Specifications

The 80 PLUS Gold criteria are met and the protections include all but OTP (Over Temperature Protection). In a fanless unit we consider OTP as essential and FSP should have included it. The dimensions of the PSU are the standard ones and its weight is normal for its category and design. Also the warranty is pretty long at five years and the price is reasonable for a fanless PSU, which generally tend to be expensive. Finally, regarding max. operating temperature, FSP doesn't give any info, so in our tests we will try to stay close to 40°C, to avoid dramatic situations.


FSP equipped the Aurum Xilenser 500 with two +12V virtual rails which can deliver almost the full power of the unit, combined. This greatly enhances usability since in contemporary systems the +12V rail is heavily utilized by almost all components. The minor rails are restricted to 100W, a power level which however will cover every modern system. Finally the 5VSB can output up to 2.5A, a typical capacity for this rail.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

Only the 24-pin ATX connector sits on a fixed cable while all other cables are modular and they feature a flat profile which will be beneficial for airflow inside the chassis. The only problem is that the cables are wrapped in a rubber sleeving which isn't so flexible. If they used ribbon cables instead, things would be easier, during cable management. Cable length is sufficient but the distance among the PCIe connectors is short. Thankfully the distance among SATA/Molex connectors is compatible with ATX spec recommendation (150mm). Finally all connectors use 18AWG gauges which is the right size.


Since the EPS connector could draw so much power, that it would overload a single rail, FSP decided to feed the connector from both rails. A wise decision since power distribution is balanced that way.