NZXT Hale90 V2 1000W

Posted March 29, 2013 by Jake in Cases & PSU

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Overview

Hardware: Cases & PSU

Manufacturer: NZXT

Price at time of Review: $229

WHAT WE LIKED:

Unique and sleek styling; fully modular; excellent voltage and ripple performance.

WHAT WE DISLIKED:

Noisy fan; a bit more expensive than the competition

BOTTOM LINE:

Great combination of features, aesthetics, quality, versatility, and performance.
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by Jake

Full Article

Testing

Test Setup

To test power supplies, we believe that creating real-world circumstances and conditions are important to consumers who need to relate to what they would use and experience in a computer system setup. Consequently, our methodology is fairly straightforward, as we assemble power-hungry components that will push a unit to its full capacity. We monitor the results at various loads using a digital multimeter for voltage regulation, and an oscilloscope for ripple measurements.

Voltage Regulation

When examining the voltage regulation results we are looking for the voltage output and any fluctuations that might occur. The current ATX specifications allow for the following fluctuations in voltage outputs, and these represent a 3% variance:

3.3V Rail:3.135V – 3.465V allowable
5V Rail:4.75V – 5.25V allowable
12V Rail: 11.4V – 12.6V allowable

Below are the voltage regulation results:

When we look at the voltage regulation results above, this is where the Hale90 V2 1000W does a very good job, posting impressive results across the testing spectrum. The only real movement we saw was on the +12V rails under load, and showing a deviation of about 1.2%.

Ripple

When examining the ripple, or noise, the ATX specifications allow for 50 mV peak-to-peak variations for 3.3V and 5V, and 120 mV p-p for the 12V.

Below are the results:

Ripple results are excellent. In particular, the 12V results are far below the allowed limit.

Noise

One last note here relates to the noise produced by the unit. As we know, the higher RPMs a fan speeds, the louder the noise. As we expected, the higher RPM fan wasn’t as quiet as we hoped. However, comparing it to other units we’ve tested, it should be virtually inaudible inside a case, since your graphics card fan should overpower any noise here by comparison.