms of efficiency, much higher than the bronze rated efficiency the product officially carries. If this was silver or gold efficiency rated, you could easily slap another £20 on the price tag for this power supply and I'd still think it was great! Admittedly, during our review, there were a number of minor factors that did lead us to question the overall quality of this design. In addition to this, we didn't find anything on the product (or its website) to suggest what kind of warranty this has. As such, caveat emptor. They're minor concerns, but we usually like to think that a power supply has at least a 3-year warranty to back it up! Then again, to coin another expression, you get what you pay for. Albeit, that doesn't seem quite right either as, for the price, this performed well beyond the expected remit in our testing. Put simply, it's a bit of a weird one, if you are, however, after a high-performing power supply for a very reasonable price, the Xilence Performance A+ III Series is definitely up there with the best! Xilence A+III Performance Series 500w Power Supply Review