XFX PRO 450W Core Edition Non Modular Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

XFX’s PRO 450W Core Edition power supply costs $60 at Newegg in North America while in the UK it can be had for £35 at Scan Computers and £40 at Amazon. The XFX PRO 450W Core Edition comes with a 5 year warranty.

Conclusion

I think it is fair to say XFX’s PRO 450W Core Edition power supply is certainly nothing exciting. It offers a good amount of performance for a competitive price. Being a Seasonic unit I’m not surprised to see very strong ripple suppression, very high PFC and high efficiency that goes beyond the 80 Plus Bronze certification this unit is rated for. Overall voltage regulation was also very strong on most rails but I think the 12 volt performance could be improved, we saw the unit consistently sit around the 12.3 volt level which is “okay” but in an ideal world that would be 12-12.1 volts as 12.3 volts is already half-way towards the 12.6v ATX spec limit. Given that the 12 volt rail delivers the bulk of the power to any system I think this is a major issue, there are plenty of other units out there that perform much closer to the required 12 volt level. The noise output of this unit was also less than impressive, above 60% load the fan really starts to kick up making this unit very loud, at 100% load the noise is almost unbearable. Finally the cables this unit is supplied with a fairly uninspiring, cheap braid, unsightly multi-coloured cabling and only a single PCIe 6+2 pin connector: 450W is easily good enough for a dual connector graphics card like an R9 280X or GTX 770 – so why only one connector?

Pros

• Competitive pricing
• Good PFC and efficiency
• Strong Ripple suppression
• 5 year warranty

Cons

• Mediocre 12v rail performance
• Noisy fan from 60% load
• Cheap cables, lack of PCIe connectors
• Non-Modular

“The XFX PRO 450W Core Edition power supply is a decent offering for a system builder on a strict budget, it will deliver solid and efficient power – it does what it says on the tin, and with no frills attached.”

Thank you to XFX for providing this review sample.