Review: Xilence performance a series 530W

by Tarinder Sandhu on 24 October 2014, 09:00

Tags: Xilence

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qackoz

Add to My Vault: x

Testing results

Our Chroma load-testing procedures can be found at this link.

Efficiency

Load 10% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Efficiency 80.2% 84.8% 85.2% 84.3% 84%

We're clearly not going to see the 90%-plus rating that's achieved by premium supplies; Xilence, however, does a good job of keeping above 80 per cent across our wide range of loads.

Regulation

In terms of regulation, we're looking at just how well the supply is able to hold to the various lines. The ATX spec. has a +/- 5 per cent leeway on all but the -12V line.

Line/Load 3.3V 5V 12V
10 per cent +0.8% +1.3% +1.5%
50 per cent -0.4% +0.2% +0.4%
100 per cent -2.0% -1.3% -1.4%

Having looked at PSUs in detail for a number of years, manufacturing quality has improved such that very few supplies do poorly here. Looking a best-to-worse-case scenario, overall fluctuation is less than three per cent.

Regulation - cross-load

How about providing uneven loads that stress particular voltage rails? In the first attempt, we've put 35A on the 12V rails, and 1A on the 3.3V and 5V rails. This can actually be somewhat typical for a system heavy on graphics and CPU power. In the second, we've turned the tables and gone for 12A on both the 3.3V and 5V rails - highly unlikely in a real-world environment - and just 2A on the 12V - even more unlikely.

Line/Load 3.3V 5V 12V
Cross-load 12V focus +1.5% +1.7% -1.4%
Cross-load 3.3V/5V focus -3% -1.6% +2.2%

Hammering one part of the PSU power delivery while using just a small portion of the other can throw cheaper supplies out of kilter. Now we're pushing the supply into difficult waters. We'd be happy with an overall variation of less than five per cent across each line; the worst-case scenario is on the 3.3V rail.

Ripple

Line/Load (mv - p-p max) 3.3V 5V 12V
10 per cent 10mV 10mV 20mV
50 per cent 15mV 25mV 35mV
100 per cent 25mV 35mV 50mV

The ATX v2.2 spec states that the maximum permissible ripple is 120mV for the 12V line and 50mV for others.

PSUs convert AC power into DC, but doing so requires the AC waveform to be suppressed. What we're really testing here is the quality of the supply's rectifier and any smoothing capacitors in getting rid of this unwanted up-and-down ripple. Performance is comfortably within the limits of the specification.

Temps

Temperatures Intake Exhaust
10 per cent 30°C 38°C
50 per cent 35°C 45°C
100 per cent 37°C 49°C

Fan performance

Temps are good but they mean little in isolation. Obtaining accurate noise readings is near-on impossible when the supply is connected to the Chroma test harness and dual-unit load-tester. We can test the manufacturer's quietness claims in a different way, by using an AMPROBE TMA10A anemometer placed directly over the centre of the PSU. The anemometer records the airflow being pushed/pulled from the PSU's fan. We can use a Voltcraft DT-10L RPM meter to measure the rotational speed of the fan, too.

Load Fan RPM Airflow Noise
10 per cent 700rpm circa-20cfm Very quiet
50 per cent 1,000rpm circa-35cfm Noticeable
100 per cent 1,500rpm circa-70cfm Very noticeable

The Evercool fan isn't noticeable until the PSU is forced to run at over half the rated capacity. Should you push it that far, which would happen in most under-load situations, the fan can be heard quite clearly.