Published: November 12, 2024 | Source: NZXT | Author: Tom Logan

NZXT PSU Buyers Guide – Gold and Platinum Models

Introduction and Technical Specifications

Introduction

A truism that holds amongst hack stand-up comedians and a lush propping up the bar is; why does the place that fixes your heels also cut keys? Nothing about the two tasks requires the same machinery. What has this to do with today’s foursome of NZXT PSU’s? Well companies that are good at making cases also tend to be very good at making power supplies. Neither task remotely echoes the skills or machinery of each other. Yet if the cases are good, so are the power supplies.

NZXT have four main offerings in the popular area of high efficiency and fully modular PSUs. All in the C series. We’ve got four in place today. The C850, C1000 and C1200 in their Gold efficiency, and the C1500 Platinum for those of you who spare no expense.

Depending upon your financial situation you might be tempted to just cover all eventualities with the C1500 Platinum. Similarly if you’re tight on funds then, as all of us who’ve specced a system on a budget will know, it’s easy to go as small as possible on your PSU. Generally the rule is to buy the best one you can. The more powerful and efficient the power supply is, the smoother your power delivery and thus more consistent the overall performance of your rig. Additionally a higher output on a lower demand system means cooler and more efficient running. Even the 1500W Platinum NZXT PSU drops 4% of efficiency when going from 50% delivery to 100%. On paper. We’ll find out how it actually fares in a moment.

One thing it’s worth bearing in mind is how good modern power supplies have become. If you’ve not brought one for a while then you’ll be surprised that even the base model here, the C850, is good enough for all but the most insane builds. Regular readers of our system reviews will know the type of PSU you get with certain builds. It’s a great place to start to get a feel for the amount of Watts you actually need for a certain build. We will, of course, tell you our rough builds at the end.

Technical Specifications

There is very little to choose between the three C Series Gold power supplies, other than the total wattage and the energy efficiency (found on the bottom left of this table). Nonetheless we’ll show you them all in case you prefer to see how identical they are with your own eyes. The C1500 Platinum at the bottom is a step up, with a bigger chassis and better efficiency.

Things that are worthy of note. The C850, C1000 and C1200 are all available in both black and white, whilst the Platinum C1500 is black only. Secondly we get a lot of people asking about cables. NZXT very kindly provide the number and lengths of the cables in the box in the specs. As you can see below. The C850 for example has three 6+2 pin PCIe power cables of 650mm length. So if that’s your bag, pay attention to the tables below.