ADATA first announced its debut in the PSU market with its XPG CORE REACTOR series power supplies back at Computex 2019, featuring a single +12V rail design, and protections against over/under-voltage, overload, over-current, overheat, no-load operation, and short-circuit.

In this article, we’ll be sharing our thoughts on the built quality and features of the ADATA XPG CORE REACTOR 650 GOLD after using the PSU for a number of benchmarks and stress tests.

Specifications

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/BSMI/RCM/EAC
PFC
  • 0.99
Input Voltage
  • 100V – 240V
Input Current
  • 10A – 5A
Input Frequency
  • 47Hz – 63Hz
Operating Temp.
  • 50°C
Cooling fan Fan
  • 2400rpm 120mm FDB fan
Noise Level
  • 20%: 11.2dB(A)
  • 50%: 11.2dB(A)
  • 100%: 22.3dB(A)
MTBF
  • 100K hours at full load
Connectors
  • 1 x ATX 24-pin
  • 1 x EPS 4+4-pin
  • 1 x EPS 8-pin
  • 12 x SATA
  • 4 x Peripheral 4-pin
  • 4 x PCIe 6+2-pin
Warranty
  • 10 Year

Unboxing

XPG CORE REACTOR 650 GOLD (1)

Starting off with the product packaging, the XPG Core Reactor 650 Gold ships in a rather simple but neat and clean which we think it’s a pretty good first attempt for ADATA. The 80 Plus Gold certification aside, what interests us the most is probably the 10-year warranty coverage for this PSU – That’s quite a ballsy move, really.

You’ll find more information on the features available on the PSU at the back and the side of the box but in a rather uncommon way. Information such as the highlighted features can be found at the side of the box, while information regarding the fan performance curve, dimensions of the PSU, types of cables included, and the power output for each rail can be found at the back of the box.

Inside the box, you’ll find the XPG Core Reactor 650 Gold wrapped in a reasonably thick bubble wrap and stuffed in between two thick foam pads and the cable pouch that act as a protective layer for the PSU against shock damage to a certain extent.

The accessories that come together with the XPG Core Reactor 650 Gold includes a user’s manual, XPG stickers, a power cord, and a pouch with the modular cables for the power supply itself.

ADATA XPG CORE REACTOR 650 GOLD

XPG CORE REACTOR 650 GOLD (11)

At first glance, the XPG Core Reactor 650 Gold comes with the generic look that many of us are familiar with – minus the XPG logo on the fan grill. It’s nothing fancy when it comes to the design, but that’s okay because the aesthetics won’t really help out with anything when it comes to practical usage.

The label on both sides is actually visible and readable from different mounting orientations, pretty thoughtful I’d say. It’s not something fancy but it’ll come in useful for generic PC cases with top PSU mount. It’s good to see that ADATA is actually paying attention to little details like this.

XPG CORE REACTOR 650 GOLD (13)

As for the power output, the XPG Core Reactor 650 Gold here has a single rail design for its +12V rail and is capable to output up to 650W that is enough to handle a single GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.

XPG CORE REACTOR 650 GOLD (20)

Like any of the modular power supplies you can find in the market, the layout is pretty standard and the sockets for the modular cables are labeled to prevent any unnecessary mistakes during installation.

XPG CORE REACTOR 650 GOLD (19)

The honeycomb-like grill at the back of the PSU is a pretty generic design that is commonly found on some of the power supplies with better built.

User Experience

We’ve used the XPG Core Reactor 650 Gold with the following setup for gaming, office work, web browsing, benchmark, and some basic overclocking test:

CPUIntel Core i7-9700K @5GHz
MotherboardMSI Z370i Gaming Pro Carbon AC
MemoryG.Skill Trident Z 16GB @3200MHz
Graphics CardZOTAC Gaming RTX 2080 Ti AMP
Power SupplyADATA XPG Core Reactor 650 GOLD
Primary StorageKingston KC2000 1TB NVMe SSD
Secondary StorageWD Black 6TB
CPU CoolerNoctua NH-U12A
ChassisOpen Benchtable
Operating SystemWindows 10 64bit

During light operation such as normal office work and web browsing that doesn’t really draw a lot of power from the PSU, the average power draw from the system is around 76W and the temperature of the PSU during operation barely hits 40°C at this point.

As we move on with slightly heavier operation such as gaming on AAA titles, benchmarks that stresses mostly on the GPU and some light overclocking test, the system is drawing around 368W at peak load, with the temperature of the PSU during operation hovers around 42°C to 44°C. We can’t guarantee if the PSU will survive long ours of GPU mining session but it did survive our FurMark stress tests for 72 hours without any noticeable hiccups or system shutdown.

Final Thoughts

Despite being a latecomer in the power supply market, it’s a pretty bold move for ADATA to go straight for the performance segment market with an 80 PLUS Gold rated fully modular power. There are a total of three different models in the Core Reactor series as of now (650W, 750W, and 850W), but we’re really looking forward to higher wattage models from ADATA in the near future, if possible.

The XPG Core Reactor 650 Gold isn’t really the most affordable 80 PLUS 650W power supply around with that RM 488 price tag but the price is considered justifiable with the features it has, especially for the Overvoltage/Undervoltage protection and the 10-year warranty coverage from ADATA.

Pros
  • 80 PLUS Gold certification
  • Fully modular design for easier cable management
  • Low operating temperature
  • 10-year warranty
Cons
  • Price is slightly on the higher side
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