XFX XTS 520W Passive Modular Power Supply Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

XFX’s XTS 520 will be coming to the UK market with an MSRP of around £107 from what we have heard. That translates to a U.S MSRP of about $140. This power supply comes with a 5 year warranty.

Conclusion

The testing results reveal that the XFX XTS 520 is a truly top-notch power supply. It boasts impressive ripple suppression, total silence and very strong voltage regulation across all the rails including the minor ones that other PSU vendors often skimp on. The fully modular design is also very nice and the fact the cables that are provided are all black mean this is one of the tidiest and easiest power supplies to build with. Of course you have to pay a premium for this unit, around twice what you’d pay for a high quality modular 500W PSU from other vendors but you do get the benefits of passive operation and high quality components that provide 80 Plus Platinum efficiency. XFX have also modified the original Seasonic OEM design to offer a smarter choice of cables: it now includes four PCIe connectors meaning you can easily support SLI and CrossFire of mid-range graphics cards like GTX 660/760s or R9 270Xs/HD 7870s.

On the down-side, as we’ve already mentioned, the price is a little high. We also note that the XFX unit has 2 years less warranty than the Seasonic OEM design it is built from although XFX are offering more competitive pricing and better cable options such as the four PCIe connectors instead of two and the fact the FDD connector is now combined onto a molex strand not provided in a separate adapter cable. The unit has slightly below-par PFC performance at lower load scenarios than other units of a similar wattage that I’ve seen, but that problem soon fizzles out once you start hitting load scenarios upwards of 40%.

Pros

• High quality components
• Silent operation
• Excellent voltage regulation
• 5 year warranty
• Great cables

Cons

• Mediocre PFC at 20% load
• Pricey for a 500~W unit
• No included cable ties

“If silence matters to you but you still want a quality power supply capable of powering a decent spec system then the XFX XTS 520 is a great power supply to consider. Built from a rock-solid design with the highest quality components, a fully modular design and an impressive warranty you’ll be hard pressed to find anything better for the price that is also passive.”

Thank you to XFX for providing this review sample.