And Then There Was Xilence
Xilence Performance X Series XP1250 (XP1250MR9)
Review by: Jennifer Griffiths
Video & Testing by: Philip Griffiths
Introduction :
All too often I see people cut corners in building a machine. I will be the first to tell you that the Power Supply is not the place to cut corners. Do that and you could end up paying out more than if you just put a good one in to begin with. Xilence knows this only too well. In the past, TFT has had a look at Xilence products and found them to be of good quality and reasonable prices. So, it should not come as a shock today that I am optimistic about taking a look at the Xilence Performance X Series 1250W PSU. It is fully modular and 80 Plus Gold.
How better to test a power supply than to incorporate it with a build? You will have seen the Xilence Perfermance X Series 1250W PSU in the ThermalTake View 37 ARGB Edition mid-tower chassis review (last week). But today, let's get up close and personal with it. I want to inspect it closely and find out exactly how it compares against the competition.
Read on to see how it did in testing.
Main Features:
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semi-passive fan
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This product has been optimized for low noise, accordingly the fan only starts above 40% of the nominal power
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Extremely silent cooling: large 140mm fan
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Excellent air flow design for a better heat dissipation
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Modular cable management
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Following safety design:
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OVP (Over Voltage Protection)
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UVP (Under Voltage Protection)
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OCP (Over Current Protection)
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OTP (Over Temperature Portection)
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SCP (Short Circuit Protection)
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OLP (Over Load Protection)
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Low stand-by consumption
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high energy efficiency: 80+ GOLD® and EcoPSU certified (complies with ErP2014 norm)
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Active-PFC
Specifications:
Continuous power (W)1250
Form factor ATX 12VVersion 2.4
Voltage (Vac)200 - 240
ModelPerformance X | XP1250MR9
Frequency (Hz)50 - 60
Input current (A)15
PFCactive
Manufacturer statement:
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High-End performance over 1000 watts of power! The 1250W fully modular PSU allows individual cable use for system installation and as a result improves cable management with better air circulation. With its efficiency up to 92% and the associated 80PLUS® Gold certification, the high-class power supply offer a very quiet operation and less power consumption while operating.
About Xilence :
Xilence has been manufacturing cooling and noise-minimising PC components for over 10 years. Based in Germany but with global headquarters in Taiwan, it is owned by the Listan group (which also owns Be Quiet) and has a growing R&D department of German and Taiwanese engineers tasked with creating thermal solutions for increasingly-demanding heat-generating tasks. Although not the cheapest, Xilence has a pedigree for reliable, high quality products with lots of “bang for your buck” across its PSU, cooler, case fan and laptop accessory ranges. Xilence has, most recently, launched its Performance X PSU range aimed directly at the gaming PC users – with such a large, stable power supply market in the UK, largely dominated by just a few brands at higher price points, there is a huge market for well-priced products that perform well.
Packaging:
The packaging is clear and easy to read. The specifications that you will be interested in are on the box in easy to read font with pictures. The only thing that bothers me is the good picture, the proper picture of the PSU is on the back of the box. The front has some sort of drawing with what looks like coloured pencil. I think what they are trying to achieve is the look of the PSU sitting on a table. I would have put the picture from the back on the front and the picture from the front on the back because you want first impressions to be, well, impressive.
On the packaging you can see this is an 80 Plus Gold PSU along with its QR code and other relevant information. Other than what I mentioned about the picture, it will look nice on the shelf. It is a rather large box though. (31 x 17) cm So, you may have to turn it sideways or at an angle if you have limited space.
Unboxing:
Inside the box you have your paper work, 4 screws, power cable, PSU unit and the connectors.
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1 - 24 pin connector
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2 - 8 pin connectors
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4 - molex connectors
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8 - SATA connectors
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8 - 6+2 PCIe connectors
Installation:
Screw into place
Connect required cables
Testing:
With all tests we got acceptable variations of power and it worked as it should. all Tests Done with a Thermaltake Dr Power II PSU Tester, (see pic). We also powered on our test PC and put a 2 hour stress testing that draws 845w with no issues.
When we used the PSU on a Low wattage system or on our testing tools the fan did not run, as it was using 40% power draw, the PSU stayed nice and cool. Once we put the PSU in out testing rig with 6 RX570s the fan kicked in to keep it cool.
Here are some quick numbers for you. Let's suppose you have a 1250 W power supply, a system that pulls 750 W at full load, and is on 8 hours a day running at full load all the time. That puts your PSU at around 60% load so its going to be at around peak efficiency.
Power drawn from the wall:
Basic - 937.5 W
Bronze - 912.27 W
Silver - 882.3 W
Gold - 833.8 W (This PSU)
Platinum - 815.1 W
That means that over all, you save 21.6 W/h with bronze, 55.2 W/h with silver, 104.1 W/h with gold, and 122.4 W/h with platinum. With 8 hours a day at full load that comes out to be 5.46 kWh, 13.26 kWh, 24.99 kWh, and 29.37 kWh saved per month with bronze, silver, gold, and platinum respectively. If you pay around 15 pence per kWh that means that over the course of 1 year having a Gold rated PSU over basic saves you about £48 so it could take quite a while to pay for the difference with energy savings alone, but in general Gold rated units and up are much better quality than basic rated units.
So in Basics if you use this PSU, you could save its value in power savings over 3 years.
Pricing:
RRP around £165
Conclusion:
The XP1250 is a good power supply. It does what it promises. The cables are nicely braided, no multi colour wires showing, great forward thinking on that. I would have liked the PCIe to be black like the other connections instead of red. I'm not sure why they chose to do it this way. Unless your colour scheme is black and red, this will clash. Also, I think it would have looked smarter if it had of had the logo engraved in it like other Xilence PSUs we have seen and reviewed in the past. All in all though, it is a good PSU and I would buy it. - Jenni
The Xilence XP1250MR9 is a well built power supply for anyone who need a lot of connections, like miners, hard core gamers with multiple GPU's or even a high end workhorse machine for video/photo editing. The main draw back is when you have it fitted into the bottom of a case with a side windows it just looks like a black box. There is no branding to be seen, where on the cheaper 750W version there was a nice Xilence logo molded into the actual casing, - Phil
Pros:
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Braided cables, no exposed multi colour wires.
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Works as it should, power levels on par.
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Cable length is adequate for most builds.
Cons:
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Xilence brand not engraved on the side to give a special look.
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PCIe connector is red.
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Box art on the front, I would rather see the picture from the back on the front.
They got a Must Have Award
