FSP Aurum Xilenser 500W @ TechPowerUp

[-The_Mask-]

FSP was established in 1993 and currently, according to their claims, they are the 5th largest power supply vendor in the world. This means that this company is quite large and has a strong R&D department. Besides desktop PSUs they are also active in the manufacturing of several product categories including industrial power supplies, open frame PSUs, LCD TV PSUs, adapters, medical and LED power units, power banks and UPS systems. Like many other relevant companies their headquarters are located in Taiwan and most likely their factories in mainland China.

FSP recently released two new fanless Aurum Xilenser units, besides the Aurum Pro. The modular Xilensers come in two versions with 400W and 500W capacity and in today's review we are going to take a detailed look at the stronger of both. Here we should note that in addition to the modular Xilensers, FSP released non-modular versions too, for users that don't mind the lack of modular cables but want a lower price.

The modular Xilenser 500W or AU-500FL promises zero output noise thanks to its passive design and the lack of a cooling fan, it is 80 PLUS Gold compliant, uses only Japanese capacitors which tend to last longer than the Chinese ones and finally it is equipped with two +12V rails. The AU-500FL uses special designed ventilation holes, unlike most PSUs with honeycomb exhaust grills, which according to FSP allow natural aero dynamics to improve airflow, keeping the internals of the PSU cooler. Well we will see about this in action while testing the unit inside the hotbox, at ultra-high ambient

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/F...ser_500/1.html

[Original Sin]

I like it(apart from the weird 5v ripple results), I think that gold plastic thing on the grile is a little cheesy... I mean, for high ends like this one or Aurum Pro they could have done better.

Cool review Crmaris!

[ssshjp]

4 PCI-E connectors and flat cables. That's the advantage over seasonic X-FL.

[Tazz]

Although they are flat, I can't say I'm that fond of them. They seem a bit bulky to me.

[Stefan Payne]

The disadvantage of the flat cables FSP delivers could be that they're a little stiff. And, of course, they seem bulky.

BTW: I don't like the cable managment of the Xilencer much...
The cable managment of the Aurum seems a little bit better to me...

[ChosenOmen]

Overall a pretty nice power supply. But no OTP on a fanless unit

[crmaris]

don't like either so much this type of flat cables. I would prefer ribboned ones.

[rafal_iB_PL]

Yeah, those cables seem much thicker than eg. Corsair's ones.

[Tator Tot]

I'd rather have bundles (ala normal sleeved cables) or the ribbon type vs those. They're honestly the worst kind since they cannot make the awkward bends as easily as ribbon cables do.

Though, they're probably more well protected.

[ssshjp]

If the flat cables are even harder then normal sleeved 16AWG cables, er... they are not as good as I thought they were.