7-way 600 Watt PSU roundup in Venlo

Cases & PSU/Power Supplies by geoffrey @ 2010-03-17

Looking for a 600~700W PC power supply but haven´t decided yet what to get? In addition to our 2009 summer article we at Madshrimps have tested another four popular products from major brands like Nexus, Enermax, Scythe and Sharkoon. We compared features, performance and efficiency. Which one to get? Read on to find out!

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Nexus NX-8060 600W pics & results

Nexus NX-8060 600W box unpacked

Madshrimps (c)


Box unpacked, inside we found:
  • Nexus NX-8060 600W power supply
  • Sleeved cables
  • AC power cord
  • 4 x PSU Installation Screws

    The NX-8060 is one of the older PSU's of this roundup. Last year samples were based upon the new revision which claims lower noise output. Although it's been discontinued you'll very probable still find it in online shops, replacer for the NX-8060 will be the Nexus RX-6300 modular power supply which no longer uses the multi-12V rail pcb design.

    The box obviously states our test sample is of the newer revision. Inside we found the power supply with all its cables, 4 mounting screws but nothing more, not even a installation manual (that one you'll have to download).

    Cables explored

    Madshrimps (c)


    The PSU comes with the 20+4-Pins ATX power cable, the 4+4-Pins 12V EPS cable and a 6+2-Pins PCIE cable already connected, aside of that we also found following modular power cables:
  • 1 x 4+4 pins 12V EPS cable
  • 1 x PCI-E 6pin Cable
  • 3 x ODD/HDD/FDD Cables
  • 2 x S-ATA Cables

    The NX-8060 is equipped wit the most molex connectors from our roundup, it has 7 of those. SATA connectivity is however not that great, at 6 plugs it does what most other PSU's have but that's only half of what the Zalman extreme power has to offer though. A weird addition to the collection of cables is a second 4+4 pins 12V EPS connector, this one shares the same plug at the PSU side as the second PCIE power cable so you'll have to choose either one of them, not both at the same time.

    Madshrimps (c)


    More pictures

    Madshrimps (c)
    Madshrimps (c)


    Well there you have it, matte black finish like most other power supply's nowadays, not that I would want to go back to those grey/white units we had 10 years ago. The NX-8060 is not a NEXUS in house design but an OEM product instead. The Sharkoon unit which we also tested in this roundup shares the same printed circuit board design, however cable connectivity aswell as the cooling fan and few other stuff is differently between these two brands. Our reviewing sample of the NX-8060 (new revision) comes with a 120mm ADDA AD1212MB-A71GL fan which moves approx. 80cfm at 12V 38dBA. This fan is of the ball bearing type.

    Madshrimps (c)


    The NX-8060 features a quad 12V rail design good for 580W combined 12V power. Only 18 Amps per rail though which makes life a little though because you'll have to configure everything correctly. The market is bending more and more to the single 12V rail design once again so I think Nexus is certainly heading into the right direction with their new 600W product.

    Madshrimps (c)


    Nexus NX-8060 600W results

    How to read the table underneath? Well, we tried 3 different load settings: 100%, 50% and 20% of the total power rating. In the left green field on the right side of the table you can read the output power of the PSU, i.e. the load we set, it's calculated by measuring the live voltage per rail, and by measuring the flowing current per volt rail. You can also see what numbers we've measured inside the CM labs, and how many power is consumed by multiplying U (Volts) with I (Ampéres). In the red field on the left side represents the input power of the PSU, i.e. how many in total is being drawn from the wall plug. The second green value on the right side is the efficiency of the power supply, or output power divided by input power, in percent that is.

    Madshrimps (c)


    With numbers all well above eighty the 80plus certificate is certainly well deserved, overall the volts remain quite stable but overall the 12V rail does undervolt slightly at heavy load the 3.3 and 5V do also fall slightly underneath their target value. Some more test results we would like to share:

  • Inrush current: 78 Ampére
  • Power Factor: 0,92~0,98
  • Standby power consumption: 1,4 Watt
  • 12V shortcut protection: OK
  • 5V shortcut protection: OK

    We also tried overpowering the PSU, in this case we started increasing the 12V line load until the PSU shut down, these numbers are experimental and should not be analyzed too much as long as you plan on using the PSU within its specs. On previous page we got enthusiastic about the 120% headroom we saw with the Enermax product, Nexus does even better; with all four 12V rails at 14 Amps we got a combined power output of 815W... That's 136% load at 82% efficiency! Judging by the fact that the cooling heatsinks aren't that big I would use it very long at this load level, the PSU might overheat rather quickly.
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    Comment from EsaT @ 2010/03/19
    Overall good job but as you "crack" them open in any case you should also either check and write about capacitor selections or take such photos which allow recognizing capacitors.
    For most global brand PSUs used capacitors can be found from numerous other reviews but for European PSU brands thorough reviews aren't so common.

    While looking all good now PSU with crap capacitors can easily go bad after only couple years (or faster) so use of known high quality capacitors isn't just PR stunt. Instead of el Cheapo products even PSU with more average performance, say in voltage regulation, but high quality capacitors, is lot better investment and can keep going lot longer.
    Comment from geoffrey @ 2010/03/23
    You're correct and I must confess that I don't have enough knowledge about quality capacitors and such stuff. I'd love to tell you about what components to look out for and which you would rather want to avoid. In order to do that one must have lots of experience in electronics, for myself I would pay a visit to some of these capacitors producers and see how they do it. I would ask repair departments in order to know their thoughts about certain weak components instead of reading and quoting other man's words. But frankly, knowing that it took a very long time to get this review done, and knowing that writing reviews is just one of the many hobby's I have, I can tell you that getting more in detail would take only more time which I can't make available at the moment.

    "Then why bother the review?" Well why would you? I'm telling you from the start that internals is not what we're going to focus on, instead we'll be testing the product 'as it comes' and judge by that those facts what it is worth for us. On the longer scale there're lots of influences which can degrade the product life, and yes quality components will most certainly extend the joy you'll have from it, but than again you're judging by name and not by real world facts like you would get when testing hundreds of units for multiple years. I say it's a nice extra thing to mention but sometimes I get the thought that some reviewers are just quoting stuff and that's why I rather not spend time researching and reading other man's work. But I hope that what you got in this article was good enough to get you going
    Comment from EsaT @ 2010/03/24
    Sometimes some smaller caps have only minimal markings on them but most have manufacturer's name or logo so simply listing identifiable capacitors and leaving arguing/deductions to readers wouldn't increase workload more than minute or two per PSU.
    Cap makers often sticking to certain colour theme can give fast first hint of manufacturer but still gettings markings to show in photos would actually take more effort.


    Quote:
    judging by name and not by real world facts like you would get when testing hundreds of units for multiple years
    Even longer testing of big sample isn't reliable if quality is inconsistent. Like those Fuhjyyus making Antec SmartPowers and old TruePower I/IIs random timebombs. Some of them have obviously worked well while lot of them have been ready to pop at any time.
    And even if lower quality caps work long in one product lowering cooling (as silence is now major advertising point in PSUs) below some level can kill those caps fast in other product.

    So there simply aren't any valid reasons to keep cheap dozenware equal to known long time manufacturers.
    It's rather sure bet that quality PSU manufacturers do some tough testing to capacitors (also they have to stay sharp because of huge counterfeit production in China) they keep using in their high end models so that should be good hint as to what is reliable because in capitalistic world use of more expensive parts than necessary is rare.


    Personally I have one 13 years old high end Nokia CRT still working but despite of good looking design and good sized heatsinks for critical components Samsung 959NF started going haywire after 6½ years simply because of lot of capacitors failing. (don't remember their brands except that they weren't known high quality brands)
    And now in TFT monitors cheap capacitors of their power supplies are common cause of their premature deaths before reasonable operating life.
    So with 1½ year of use behind I have to start really considering when I open my LG IPS monitor for checking is it better to replace caps for making sure it lasts because real step forward OLED and FED/SED monitors are still years away and current monitor markets are falling towards vertically cripled cheap crap. (Millions of flies can't be wrong: Crap is good.)

     

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