Let us now come from the technical data to the optical and practical criteria. The black metal chassis has a good finish and power cables are protected with black mesh plastic sleeves.
Here you see the Xigmatek Tauro PSU with all preassembled cables:
Here is a picture with a bent view of the power supply with the label sticker and the big cable wad:
The large 135 mm Globe Fan attached at the lower surface sucks the air flow into the power supply and blows the warmed up air without another fan through the small holes out of the power supply. The fan can be heard already at medium load, but is only little noticed after its installation in the PC case.
Thanks to the good cooling over the 135mm fan, another fan is not necessary on the power supply back. Here one can see the back of the power supply, where one can see only the large power switch and the socket for the 230VAC power cord. This AC230V version is not suitable for 100-240V AC operation. The abbreviation “A” at the end of the model number indicates the input voltage of 110-240VAC and “B” is 230VAC:
As already mentioned on the first review page, the Xigmatek PSU is build unfortunately non-modular, so it’s necessary to place all cables inside of the PC case. So the aeration and/or heat dissipation inside of the PC case is not as good as with a modular PSU and more creativity is necessary to stow away all cables.
All plugs and cables are well processed and even the SATA cable is well designed and has no problem with the rear cap – good solution!
In order to save some money for additional adapters, the 20-pin plug (up to ATX 2.2) can be converted very simply to a 24-pol ATX plug. Simple, but very useful: Because there are less motherboards with 20-pin connector in the meanwhile, Xigmatek has fixed the two connectors with tape, so that the 4pin and 20pin connector can be plugged directly together usually.
A look at the power supply inside shows a relatively simple structure and shows except of the 85°C capacitor a good interior.
The efficient cooling and airy structure increases the durability and lowers the necessary fan noise level.
Result and general impression of the Xigmatek 500 Watt Bronze power supply unit …