The Cyonic AU-550x PSU Review
by E. Fylladitakis on August 17, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Seasonic
- PSUs
- 550W
- Cyonic
Cold Test Results
For the testing of PSUs, we are using high precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2700 Watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox and various other bits and parts. For a thorough explanation of our testing methodology and more details on our equipment, please refer to our How We Test PSUs - 2014 Pipeline post.
The efficiency of the AU-550x is very high but not astounding considering that this is an 80Plus Gold certified unit. However, it is improved over the G-series platform we reviewed a while ago. The improvement is not vast but it is well above what we could consider an accuracy or consistency error. The average efficiency within the nominal load range (20% to 100% of the unit's capacity) is 92.5%, with a maximum of 94.2% at 50% load. The efficiency is fairly consistent at higher and lower loads, staying at over 90% across the entire nominal load range. Like all current PC switching PSUs, the efficiency drops sharply at very low loads. We received a reading of 75.8% with a load of 28 Watts (5%), which is actually fairly good for such a low power output.
The very high efficiency allows the Cyonic AU-550x to maintain a rather linear thermal profile. It requires very little cooling at lower loads, therefore the fan speed is kept to a minimum and the PSU remains entirely silent. As the load rises, the thermal management of the PSU steadily increases the speed of the fan to meet the thermal needs of the PSU. Still, even with the PSU fully loaded, there is nothing more than a slight hum coming from the fan, which provides more than enough airflow for the cooling needs of the PSU.
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Samus - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
I agree! Some vendors have turned pretty crappy designs from questionable OEMs into decent products. Look at OCZ psu's after they purchased PCP&C. Most of them were then built by FSP and let's face it FSP made some real crap back in the day...a lot of the same designs were used by XFX but the OCZ models were consistently better and the warranty was much more honorable.YoloPascual - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
It still better than buying the brand name. You won't even need to think about the warranty when you have a really good psu. And who wants to deal with warranty claims?Samus - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
True. But support is everything with technology.Years ago, PC Power & Cooling offered a one-time rewiring of the PSU free of charge if the end-user covered shipping and handling. I took them up on this in 2008 with a 750 Quad and it cost $18 total ($8 to ship it to them, $10 for them to process and ship it back.)
In exchange, I was returned a completely remapped cable layout to fit my case exactly. This is before modular PSU's were really common place, but even modular PSU's either have too short or too long of cables.
I don't believe any other OEM's offer this kind of service anymore. Very unfortunate. But there are other perks OEM's offer other than warranty, such as color coding components to other products they make, and a verified hardware (quality assurance) guarantee.
dwatterworth - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
Stating the power output of the unit as 'Mediocre' in conjunction with the maximum fan RPM to define it's potential profile is probably not the best description. Wording does make a difference, pointing in this case that the unit should be supplying much higher levels of power and is sub-par; something not usually associated with any seasonic unit other than their less than average for Seasonic TFX units.yt2005 - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
Good testing as always, but the article reads like it was written by someone who isn't a native-level speaker of English; the writing feels stilted at times, and that made it difficult to read.Peichen - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
Does Emmanouil Fylladitakis sounds American/British to you?DCide - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
Exactly what I was thinking. I'm sure I couldn't even do him the courtesy of pronouncing his name right, so I have to give him a pass on an incomplete sentence here or there.Samus - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
His background is electronics not English. The odds of an English major putting together a ripple chart are pretty weak so I'll take the review how it is :) even johnnyguru has some skitch here and there, and sometimes I think he's been drinking but they're still great reviews!ImSpartacus - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
Good to see a review for a psu that I might buy. Nice job.romrunning - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
Kudos for reviewing a PSU with a lower power output (450-550W) than the higher output ones!This is exactly what I was looking for to run a single-GPU system.