NZXT HALE90-850-M Power Supply Review

Introduction

NZXT has just released an 80 Plus Gold power supply series, called the HALE90, which also features a modular cabling system and single +12 V rail. Let’s see how their 850 W model fared in our tests.

All power supplies from this series are manufactured by Super Flower, based on their Golden Green platform.

Figure 1: NZXT HALE90-850-M power supply

Figure 2: NZXT HALE90-850-M power supply

The NZXT HALE90-850-M is 7.1” (180 mm) deep, using a 140 mm dual-ball-bearing fan on its bottom.

This unit features active PFC, of course.

The new NZXT HALE90-850-M has a modular cabling with eight connectors. One interesting thing about this modular cabling system is that there is no specific connector for the video cards or for the peripheral cables: you can install the cables wherever you want. The unit also has five cables that are permanently attached to its body, all protected by nylon sleeves (coming from inside the power supply housing). The cables included are the following:

• 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, 27.6” (70 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
• One cable with an EPS12V connector, 27.6” (70 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
• One cable with one six-pin connector and one six/eight-pin connector for video cards, 22” (56 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors, permanently attached to the power supply
• One cable with four SATA power connectors, 22” (56 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors, permanently attached to the power supply
• Two cables with one six-pin connector for video cards each, 22” (56 cm) long, modular cabling system
• Two cables with one six/eight-pin connector for video cards each, 22” (56 cm) long, modular cabling system
• One cable with four SATA power connectors, 22” (56 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors, modular cabling system
• One cable with two SATA power connectors and two standard peripheral power connectors, 22” (56 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors, modular cabling system
• One cable with four standard peripheral power connectors, 22” (56 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors, modular cabling system
• One cable with three standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector, 22” (56 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors, modular cabling system

All wires are 18 AWG, except the ones used on the main motherboard cable and on the ATX12V/EPS12V cables, which are thicker (16 AWG).

The cable configuration is impressive, very long and allowing you to install up to three high-end video cards without using adapters, and the 10 SATA power connectors will please even the über storage-freak user. The only thing we didn’t like was the fact that the video card connectors that are permanently attached to the power supply are installed on the same cable instead of using individual cables.

Figure 3: Cables

Let’s now take an in-depth look inside this power supply.