Final Thoughts
The NZXT HALE82N series was designed to fill a niche that their current power supplies do not: enthusiast system building on a budget. PC building is becoming more and more popular by the day, and whilst some are able to spend the extra cash required to buy a fully-modular and highly efficient power supply, others simply cannot afford to. That is where the HALE82N comes in; it’s a non-modular power supply, which helps keep the cost of the unit down, whilst remaining efficient enough for the 80PLUS Bronze certification. With this in mind, the HALE82N series is excellent.
All cables are of a good length to accommodate full-tower cases. Not just that though, they’ve got that little bit of extra wiggle room required to route everything behind the motherboard tray for a clean and nice looking build. All cables are separated and sleeved in mesh, so there are not a huge amount of cables bundled together as you sometimes see with other entry-level units. This makes hiding unused cables a breeze. The cables are also nice and flexible for routing effectively.
I love that the exit hole on the PSU chassis is protected by a plastic grommet. This will ensure that your cables don’t rip and fray on the sharp edging of the power supply walls.
However, on the 750W model, I found a potentially significant problem in the PCI-E connector types. On each cable, there is a 6+2-Pin and an 8-Pin connector. There is no way to adapt the 8-Pin connector to a 6-Pin, so if you’re running a GPU that requires 2x 6-Pin power connectors, you’re going to have to use both cables for one card. This isn’t a problem if you’re using a single-GPU setup, but if you’re looking to SLI or CrossFire, you’re going to run into issues. Many graphics cards these days take advantage of at least one 8-Pin connector, and for those that do this isn’t a problem at all. It’d have been much easier if NZXT included 4x 6+2-Pin instead, therefore allowing the use of any 2 cards in SLI or CrossFire. The HALE82N 550W model does not use 8-Pin PCI-E cables, so this issue does not apply when considering the 550W.
Aesthetically the HALE82N series is very attractive. There’s nothing getting in the way or any bright and colorful stickers getting in the way of any color scheme you may be wanting to use in your build. The stamped NZXT logo is a nice touch, and I love the black and white contrast. The cable sleeving is of a high standard, and it’s a very nice detail that can help set this power supply apart from its competition.
The 120mm fan on these power supplies is very quiet when the power supply runs at load. It’s virtually silent when idle, as the temperature sensors within the unit only ramp up the fan when it’s required.
NZXT have made the +5Vsb standby rail powerful enough to support fast USB charging. This feature isn’t available on every motherboard, but on those that it is, this is a great feature. They’ve also made the +5Vsb available to charge your USB devices even when the computer is off. As the 5Vsb rail is always active even when your computer is off (it needs to be in order to receive the signal from your motherboard to turn on), it’ll also supply power to your external devices, which is really handy.
The HALE82N series delivers very clean power to your core components. With some machines running at a very high price tag, you want to feel safe and secure in the fact that the power supply you choose isn’t going to cause degradation or damage your hardware. Couple this with the fact that the HALE82N power supplies offer numerous surge, overvoltage or undervoltage safeguards, and you have yourself a very strong contender for your consideration.
You’re provided with a 5-Year Warranty on the HALE82N series, which is a lengthy period and is definitely at the top end of the spectrum compared to other manufacturers. If you’re in the US or Canada, you’re also backed up by NZXT’s Less-Than-Three service which will supply you with a cross-shipped replacement should yours fail. That said, NZXT have used excellent quality Japanese capacitors, which makes it likely that your power supply will continue to run well beyond this warranty period.
Combining all this together and you’re left with a very strong, efficient and appealing power supply in almost every aspect. The PCI-E connector issue that was mentioned previously isn’t going to apply to most people, but for those it does it is worth considering. Of course, the problem can be overcome with MOLEX-to-PCI-E adapters, should you need to. With everything in mind, ThinkComputers would like to award the NZXT HALE82N 550W and 750W Power Supplies a 9 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Efficient
– Sleeved cables
– Excellent cable lengths
– Aesthetically pleasing
– Strong single +12V rail
– 5-Year warranty
– Noise levels are exceptionally quiet
– Great attention to detail
Cons:
– PCI-E 8-Pin connectors may cause problems with PCI-E devices that utilize only 6-Pin connectors. Only applies to 750W model.