XPG Pylon 550W Power Supply Review

A Bronze CPU with an FDB fan.

XPG Pylon 550W
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

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Protection Features

Check out our PSUs 101 article to learn more about PSU protection features.

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Protection Features

Row 0 - Cell 1

OCP (Cold @ 24°C)

12V: 55.2A (121.32%), 12.083V 5V: 29.8A (149%), 5.035V 3.3V: 29.5A (147.5%), 3.295V 5VSB: 3.7A (148%), 5.02V

OCP (Hot @ 36.5°C)

12V: 54.4A (119.56%), 12.086V 5V: 29.2A (146%), 5.036V 3.3V: 28.1A (140.5%), 3.295V 5VSB: 3.8A (152%), 5.011V

OPP (Cold @ 25°C)

704.74W (128.13%)

OPP (Hot @ 41°C)

669.66W (121.76%)

OTP

✓ (148°C @ 12V Heat Sink)

SCP

12V to Earth: ✓ 5V to Earth: ✓ 3.3V to Earth: ✓ 5VSB to Earth: ✓ -12V to Earth: ✓

PWR_OK

Accurate but lower than 16ms

NLO

SIP

Surge: MOV Inrush: NTC Thermistor

OCP at 12V and OPP are correctly configured, though we would like to see lower triggering points on the minor rails, especially at 3.3V. All other protection features are present and work fine. 

DC Power Sequencing

According to Intel’s most recent Power Supply Design Guide (revision 1.4), the +12V and 5V outputs must be equal to or greater than the 3.3V rail at all times. Unfortunately, Intel doesn't mention why it is so important to always keep the 3.3V rail's voltage lower than the levels of the other two outputs.

The XPG Pylon 550W's 3.3V rail is lower than the other two in all three tests, though, so there is no problem here. 

Cross Load Tests

To generate the following charts, we set our loaders to auto mode through custom-made software before trying more than 25,000 possible load combinations with the +12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails. The deviations in each of the charts below are calculated by taking the nominal values of the rails (12V, 5V, and 3.3V) as point zero. The ambient temperature during testing was between 30 to 32 degrees Celsius (86 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Load Regulation Charts

Efficiency Graph

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Ripple Graphs

The lower the power supply's ripple, the more stable the system will be. Less stress will also be applied to its components.

Infrared Images

We apply a half-load for 10 minutes with the PSU's top cover and cooling fan removed before taking photos with a modified FLIR E4 camera able to deliver an IR resolution of 320x240 (76,800 pixels).

The NTC thermistor gets quite hot since there is no bypass relay. This means lower resistance thus lower energy losses on it, but it won't provide adequate protection in a hot restart with the bulk cap empty. The SBRs on the secondary side reach 100 degrees Celsius, even with mid load, because there is no active cooling. Lots of energy is lost there, and this is why active cooling is required. 

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Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a contributing editor at Tom's Hardware, covering PSUs.

  • NightHawkRMX
    Given the transient response, I don't know how well this unit would take a high end GPU, but realistically you shouldn't be pairing a 3090 or something with a 550w PSU anyhow.

    Right now the XPG Pylon 550w is about $70, the same cost as a CX550 right now. I wish the XPG had a longer warranty, but it is some good competition.
    Reply