FSP Aurum Xilenser 500W review

If noise (or lack of) is your number one priority when building a new PC, the Aurum Xilenser 500W could well be the model for you. With no fan at all, it’s completely passively cooled. There’s just a trace of coil noise in use, but you’d have to listen very carefully for it and you’re unlikely to hear this in day-to-day use.

Impressively, this power supply is also 80 Plus Gold certified, which means efficiencies of at least 88 per cent at all loads. In our tests, we managed 89.61 per cent at 100 per cent load, 92.29 per cent at 50 per cent load and 89.40 per cent at 20 per cent load. That’s very impressive and means that this supply will be comparatively cheap to run.

80 Plus Gold certification means that this power supply is incredibly efficient at all loads

The good news continues with the modular design, bar the captive 24-pin motherboard connector, which is required for your PC. With four Molex, five SATA and four 6+2 pin PCI Express connectors, there’s plenty here for even the most fully-loaded PC. To top it all off, there’s a generous five-year warranty, giving you plenty of peace of mind.

Our only problem with this power supply is that it’s so expensive. Even though it’s Gold certified, it would take years and years to make up the cost in lower electricity bills. If you want to build a silent computer, then this truly is a great supply, but for considerably less you can buy the excellent Seasonic X-Series 660W. If you just want a great budget power supply, the Be Quiet! Pure Power L8 530W is a great choice.