Introduction
Contents
Andyson is another OEM manufacturer that is trying to enter the retail market using its own brand. Let’s take a look at its Nuclear 850 power supply.
There are two big issues with the Nuclear series from Andyson. First, all models from this series use a model number 100 W above their labeled wattage. The Nuclear 850 is officially a 750 W unit, which is also true for the other members of this series: the Nuclear 950 is an 850 W unit, the Nuclear 1150 is a 1,050 W unit, and the Nuclear 1300 is a 1,200 W unit. That alone would make us discredit Andyson as a serious company. What is strange, however, is that the Nuclear 850 is capable of delivering 850 W, as we will see in our tests. Therefore, the manufacturer could either officially upgrade this unit as an 850 W product or label it as Nuclear 750.
The second big issue with this unit is that it carries an illegal 80 Plus Bronze certification. Although this unit can provide high efficiency, it was not certified by Ecos Consulting; therefore, the use of the 80 Plus logo and designation is illegal. Unfortunately some companies try to fly under the radar, especially if they don’t have any retail presence in the United States. We’ve reported this problem to Ecos Consulting, which has already notified Andyson, and we hope they will get the official 80 Plus Bronze certification soon.
Usually, we see these problems with low-end power supplies that carry fake wattage and lousy performance, which is not the case with this unit. So, why a manufacturer would hurt itself when the situation is completely avoidable is beyond our comprehension. This only reinforces our understanding that most OEM manufacturers when going to the retail market have no clue what marketing really means.
The Nuclear 850 and the Ultra LSX 750 use the same platform, with the only internal difference being the configuration of the +12 V transistors. Externally, however, they are different, since the LSX 750 doesn’t have a modular cabling system and the Nuclear 850 does.
Figure 1: Andyson Nuclear 850 power supply
Figure 2: Andyson Nuclear 850 power supply
The Andyson Nuclear 850 is 6.5” (165 mm) deep, using a 135 mm ball bearing fan on its bottom (Young Lin Tech DFB132512H, 1,700 rpm, 91.16 cfm, 36.28 dBA).
This unit has a modular cabling system with six connectors, and three cables are permanently attached to the power supply. This power supply comes with the following cables:
- Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector, 22” (56 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
- One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form an EPS12V connector, 25.2” (64 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
- One cable with one EPS12V connector, 25.2” (64 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
- Two cables, each with two six/eight-pin connectors for video cards, 19.7” (50 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors, modular cabling system
- Two cables, each with four SATA power connectors, 19.7” (50 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors, modular cabling system
- Two cables, each with four standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector, 19.7” (50 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors
All wires are 18 AWG, which is the correct gauge to be used.
The cable configuration is perfect for a 750 W product, but if it were labeled as 850 W we’d like to see two additional video card power connectors in order to allow you to install three video cards without the need for adapters.
Figure 3: Cables
Let’s now take an in-depth look inside this power supply.
