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Testing the NZXT 800W PSU Page 4 of 4
Testing - 7W, 350W & 715W:
We initially plugged the PSU into an EZ PSU Tester 3
in order to power it on for our "idle" measurements. As noticed below,
the voltage rails were fairly stable with no load, but these aren't
necessarily indicative of overall load performance. According to our
Kill-a-Watt, the power draw was 7W. We thought these
results would be interesting to include and compare
with other power supplies to see how they manage a non-load situation,
and how much power the PSU itself will draw.
12v Rail
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5v Rail
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3.3v Rail
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No matter what type of
load I put on this PSU, the voltage rails stayed clean, and had very
little noise. As you can see by clicking the images above, we captured
a 34.1mv ripple & noise measurement on the 3.3v rail, 40mv on the 5v
rail and 34mv on the 12v
line. This is nice and clean power as ATX specifications state
50mv is allowable on the 3.3v and 5.0v rails while 120mv is acceptable
on the 12v rails. Even with a heavy load the NZXT 800W Performance Power stayed
well within specifications on the rails - although the 5v line strayed to 44mV ripple, there were no stability issues.
Instead of taking a ton of pictures of each voltage line under different load, we've graphed the results below.
(Click for a larger chart)
(Click for a larger chart)
The voltage is very
solid with the NZXT PP800 PSU. The voltage starts a little above the rated
value and drops only
slightly on any of the lines. The highest fluctuation on any 12v rail is only 0.2v
and levels off at 12.2v with a heavy load. The 5v rail stays above 5v
at 5.17v - down from the non-load 5.20v. The 3.3v line is even more
solid and we only measured a 0.02v drop in voltage when going from a
non-load situation to a heavy 715W load on the entire PSU.
All of the lines are
super solid and have very little ripple or noise. All lines stay
within spec, with the 5v line being the only one that wanders close to
its limit when measuring noise and ripple. In the end, it tops out at
44mv and doesn't affect
stability at all.
Conclusion:
The NZXT PP800 PSU
is currently the biggest and best PSU from NZXT in the "Performance Power" series and it comes in at 800W. It pushes out a lot of watts through four +12v rails and hefty
3.3v and 5.0v lines. This thing is a tank and we were able to load up a pair of overclocked 8800GTX cards, a screaming fast QX6850 CPU cooled by a chilly and power hungry Freezone Elite cooler. Even with "Y" adapters on the Molex plugs, we even managed to run a triple SLI system with the same CPU and cooler. It handled it with ease.
There really isn't much of a downside to this PSU. Even though it has a couple of fans, it remained quiet. Although it can reach a maximum efficiency of 85%, NZXT states that typical load will bring its efficiency down to 78%. We will have equipment to test efficiency very soon and will be able to confirm these claims on future PSU reviews.
Pros:
- Low electrical noise
- Rated at 800W
- Lots of peripheral and SATA connectors
- Very stable with a fairly heavy load
- 12cm and 8cm fans keep it cool and quiet - inaudible over any other fan
- Standard size should work in almost every system.
Cons:
- Non-modular - lots of cable clutter.
- Can handle two power hungry cards.
NZXT has a solid unit on their hands with the Performance Power 800W PSU. It becomes only the second PSU to cross our bench that earns our top pick award. If you have any questions or comments, please post them in the forum at the "Comments" link below.
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