550W-650W PSU Roundup 2014

XFX Pro Series 550W Core Edition Review

Manufacturer: XFX
UK: £41.46 (inc VAT)

XFX is more familiar as a graphics brand, but the company has expanded into accessories and indeed power supplies in recent years. The XFX Pro Series 550W Core Edition dates back to 2010, and that means it has a hard time keeping up with more recently introduced models. Manufactured by Seasonic, this was one impressive PSU once upon a time, but right now it mostly has its modest £41 asking price as its main advantage. It only carries an 80 Plus Bronze certification and lacks modular cables, but it does have a few things going for it.


While not as long as in some models, the cable length is sufficient and the assortment of connectors will be plenty for most configurations. The nine SATA connectors are worthy of separate mention. All of the cables have been sleeved, which helps compensate for the lack of a modular option.

The test results then, are a mixed bag. The ripple at 500W is not exceptionally good at 61.2 mVpp, but equally it's well within acceptable tolerances. The efficiency is decent at 85.31 percent, but these days it lags behind most of the competition. Worse, the noise production is far too high once we ramp up the load on the XFX Pro Series 550W, as it peaks at 54 dB(A) at 500W load and still reaches 47 dB(A) even at just 300W, which makes it the noisiest PSU in this test. So even if this is by far the cheapest PSU on test here (that won't destroy your rig), we would advise that you look further and spend a little more.