A lot of you may know NZXT from the cases they have made in the past, and the recent case review I did of the Lexa case. NZXT now steps into the Power Supply line with 3 models to offer you, 450w, 550w, and 650w. If NZXT makes their power supply line like they do their cases, they will have instant winners no doubt. NZXT maybe a smaller company compaired to other manufactures, but I think that they have a lot to offer the consumer market. Today we have the NZXT PRC-550w PSU to review, which has Active PFC, dual 12v rails, and more to offer you.

Introduction:
Well to start off, just looking at the PRC-550w PSU packaging, it seems that they have done a very nice and well designed package to attract consumers. Upon further inspection inside the box, I notice NZXT has bubble wrapped up the PSU housing to protect it during shipping. There are a ton of cables connected to the PSU, but that’s a good thing, right? After taking off the bubble wrap I see the finish on the PSU housing is just awesome! The housing is done in a Mirror Titanium Black finish, and it’s just very sweet looking, the pictures don’t do the PSU justice to how it looks in real life. The PRC-550w ATX12V 2.0 Version with auto selectable function. Just looking over the cable connectors I notice that NZXT has added some different connectors on this PSU that I haven’t seen on some PSU’s, but this is also my first PSU review.

NZXT PRC-550w Spec:

• Version: ATX12V 2.0
• Chassis: Titanium Black
• Slid-in Technology (20+4)pin
• Slid-in Technology (4+4)pin
• Efficiency: 70% at full load, normal line
• SLI Support: SLI & CrossFire ready
• PCI Express 6pin: 2
• SATA Power Lead: 4
• Case Fan Connectors: Yes
• MTBF: Minimum 140,000 Hours at 75% load
• Protection: OVP/OPP/OCP/UVP/SCP

NZXT PRC-550w Connectors:

• 20+4 ATX Power Connector
• 3 x 4pin fan connectors (T-Style)
• 3 x 2pin fan connectors
• 6 x 4pin drive connectors
• 2 x floppy connectors
• 2 x 6pin PCI Express connectors
• 4 x SATA drive connectors (T-Style)
• Dual 4+4 P4 4 pin connectors (for 8pin EPS 12v)

Installation:
Installing any power supply is a breeze with only a couple of steps involved. Before starting to install the PSU, turn off your computer completely and disconnect the power cord from the back of the PSU. Uninstall your your old PSU now if you haven’t already done so. Disconnect all the power connectors from the motherboard, and peripheral devices such as fan, drives, etc. Remove the existing power supply from your computer and replace it with the new power supply. Make sure the red power suplly voltage switch is set to the same as you local power voltage. 115v for North America, Japan, etc. and 230v for Europe and many other countries. Connect the power connectors to your motherboard and peripheral devices. 20+4pin connector is used for 24pin ATX/BTX/EPS power connector, and the 12v 4+4pin P4 connector is used for 8pin EPS 12v power connector. Connect all fans to the dedicated fan connectors of the PSU. Connect the 4pin drive connectors now to your DVD, CD-ROM, and HDD. Connect the SATA connectors to the SATA hard drives if you have some, otherwise don’t worry about them. Connect the 6pin PCI-Express connectors to your PCI-Express video card (if applicable). Close the case up, and connect thr power cord to the PSU. Now that all of that is done you have no succesfully installed a new PSU. Turn on your system and you’re good to go.

The PRC-550w PSU comes equipped with a lot of protection devices, so your PSU doesn’t burn up. Lets look over a little more info about these features.

• Over Current Protection
  The power supply DC outputs are protected from supplying output current above the maximum ratings and when output power is between 110%~150%. With the exception of the 5VSB output, all DC outputs are latched off on the event of an over-current event on any of the DC outputs. In the event of a short circuit on any output, except the 5VSB rail, all outputs are disabled and remain disabled until the power supply is powered off back on. The 5VSB rail will recover upon removal of the over current condition.
• Over Voltage Protection
  The overvoltage sense circuitry and reference reside in packages that are seperate and distinct from the regulator control circuitry and reference. No single point fault is able to cause a sustained overvoltage condition on any or all outputs. The power supply provives latch-mode overvoltage protection defind as:
  +5v output is between 5.8v to 6.3v
  +12v output is between 14.0v to 17.0v
  +3.3v output is between 3.6v to 4.2v
• Short Circuit Protection
  The power supply DC outputs are protected from damage due to faults, when any output shorts to ground. In the event of a short sircuit on any output, all outputs shall be disabled and remain disable until the power supply is powered off and back on. The 5VSB rail will recover upon removal of the over current condition.
• ECASO Technology (comes on the PRC-650w PSU only)
  ECASO (Enhanced Cooling After System Off) is a patented technology to keep the PSU fans and system fans running for 3 minutes after system shutdown, it will avoid the heat surge to damage your valuable components and extend the life time.
• REMI
  REMI Control Technology is developed to comply with the increasing need in the high end graphics and gaming market. It provides filtered current specifically for the advanced graphics adaptors and also has the ability to eliminate the monitor’s “Snow” and “Water Wave” phenomenon and therefore protect the eyes of the users.
• Active PFC
  The preferable type of PFC is Active Power Factor Correction (Active PFC) since it provides more efficient power frequency. Because Active PFC uses a circuit to correct power factor, Active PFC is able to generate a theoretical power factor of over 95%. Active Power Factor Correction also markedly diminishes total harmonics, automatically corrects for AC input voltage, and is capable of a full range of input voltage. Since Active PFC is the more complex method of Power Factor Correction, it is more expensive to produce an Active PFC power supply.

After being able to test the PSU for weeks on end, I can that its very stable and i’m very happy with it. NZXT did a great job on making a PSU for their first PSU line ever. The Blue LED 120mm fan in the housing is very quiet. I don’t have a sound meter to test out what the sound output of the fan is, but the total sound is not over 30dBA at full load. I used the standard ways of testing the power supply with my multimeter, because I don’t have a better device to test with at this moment. Even at full load the PSU remains pretty cool and quiet. After testing the voltages on the PSU, I came up with the following numbers below;

NZXT has added something new to their power supply that I haven’t seen on other PSU’s. This is something that will set NZXT’s PSU line apart from other big name brand PSU’s on the market. NZXT added Case Fan Connectors to the PSU. They made the connectors on their own line like everything else connected to the PSU. There are enough connectors to plug in more than enough fans from your case. They included three 2pin style fan connectors, and three 4pin style connectors for those fans that don’t have the 2-3pin connectors available. Both the 6pin PCI-Express connectors, are sleeved a little differently than the rest. They are sleeved to be magnetically shielded, to have a 50% reduction of ripple noise, and 50% reduction of radiation. There is an added Combined LED on the back of the PSU, it comes on when the dual +12v rails have been combined for usage. I haven’t seen this on other power supplies either. So far NZXT is doing a really great job of setting themselves apart from the compitition. It hard to please me with a PSU, because i’m very picky when it comes to the performance and the design of the PSU. During this review my Kingwin PSU died on me, so I had to rely on the NZXT PSU to power up my system and everything I have 24 hours a day. I think it took on the job very well, and this is now going to be my new main power supply. Even though NZXT is a smaller case company to start with, I can see their product line growing in the near future, and being even better than what they have now.

Overview:
After playing around with the NZXT PRC-550w PSU, I can now say that for a first timer into the PSU industry, NZXT has really made their mark. I found that not only the functions of the PSU were great, but also the looks as well. This follows after NZXT’s complete product line, that has the same standards. All of NZXT’s cases are elegant and perform well also, so it’s no surprise to me that their PSU line is the same way. I was very happy with the output sound coming from the PSU total. It was very quiet, and never over bearing that I couldn’t hear anything else. The led on the back to show the combined power of both 12v rails is a nice touch. The mess like metal on the back gives enough airflow to release the trapt hot air from within the PSU housing. I was very surprised at the Mirror Titanium Black finish, and how well it looked. Yes it does leave finger prints all over the PSU housing, because of the mirror finish, but if you don’t mind that then you will have a execellent PSU for your PC. I did find a couple of things quite nice about this PSu that I haven’t seen on other PSU’s in the past. Having the dual 4+4pin connectors to use for the 8pin 12v EPS connector was a nice touch.

As most newer PSU’s are coming with the 20+4 ATX connector standard, and two 6pin PCI-Express connectors, the added case fan connectors is something new. It was nice being able to have the added connectors to connect all my case fans to. NZXT thought about this add-on for a while as it has enough connectors for both the 2pin standard fan connector, and the 4pin style fan connector, which all connectors are on the same line. If you have more than enough fans in you computer case, then these connector will help out. All the wires are only partially sleeved which kind of sucks, and their not modular. It would have been real nice if the wires were fully sleeved, but that’s not needed in order to perform right, it’s just an added feature. I wish that the Blue LED 120mm fan came in more color options than just Blue, maybe a Red, Green, or Orange would be nice. The PRC-550w PSU gets a 9 out of a 10, and a Spanking Monkey Award.

I would like to further like to thank NZXT for the review opportunity, and sample PRC-550w PSU for us to review.

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