Roundup: 12 Gaming Power Supplies Compared

By Patrick Afschar, TG Publishing Team
published

Gamers demand a lot from their computers, starting with the PSU. Therefore, almost every PSU manufacturer sells products optimized for gaming PCs. We introduce ripple and noise testing in this roundup to further improve our power supply evaluations.

NZXT HALE90-750M: Results

Efficiency meets 80 PLUS specifications:

Efficiency under different load profiles:

The NZXT HALE90-750M sails through the tests with flying colors. The 80 PLUS Gold-certified PSU is exemplary in the important efficiency and ripple tests. It reaches the required values with small margins and rightfully carries the certification, even if some of the other 80 PLUS Gold PSUs in the roundup pass the tests with bigger margins. It handles light loads of 25-50 W comparatively well too, even if such small loads are not really common in high-performance gaming computers.

The NZXT HALE90-750M has ample peak power reserves, and is still stable even at 811 W. The ripple and noise test results speak of high electrical quality; the measurements are well within specifications on all rails. The 12 V rail value of just 30 mV is particularly good.


With the HALE90-750M, NZXT offers a PSU that is visually exceptional and mainly characterized by its high electrical quality. Gamers with no more than two graphics card in their computer (which probably applies to most users) cannot go wrong with this PSU. The price is fully in line with the unit you're getting.

Patrick Afschar
103 Comments Comment from the forums
  • FLanighan
    Why not Corsair? I jizz at my tx850w :)
    Reply
  • xxsk8er101xx
    Because it failed a few of the tests.

    FLanighanWhy not Corsair? I jizz at my tx850w
    Reply
  • p1n3apqlexpr3ss
    Corsair has a gamer series... whyd they test one of the units from the top line aimed more at enthusiasts?
    Reply
  • V8VENOM
    Odd, why isn't Silverstone reviewed at all? Most of the power supplies they looked at are junk for anyone with more than one GPU and overclocking. I dumped my PC Power & Cooling 1000 Watt PSU because it couldn't handle two ATI 5870's and overclocked CPU to 4Ghz with 1600 FSB. I put in a Silverstone 1500Watt PSU and my system has been rock solid ever since.

    The article doesn't appear to measure noise from during switching and how much noise is introduced to the CPU and bus.

    Anyway, it will be a cold day in hell before anyone gets me to switch out my Silverstone 1500 Watt PSU.
    Reply
  • scook9
    V8VENOMOdd, why isn't Silverstone reviewed at all? Most of the power supplies they looked at are junk for anyone with more than one GPU and overclocking. I dumped my PC Power & Cooling 1000 Watt PSU because it couldn't handle two ATI 5870's and overclocked CPU to 4Ghz with 1600 FSB. I put in a Silverstone 1500Watt PSU and my system has been rock solid ever since.The article doesn't appear to measure noise from during switching and how much noise is introduced to the CPU and bus.Anyway, it will be a cold day in hell before anyone gets me to switch out my Silverstone 1500 Watt PSU.You are either lying or very unlucky (got a bad PSU)......I have crossfire 5870s and an i7 965 and all stock cannot exceed 650W at the wall (about 550W actually used) no matter what I try.
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    Nice tests but I came to a different conclusion. The seasonic X-750 is close to the most effiecent in the bunch and did you see that voltage ripple it looked like it was flat lining.
    Reply
  • boiler1990
    For the ~$20 price difference between the Corsair 850HX and the AX850, I think I'll get the AX. It never hurts to invest in a great PSU :)
    Reply
  • juuh
    V8VENOMOdd, why isn't Silverstone reviewed at all? Most of the power supplies they looked at are junk for anyone with more than one GPU and overclocking. I dumped my PC Power & Cooling 1000 Watt PSU because it couldn't handle two ATI 5870's and overclocked CPU to 4Ghz with 1600 FSB. I put in a Silverstone 1500Watt PSU and my system has been rock solid ever since.The article doesn't appear to measure noise from during switching and how much noise is introduced to the CPU and bus.Anyway, it will be a cold day in hell before anyone gets me to switch out my Silverstone 1500 Watt PSU.
    I call BS. I could run your setup with my PC power & cooling 750w unit.
    http://www.techspot.com/review/289-geforce-gtx-480-sli-versus-radeon-5870-crossfire/page9.html
    Reply
  • vanhalen
    No recommendation for the Seasonic? Am I missing something?
    Reply
  • random1283
    agreed no reccomendation for an x series seasonic, you guys must be mssing something, every other review of the x series said that they are simply amazing much better then any nxzt or anything.
    Reply