NZXT HALE90 850w Review
Looking Inside & Cables
Published: 1st October 2010 | Source: NZXT | Price: £152 |
Insides & Cables
No good PSU review is complete without the reviewer risking his life by pulling apart the unit and then attempting to put it back together again. Well, OK that's a bit of an over exaggeration, but in order to make the task of testing PSU's more exciting, thinking of them like ticking time bombs certainly helps keep the blood pumping. DON'T TOUCH THE YELLOW AND BLACK WIRES...NOOOOO *BOOM*.
Ahem, anyway...Lifting off the lid gives us a birds-eye view of the internals where we can see that NZXT has paid special attention to the layout of the unit. All components are spaciously positioned, all cables are tightly bunched and there's no big blobs of glue or excessively sized heatsinks to hinder airflow.
Speaking of which, the 140mm white fan used inside the Hale has been craftily re-labeled with an NZXT sticker preventing me from digging up any specifications for the fan online. All I can tell you is that it runs on 12v and consumes 0.4A - great!
The capacitors on both the primary and secondary side of the Hale are, as promised, Japanese. More specifically they are manufactured by very highly regarded Nippon Chemicon and are rated at 105ºC. Wipe up the slobber PSU geeks.
The main transformer sits slap bang in the middle of the unit and is solely responsible for stepping down the mains power to a more manageable 12v. From there the NZXT Hale employs DC-DC converters that step down the voltage into +3.3v and +5v for the other rails. However, while most manufacturers tend to have two separate VRM 'daughterboards' for dealing with these voltage step-downs, NZXT have managed to integrate both of VRM's on to one daughterboard (above-right).
Mains input filtering is handled by a small PCB attached to the back of the inlet. Closer inspection reveals that it contains one X and two Y capacitors along with a ferrite coil. More than enough to prevent interference from the unit escaping back out to your mains circuit and visa versa. Additionally while poking around this area I also noticed a model number LLC-M-090612 printed on the PCB. A quick Google shows that this number is also present on the Super Flower Golden Green Pro PSU. Whoops did I just Let the cat out of the bag?
The modular connector system is quite unique in that every single connector is the same 8-Pin 'PCI-E Style' design. This essentially means that you can plug any cable into any connector without having to match colours or pin counts. Whether or not this is a good idea or not I'm not sure, as this does potentially mean you could have a massive amount of current being drawn from several high power components all plugged in over one side of the modular backplane, and nothing over the other.
| NZXT 850w Connectors | ||
| ATX Connector | Wired | 1x 20+4 Pin |
| EPS-12v / P4-12v Connector(s) | Wired | 1x 4+4 Pin / 1x 8-Pin |
| Molex Connectors | Modular | 9x |
| Floppy Disk Connectors | Modular | 2x |
| SATA Connectors | Wired / Modular | 2x / 8x |
| PCI-E Connectors | Modular | 3x 6+2 Pin / 3x 6-Pin |
After Corsair nicked the idea of flat ribbon-style modular cables from Ultra (who probably stole the idea from someone else), every other manufacturer has since jumped on the bandwagon and started doing the same thing. Therefore it's no surprise that the NZXT also has these style modular cables too. But don't get me wrong - this is a good thing, as they are without doubt the easiest cables to 'stealth' inside a PC case and even look good on full show.
Anyway, let's waste no more time in getting this PSU on the bench for some serious testing..
Most Recent Comments
seriously if i want my PSU white, i'll paint it ..
And replacing the fan is just as easy as opening a trash can!
just be carefull when opening a PSU just don't do it after a few days of F@H (gaming) and then boom open
|
Originally Posted by SnW
I guess paint isn't a option ? seriously if i want my PSU white, i'll paint it .. And replacing the fan is just as easy as opening a trash can! just be carefull when opening a PSU just don't do it after a few days of F@H (gaming) and then boom open |
|
Originally Posted by hmmblah
It's a sexy powdercoat, not just a paint job...nice touch IMO. |
|
Originally Posted by AMDFTW
what no OC3D certification? |
|
Originally Posted by tinytomlogan
No mate the 3.3v rail did not pass our standards. You only get our stamp if the psu is above and beyond epic! |
|
Originally Posted by AlienALX
Hmmm.. Seems amazingly over priced to me... |
seen the 1000w version go for $209 (£131ish) :/
at new egg
TBH and I hate to say it but inside it looks pretty cheap. Outside it looks nice but man, reading the review I find it worrying that a £150+ PSU can just about keep within the ATX spec.
I had no respect for NZXT whatsoever until they released the Phantom. I don't know what it's built like but it's very nice looking. Unlike the fan controller of theirs I bought in 2007 that -
A. Was really cheap and tacky.
B. Was too big to fit in the 5.25 bay it was designed for and literally had to be rammed in.
C. The screen on which was absolutely parp and it wasn't cheap to buy.
I hoped that lately they had come good, but after reading this review I have my doubts. It's very easy now to get an average PSU around the same wattage for £100, and this is decidedly average. It must cost less than £50 to get a powdercoat done on a PSU (I mean FFS it's tiny) therefore I can't see any real reason at all to pay £150 for this thing.
A black one would look nicer in your case any way, and take that from some one who has studied colour coding and has a lot of experience with black and white
check my project log "crysis extreme" for some pics
|
Originally Posted by Todd
So when's the full review of the Phantom coming along? I hope it isn't a disappointment as well because I really had my hopes up for NZXT. |
when is the review of the 1095t coming out
I like it even more now
|
Originally Posted by Todd
Sorry, Tom, I watched that video already. I was talking about the full- full review and conclusion as a month has passed. You still love it? |
|
Originally Posted by silenthill
What a load of rubbish, if you give it to me for free I wouldn’t put it in my pc |
|
Originally Posted by tinytomlogan
Its actually pretty good fella, Im currently using an 850w in my rig |
|
Originally Posted by silenthill
I only do Corsair Guvnor when it comes PSU so everything ells is like pound land |
That said, I'm surprised the PSU didn't blow up with almost 200W load on the +3.3V & +5V combined.
i assume this anyway
|
Originally Posted by jonnyGURU
You know you overloaded the +3.3V and +5V rails by test 3, right? No reason to complain that the ripple is too high when you tested those rails a good 80W more than what the label says it should do. That said, I'm surprised the PSU didn't blow up with almost 200W load on the +3.3V & +5V combined. |
I've just this second finished re-resting the PSU and have published the amended set of results. As everyone will be able to see, these are MUCH more favourable for the unit in every respect. Efficiency is increased, voltages are slightly more stable and most importantly the ripple is much lower.
Please everyone take a chance to re-read the review as I wouldn't like NZXT to suffer for my mistake.
CSS Valid
Continue Reading
UPDATE 03/10/10: Further to a post by a member of our forum we have become aware of a mis-calculation in our load levels for this PSU. As a result, please disregard any negative comments about the ripple results of this PSU in this thread.