MSI has been into PC Power Supply department for a decade and when it comes to PC components, MSI is among the veterans of PC part manufacturers. In this review we aim to explore the budget lineup of PSUs by starting with the MAG A500DN 80+ Power supply.

Table of Contents

MSI MAG A500DN PSU

MAG A500DN is among the budget lineup of PSUs offered by MSI. It features standard 80+ compliance, basic protections such as OCP, OVP, SCP, OPP as per advertised by the box. This PSU comes with 2 PCI-E 8pin connectors, 2x Molex connectors, 1x EPS 4+4 pin and 1x ATX 20+4 pin connector. Minimum idle cable length from the PSU is 400mm which is sufficient enough to accommodate peripheral in a standard ATX case but may not reach the front top mounted add-ins or an E-ATX case. MA A5500DN is a split rail PSU with 12V rail split into two distinct rails.

Specifications

Input/Input Characteristics
AC Input	200-240V 8.0A, 50-60Hz (not wide-range input)
DC Output	3.3V	+5V	12V1	12V2	-12V	+5Vsb
	14A	14A	20A	18A	0.3A	2.5A
Total Power	105W		456W		3.6W	12.5W
	500W

Internals

EMI Filter	2-stage
Primary Capacitor	ChengX 105°C rated Electrolytic, Singe Capacitor LS series, 220uF 420V
MOV	Not Present
Secondary Capacitors	ChengX Electrolytic
Secondary Side Topology	Group regulated
Primary Rectifier	8A

Load testing & observations

Right off the bat, we start with 50% load on the PSU and first thing we noticed is that this PSU fell short of the efficiency by 1% to be qualifying for 80+ White standard and same was the case with 100% loading. While we noticed the input voltage increased to 240V (which raised the efficiency higher than normal) still it wasn’t enough for the PSU to cover the 1% efficiency gap, both in 50% and 100% loading criteria. The PSU tripped right after we applied 110% load and when we reset the testbench and power it ON, it smoked and died forever. We’ll see more once we open up the PSU about where the damage is caused.

Load	Regulation 12V, 5V, 3.3V, 5Vsb	Ripple 12V, 5V, 3.3V, 5Vsb	Efficiency	Temperature Max Inside
50%	12.15V, 4.99V, 3.22V, 5.05	17mV, 11mV, 11mV, 10mV	84%	not measured
100%	11.70V, 5.04V, 3.27V, 5.01V	36mV, 19mV, 16mV, 16mV	81%	63.4°C
110%	PSU didn’t live long enough to tell its tale

Conclusion

Well, the PSU didn’t even qualify the ATX standard in terms of applied load as well as it didn’t live up to the 80+ limits. We wouldn’t recommend this PSU to be used in any build which requires above 200W of PC Power. Still normal use criteria for this PSU would be a 65W AMD Ryzen build with an AMD Radeon RX6600, or an RX 570 or a GTX 1660 Super at best.