Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
As always, we opened up our NZXT HALE90 750W power supply to take a detailed look at what's going on inside. Please note that doing this at home will void your warranty, thanks to the warranty seal that NZXT applied over one of the attachment screws. But for the benefit of you, we cracked ours open so you don't need to, haha. There are no user serviceable parts inside.
NZXT's HALE90 line of PSUs is based off Super Flower's Golden Green platform. Super Flower is a Taiwan based power supply original equipment manufacturer; which is not as well known in North America compared to other brands -- but their products can be found under brand names such as TTGI, Kingwin, and of course, NZXT. Our photo above shows an overhead view of the NZXT HALE90 750W's internal components. A relatively clean design is revealed, with components well placed for optimal cooling and reduced heat congestion as one would expect from a modern day performance power supply. I was surprised to find only two small black painted heatsinks under the hood, as many other units I have seen in this range typically uses taller and larger toothed fins. The simple fin arrangement along with a loosely packed interior has a lower airflow impedance benefit, however. NZXT is a relatively new player in marketing power supplies to the end user, and Super Flower probably isn't the first OEM that comes to mind. But it's the details that count, right? I'm not going to waste any of your time -- let's take a closer look.
The transient filter stage is the first input stage of a computer power supply, so we'll take a look at that first. While you certainly won't get the level of sophistication Seasonic users might come to expect, NZXT met or exceeded the recommended requirements accordingly other than a missing a metal oxide varistor. The metal oxide varistor is used to stabilize spikes from the AC line. The HALE90 has two ferrite coils, two metalized polyester X-capacitors, and four ceramic Y-capacitors. That's twice as many X and Y capacitors than recommended. For a power supply of this caliber, I would have expected a little bit more, but it still gets the job done right.
On the primary side, we can see two Japanese brand Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors connected in parallel. Our 750W version of NZXT's HALE90 incorporates two 330µF x 400V capacitors for a total capacitance equivalence of a single 660µF x 400V capacitor (Remember that values add up when capacitors are hooked up in parallel, unlike resistors). These units are rated at 105c; whereas typical power supplies usually use 85c rated capacitors.
The active PFC circuit featured on the NZXT HALE90 750W uses one Shindengen US30KB80R silicon bridge diode, and is controlled by an ON Semiconductor NCP1653A compact fixed-frequency continuous conduction mode PFC controller. At 115V, the maximum rectified forward current capacity with heatsink is 30A, so you can theoretically pull up to 3450W from the bridge rectifier at 100% efficiency -- of course, this is limited by the fact that it is not 100% efficient, and also neglects the fact that not every component in the system are able to keep up. Two Infineon IPI60R125CP power MOFSET transistors are used on the active PFC circuit on the NZXT HALE90 750W power supply. Another two is used in the switching section. Each MOFSET can deliver up to 16A at 100 degrees Celsius continuously. These transistors present a maximum resistance of slightly higher than 0.125 ohm when turned on; with a typical resistance of a bit less than 0.125 ohm (The characteristic graph is hard to interpolate, haha). This on characteristic is called Static Drain-Source On-Resistance, or commonly abbreviated as RDS(on). The more efficient the component is, the lower the RDS(on) value, since it wastes less power with lower resistance.
The NZXT HALE90 750W incorporates an LLC resonant switching design enabled by a SF29601 controller, but Google does not provide any more information on it. I would assert Super Power rebranded it from another chip.
Six Infineon IPP040N06N3 rectifiers located under the black heatsinks are responsible for the rectification process. As with modern high efficiency power supplies, all rectifiers produces the +12V out -- while the +5V and +3.3V outputs are generated from the +12V output using a DC to DC converter within the power supply unit. The IPP040N06N3's rated continuous drain current is 90A at 100c, and a pulsed drain current of 360A at 25c. Drain source voltage is rated at 60V, and a RDS(on) value of only 0.0037 ohm.
The DC-to-DC converter has one ON Semiconductor NCP1587A PWM controller and four Matsuki Electric ME70N03S MOSFETs for each of the +3.3V and +5V outputs. The ME70N03S MOFSETs' maximum drain current is 62A at 25c and 50A at 70c, with an RDS(on) value of less than 0.011 ohm (Vgs @ 4.5V, Ids @ 15A).
Overall, the internal build quality of NZXT's HALE90 750W power supply is above average for its class -- it is not particularly impressive, although there is nothing wrong with it in particular either. Components are arranged beautifully for optimal cooling, but some solder joints have room for improvement. The Super Flower based NZXT HALE90 750W is a commendable unit overall under the hood.
Lastly, we see a large 140mm fan that provides cooling to the NZXT HALE90 750W's internal components. A 140mm fan is probably the largest one you can fit inside a standard ATX power supply, and it is beneficial in most cases in providing lots of airflow at lower speeds for quiet operation. The NZXT branded fan is a ball bearing fan rated at 0.3A, made white in color to complement the design scheme of the rest of the unit.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
