Technical data …
The basic weight of the Xigmatek Tauro 500W is approx. 1.6 kg (shipping weight approx. 2.1 kg) and the overall size is about 158x150x85mm.
The technical data of the 500 Watt power supply can be checked at any time on the attached label. The Xigmatek Tauro 500W XTK-TB-0500B Mod. AD-F520A2-36 provides following voltage levels and amperages: +3.3V 24A ; +5V 24A ; +12V 32A -12V 0.5A ; +5VSB 2.5A
All voltages could be tested on different loads also with external measurements well and pointed to a good technical conversion of the switched power supply. The combined total output values should not exceed the following ratings: At +3.3V and +5.0V up to 150 Watt, +12V up to 384 Watt and the total consumption of all power lines should not exceed 500 Watt.
These are manufacturer values, which one should not exceed, to avoid overloading and too high heat dissipation. Apropos overloading – of course the PSU offers also all kinds of short-circuit-, overcurrent-, output- and input power protection, (SCP, OVP, OPP, UVP, OTP, OCP) which was tested successfully in the test attempt. SCP stands for Short Circuit Protection, OVP is the Over Voltage Protection, OPP is the Over Power Protection, UVP means Under Voltage Protection, OTP stands for Over Temperature Protection and OCP is the abbreviation for Over Current Protection. Nevertheless one should avoid any installation failures, because under certain conditions it is possible to destroy the PSU, or other parts of the PC (up to a fire by e.g. cable fire with loose or wrong connections).
Furthermore, the power supply has an engery efficent active PFC (Power Factor Correction) for reduction of the reactive power, the EMV noise and improvement of the efficiency. Meanwhile at least the more inexpensive less efficient and bigger passive PFC (upstream throttle) is legally prescribed. So also here the company Xigmatek saved by no means and offers a power pack with 80PLUS BRONCE certification, which has a .90 PFC value.
Own measurements of the test system with ASRock 890GX Extreme3 motherboard, AMD Phenom II 710 X3 CPU, 4GB DDR3-1333 memory, hard disk and ATI Radeon HD4870 PCI-E 2.0 video card resulted in an idle value of 154 Watt and a maximum value with full system load of 249 Watt. Switched off in S5 mode, the test system with the Tauro power supply needed max. 2-3 Watts. Above all the idle value of 154W with small load is thereby lower than the value of Cooler Master GX 650 Bronze power supply of approx. 161 Watt Idle and 238 Watt load with 650W total power. Anyway, the values were above the previously tested Xigmatek Centauro XTK-CB-0600M PSU with 600 Watt power supply with an consumption in idle of approx. 139 Watt and 235 Watt with load and clearly above the energy efficience Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W power supply with an consumption in idle of approx. 122 Watt and 212 Watt with load in spite of a higher 1050W total power. More power supply reviews will be published here in the hardware test area.
HINT: You can calculate the PC current consumption and PC cost of electricity easily …
Interactive power consumption calculator
The MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) of the power supply is according to the manufacturer with 25°C about 100,000 hours, which distinguishes finally the reliability of the power supply, this time between 2 possible errors is relatively high, even if it is only 25°C and not like sometimes usual 40°C.
The 135mm Xigmatek DFS132512H DC 12V fan with 0.27A reached thanks to temperature control a relatively good adjustment of the volume for necessary cooling and the fan be heard at medium PSU load only slightly. Unfortunately not only high-quality 105°C capacitors are inside of this power supply used, but also some 85°C capacitors like this Bulk-Cap with a Hold-Up time of approx. 17ms on full load.
Layout, Design and Features of the Xigmatek 500 Watt Bronze power supply unit …