NZXT HALE90 750W Power Supply Unit Review

NZXT has designed their packaging to reflect the design and price point of the PSU. The packaging has the same minimalist appearance as the unit itself and has a generally high-quality feel to it. I like the way it makes the important stuff clear and doesn’t simply spam a feature list across the box as many other manufacturers do.

The front of the box is quite plain and does exactly what the front of a box should by clearly highlighting the wattage, primary features and colour scheme of the product, it also has a small window.

Looking at the back you can see that NZXT kindly display the most important information anyone will need when buying a PSU: the rail power, the connections and a few main features. There is also a picture of the product with an in-depth list of the features.

The bottom of the box is dedicated to a multilingual features list while the side shows a few useful graphs showing the efficiency and noise level under different loads, although I think they may have got the axis mixed up on the noise level graph!

Inside, all the contents are firmly wedged in to prevent any damage from movement and the inside of the box itself has a foam lining which should protect the unit from even the roughest couriers!

The accessories included are fairly basic which is something that doesn’t bother me. Power supplies are the unsung hero of all high-end PCs and require no accessories to continuously supply power to your components. I often think that many companies spend too much on useless accessories which means you get less PSU for your money. What NZXT has included is adequate but not excessive!

You will find:

• NZXT HALE90
• Modular cable bag
• Manual
• Thumb screws
• Cable ties
• Power lead
• 5 Year Warranty

I was particularly impressed with the quality of the modular cables, but this is no real surprise coming from the company that brought us their legendary premium braided cables. Instead of going for the standard, low quality braid that the vast majority of PSU manufacturers do, they have instead used great looking black individual wires and formed them into a flat, ribbon-like cable that looks fantastic and is incredibly easy to manage. Although I still prefer braided cables, no company has ever been able to factory braid a PSU to a very good standard, simply bundling the cables into it and putting the heatshrink about an inch from the connector, whereas these cables look neat right up to the connector and take up a lot less room. Oddly, although all the modular cables employ this design, the hardwired cables have the standard braided finish. The only disadvantage is that if you wanted to braid these cables yourself, your job would be nigh on impossible!

This PSU has a good selection of cables well tailored to the wattage of the unit. All of the connections are two-part where possible such as the 4+4 Pin CPU connector, 20+4 Pin ATX connector and the 6+2 Pin PCIe connector. These reduce the amount of unnecessary connectors making cable management a lot easier. The 4+4 Pin CPU connector is also very long as it is designed to reach the motherboard socket in the largest cases.