XPG CORE REACTOR 650 watt power supply review: 80 Plus Gold certified

XPG is a popular sub-brand of ADATA that deals in various computer peripheral and storage devices. Under this entity, ADATA mainly focused its efforts on PC Components, Solid State Drive, Memory Modules, gaming Notebooks, in short, high-end gaming products. Of course, to enrich the product line of the brand XPG also has products such as a keyboard, mouse, chassis, power supplies, and radiators, and heat sink. Thus, XPG is not a stranger when it comes to gaming and PC storage products. However, the story doesn’t end here, one more product line of the brand through which the company is aiming for the PSU market is its CORE REACTOR series. It features modular PSUs with 80 PLUS Gold certification and all Japnese capacitors with a 10-year warranty, moreover, this has to be there when someone is willing to pay a good price for the product. Apart from the CR PSU series, the XPG also has one more that is XPG PYLON, it more budget-friendly as compared to CR, of course with some lower features such as it comes with 80 plus Bronze rating and highest operating temp. is 40°c. Well, it is suitable for gamers or consumers who want something slightly affordable while maintaining quality.

Nevertheless, we are not here to talk about the PYLON instead the one we have today for review is from the XPG CORE REACTOR series, with max. 650W output current enough to power-up all the PC components including a single power-hungry GPU; Fans and other fancy setups in a Gaming Cabinet.

First, we talk about the box and design of  CORE REACTOR 650 GOLD from XPG, CR650G for short, and later about its internal part and performance.

XPG 650 Core Reactor PSU Specifications

Dimension (W x L x H):	150 x 140 x 86mm
80 PLUS Rating:	GOLD
ATX Version:	Intel 1.42
Protections:	OCP / OVP / UVP / OPP / SCP / OTP / NLO / SIP
Certification:	CB / TUV / cTUVus / CCC / CE / FCC(IC) / BSMI / RCM / KC / NOM
PFC:	0.99
Input Voltage:	100V-240V
Input Current:	10A-5A
Input Frequency:	47Hz-63Hz
Operating Temperature:	50℃
Fan Size:	12cm
Fan Bearing:	FDB
Fan Speed:	2400
Noise Level @ 20%:	11.2dB(A)
Noise Level @ 50%:	650W : 11.2dB(A)
Noise Level @ 100%:	650W : 22.3dB(A)
MTBF;	100K hours at full load
ATX 24 Pin Connector:	1
EPS 8 (4+4) Pin Connector:	650W: 2
SATA Connector:	12
Peripheral 4 Pin Connector:	4
PCI-E 6+2 Pin Connector:	650W: 4
Warranty:	10 Year

Packaging, Unboxing, and Desing

The box or packaging of the CR650 is really eye-catching especially because of its classic red and black color scheme. The outer packaging features the images of the product with various key information such as 10-year warranty, 80 Plus gold certification, 140mm compact support, 120mm FDB silent fan, various industry-level protections including OCP/OVP/UVP/OPP/SCP/OTP/MLO/SIP and 105° Japanese capacitors.

If you go at the bottom side of the box, you will find the product outline drawing + fan curve + various voltage load design, interface arrangement, module line length, and size drawing. Furthermore, the details of 8 module lines and 8 interfaces, which is quite a lot to know exactly what the product is capable of just by seeing the box while buying it.

When we unboxed it, the way the product was packed is really commendable. Immediately after opening the box what we get inside are sticker, a manual guide, black foam protection for a power supply that moved even further as the PSU unit wrapped up in a bubble bag for extra safety; and a black accessory bag, it is still very refreshing and good. The important thing, being a Modular Power Supply, if someone doesn’t require all the cables then he or she can safely keep them in the given non-woven bag, although not much large, enough to enhance the buying experience of a customer.

Furthermore, a thick manual comprises all the information we need to set up the power supply, however, if you are an experienced user you will not need it at all.  Nevertheless, the XPG sticker collection is something different because is relatively rare to see stickers on the power supply, which is a bit interesting.

ADATA XPG CORE REACTOR 650 GOLD PSU has a full power module interface that clearly annotated to apprise the user for which PC component they are meant to supply power.

The total output power is 650W, each voltage load is 5V20A/ +3.3V 20A/+12V 54.1A/ -12V 0.3A/+5V VSB 3A. This combination is sufficient for general mid-range and high-end gaming computers with a single graphics card.

• For Motherboard – 18+10PIN interface that corresponds to the motherboard 24PIN interface
• For CPU or GPU- 4 sets of 8PIN CPU/graphics interface
• HDD/SDDD/Fancs- 3 sets of SATA/Molex hard disk and fan power supply interfaces.

Of course, as compared to 750 CRG, it has less interface because of less power and to reduce the cost.

Coming to corresponding cables given in the box to use with the PSU interface are:

The motherboard cable, PCI-E cable, and CPU cable use a black braided network cable to reduce the width and avoid any crack or cut.

• 24PIN motherboard cable x 1
• 8PIN CPU power supply cable x 1
• 6+2PIN graphics card cable x 2

On the other side, SATA cables are without any nylon braided covering to give flexibility, as in the gaming PC, the HDDs/SSDs are on the bottom and backside of the motherboard.

There are 3 x SATA cables and one Molex with four connectors in each flat line, and the flat line is also slightly harder but yet easy to the route when installing in the machine.

In terms of the XPG CORE REACTOR 650 GOLD body design, it has a black metal matte texture with a 150*140*86mm short body design. Like most of PSUs, it also has an internal seven-blade 120MM FDB liquid dynamic bearing fan to cool down the component by letting the air from the vent available next to the Power input area. 

The white XPG LOGO in the middle of the fan screen is quite eye-catching. However, as a product for mid-to-high-end gaming platforms, XPG CORE REACTOR 650 GOLD power supply does not have too many fancy designs to attract users’ attention. The appearance design is still inclined to the traditional direction, but its side dedicated to highlighting the three-dimensional sense, and the visual experience is still good.

All in all, the wires and design gave me a good impression. Although the power supply itself is not big, it has a sense of weight without cable the XPG CR 650 weighs around 1.3kg. However, what is inside the black box? Let’s have a glance at the internal parts of the Power Supply to know what is there. 

 

Internal View

Anybody can easily disassemble the Power Supply, just unscrew 4 screws. After peeping inside I can say all the components have been soldered onboard very neatly.  

It carries Honghua’s 1225 fan, model HA1225H12F-Z, DC 12V/0.58A, belongs to the FDB liquid bearing fan, the maximum speed can reach to 2400RPM.

However, the thing which is not in favor of XPG is its Fan design. It is not in the center rather more towards the right side, if you see it from the power code direction. Therefore, as we know around 30 percent of the air outlet fan of PSUs covers a thick plastic sheet towards the EMI filter side, thus, above that XPG fan more inclined to one direction which would get covered in some Chassis. Hence, it would be great if the company has adopted a center design fitting for the PSU fan.  

The PSU circuit structure is active PFC + half-bridge LLC resonance + synchronous rectification + DC-DC. Since the overall length of the power supply is only 15cm, the layout of the internal PCB components will be relatively compact. But the overall arrangement is not messy, and it still gives people a neat feeling.

I am saying this because if you look at the images, each functional block forms an independent area to reduce interference. For example, the EMI filter area.

Believe me, the general area that gets affected most if something happened wrong is the EMI filter circuit, thus to effectively separate it from the other parts; the manufacturer has separated it by a plastic sheet with a copper interlayer to provide insulation and protection. Also, like other PSUs, in XPG CR650G, the primary EMI of the power supply is directly done on the AC socket, equipped with 1 X capacitor and 1 pair of Y capacitors.

Furthermore, insulating partitions are added between each module (vertical plane) and adjacent components, and glue is fixed at the same time to reduce the occurrence of short circuits. 

The power supply is equipped with single GBU1506 rectifier bridges (600V/15A@100℃), fixed firmly with a cooling paste on an L-shaped aluminum heat sink. In addition, it has complete MOV and NTC, the latter is located next to the main capacitor and is equipped with an independent relay.

XPG CORE REACTOR 750 GOLD power supply uses all-Japanese 105℃ capacitor materials, and its main capacitor is of the KMQ series, with a specification of 470μF/420V/105℃, which is sufficient for a power supply with a rated power of 650W.

The image showing the primary circuit is its main control PCB along with an active PFC card and diode on the heat sink. 

There are many PCB boards, control boards, and various capacitors all over the place with excellent workmanship. On the back of the PCB, no traces of manual soldering, and looks very regular.

Overall, the internal layout is integrated, and each functional block is separated into an area, reducing interference, improving efficiency, and also conducive to heat dissipation.  

Why should you buy it?

After testing with different loads, I thought it is better to give a real perspective that an ordinary consumer should have in mind before buying a PSU. Because he or she won’t go through a long list of numbers of the test results unless and until the person is highly a geek. Moreover, it is not practical for a general gamer or user to get all professional equipment to test various voltage and current factors to buy just a single Power supply unit. Therefore, let’s talk about the real things which one should see before buying a PSU unit for an expensive Motherboard and GPUs of a PC.

The first thing first is the brand name, obviously, no one is going to buy ₹ 9,694 power supply of some brand that came out of nowhere. Well, for that we can rely on XPG because it is a part of ADATA that has expertise in manufacturing industry-grade products. It is not necessary for big brands to be better. It depends on where the product is in the product line of the brand, for what purpose is it build, and what kind of certification and components it holds. And XPG The CR650 doesn’t deprive of that. It holds the 80PLUS certification only requires the critical 20%, 50%, and 100% load to meet the requirements. Although, certification alone is not a buying factor but increases the reliability and ensures that it will work up to the mark with desktop, workstation, and non-redundant server applications. For more info on 80 Plus Certification see Wikipedia.

Coming to other key things that are important, the quality of components used in a Power supply unit; CR650 uses Japanese capacitors to offer longer shelf life to the product; the areas between various key components are divided quite clearly and the protection between the same is relatively tight, therefore controlled interference. Furthermore, the 10-year warranty shows the brand’s confidence in the quality of the power supply that’s why they are offering such a long period of support.  

Well, XPG is trying to do its best to offers good products in order to enter the PSU market and the Core Reactor series will help them to go abreast with other major brands such as Corsair and EVGA. In our test, even at high load, the PSU didn’t show any sign of noise or loss of performance, that the company is claiming. It uses a transformer provided by CWT (Channel Well Technology) that helps the XPG CR650 to nicely achieve the high performance along with efficiency even under high load.  

As per the market scenarios, we can say the XPG Core Reactor 650W will be a good alternative to Corsair RM650x, It has a high build quality, modular design, two EPS connectors to support the high-end motherboards, and a 10-year warranty. Overall, for mid-range gaming systems with a single GPU and enough room to satisfy the overclocking power demands, the XPG Core Reactor 650 is a qualitative gaming product. After all, we generally won’t change or upgrade the PSU frequently, thus one-time investment in some good product should be a priority.

Pros:

• 80Plus gold certification
• 10 years warranty
• Full module interface design
• Low output ripple 
• Sufficient hold time

Cons:

• The heat-dissipating fan should be in the center.

 

Price: ₹ 9,694