The Andyson N500 Titanium PSU Review: High Efficiency For The Common PC
by E. Fylladitakis on October 8, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- 500W
- Andyson
- 80Plus Titanium
Andyson is a name that these days few PSU buyers are likely to recognize. The company has been around for almost two decades, but until very recently has struggled to make a name for itself, having been dogged by issues such as the poor reputation of Hiper's PSUs, which were based on Andyson platforms and were quite unreliable.
Looking to recover from these events, the company recently set about improving their quality and their reputation in the process, and as a result the company is making a strong comeback this year. They have released numerous new designs, most of which they are retailing under their own brand name. A few weeks ago, we had a look at their flagship, the Platinum R 1200W PSU, and our testing results were very promising.
However, as excellent as the Platinum R 1200W is, it is a product aimed at a very small and saturated market. Having a very good flagship PSU is good for every manufacturer because it serves as a symbol of the company's capabilities and competence, with a strong showing at the top often boosting sales across the board. On the other hand, it is the low and middle output units that actually generate the bulk of a company's revenue. Today we are having a look at such a unit, the N500 Titanium.
As its name suggests, the N500 Titanium is a very high performance 500W PSU capable of meeting 80Plus Titanium efficiency levels. Technically, only the 700W unit of the series has an official 80Plus Titanium certification so far. But with the 500W unit based on the same platform, we do not expect that it will have any trouble meeting the certification either. The MSRP of $110 is a little high for a 500W PSU but, depending on its performance, it could entice those that want a very efficient unit but do not need a high power output.
| Power specifications ( Rated @ Unknown °C ) | |||||
| AC INPUT | 100 - 240 VAC, 50 - 60 Hz | ||||
| RAIL | +3.3V | +5V | +12V | +5Vsb | -12V |
| MAX OUTPUT | 20A | 20A | 41A | 2.5A | 0.3A |
| 100W | 492W | 12.5W | 3.6W | ||
| TOTAL | 500W | ||||
Packaging and Bundle
The N500 Titanium is supplied in a medium-sized cardboard box, covered by elegant artwork resembling brushed metal. Inside the box, the PSU is protected by a thin layer of polyethylene foam and a nylon bag. Given its relatively low weight, the packaging should be sufficient for shipping protection, although we would like to have seen better protection for such a premium product.
Alongside with the standard AC power cable, a manual and four black mounting screws, Andyson also provides four thumbscrews, several long and short cable ties, as well as three cable straps. It is a well thought and practical bundle.
The N500 Titanium is a semi-modular design and Andyson supplies the extra cables in a small nylon bag with a zipper. Peculiarly, the cables themselves are very basic, with color-coded wires wrapped in black sleeving.
The following table lists the number of connectors.
| Andyson N500 Titanium | ||
| Connector type | Hardwired | Modular |
| ATX 24 Pin | 1 | - |
| EPS 4+4 Pin | 1 | - |
| EPS 8 Pin | - | - |
| PCI-E 6+2 Pin | - | 2 |
| PCI-E 8 Pin | - | - |
| SATA | - | 6 |
| Molex | - | 3 |
| Floppy | - | 1 |
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
46 Comments
View All Comments
Murloc - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
what is 10% when the consumption is low?Also the 80plus certifications are created to take into account that the best efficiency is achieved at certain loads.
This is why they have certifications instead of a single efficiency number.
The consumer gets the information on efficiency synthetized in a single artificial indicator.
CaedenV - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
What, you are going to complain about 5w? On a 'normal' PSU you would be looking at 50-60% efficiency at such low loads.HOOfan 1 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Not sure what you mean by normal. No PSU worth buying on the market today is going to be that inefficient at 50W draw.80 Plus Titanium calls for 90% efficiency at 10% load, so at 50W, this unit should be 90% efficient. None of the other 80+ Certifications specify efficiency at 10% load.
Using Techpowerup, here are some numbers for 80 Plus Gold units.
Seasonic G550 84% efficient at 59W draw retails for $80
EVGA Supernova G2 650 84.77% efficient at 59W draw retails for $100
RussianSensation - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
I don't think you know how to reach charts.http://www.anandtech.com/show/9663/the-andyson-n50...
At 50W rating, the power efficiency is >90%.
It seems you also didn't even read the review:
"As expected, the efficiency of the N500 Titanium is astonishing. The unit reached a maximum conversion efficiency of 95.2% at 50% load and an average of 94.1% within the nominal load range (20% to 100% of the unit's capacity). Not only that, but the low load efficiency is comparatively excellent as well, with the N500 Titanium maintaining an energy conversion efficiency of 91.4% at 10% load and 84.6% at 5% load. An efficiency greater than 84% with a load of merely 27.5 Watts on a 500W unit is outstanding."
@ 10% load it's 91.4% to be precise.
Next time before trying to criticize a product, maybe you should actually read the review.
HOOfan 1 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Are you replying to me or Shadowmaster? I was correcting Shadowmaster when he said it was only 85% efficient at 44w by saying it was at least 90% efficient at 50w. Then I corrected Caedenv when he said other PSUs are only 50% efficient at that losd. So basically if you are refering to me then you just backed up what I already posted...DanNeely - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Actually it is. At idle loads a 80+ Gold PSU would be about 75% efficient; Titanium is the first standard to set a 10% efficiency requirement at all. Squeezing a tenth of a watt of consumption out of fixed power components is much harder than trying to get a tenth of a percent improvement at high loads.DzanZeMan - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Actually, 84.6% effeciency at 5% (27.5 watts) and 91.4% effeciency at 10%. details... details... amirite?RussianSensation - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Exactly. The guy goes off criticizing the product when in the review's description and in the charts it's as clear as can be that at 10% load efficiency is at least 90%.ShieTar - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Almost "rite". Its a 500W unit, so 5% are 25W, not 27.5W.Nitpicking, I know ;-)
Samus - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Anything over 80% efficiency at <10% load is excellent.85% is unbelievable. As an electrical engineer I can't even wrap my head around how efficient that is. The analog ballasts and transformers I'm used to working with are usually around 70% efficient at idle\no load state. Even a Class 5 transformer to charge your phone saps around half a watt hour without a load, and since those devices are typically 3w, that's about 80% efficient and as good as consumer electronics often get.