NZXT C750 Bronze Non-Modular ATX PSU Review

NZXT is one of the biggest names in the PC hardware business, with many of the most iconic cases, coolers, power supplies, monitors, speakers, keyboards, mice, headsets, motherboards, gaming chairs, and well, you get the point, they have grown far and wide over the years, and continue to be a premium choice for many gamers. However, one thing we often don't get to see here at eTeknix, are the more affordable NZXT products. Today, I'll be taking a look at the NZXT C750, a 750 watt power supply, rated at 80 Plus Bronze, it's non-modular (hard-wired), and comes with a price of around £74.99, making it very appealing for those with lower powered systems and tighter budgets. It's well equipped though, with a DC-to-DC design, a 120mm fluid dynamic bearing fan for reliable and low noise cooling performance, nylon sleeved cables for added durability, and while 80 Plus Bronze isn't the best, it's reasonable, and certainly more affordable than Gold, Platinum, and Titanium rated units. But with plenty of change from £100, again, there's certainly some appeal here for those building a more affordable system with less powerful graphics cards and CPUs. Features Up to 88% efficiency at 50% load exceeds 80 Plus Bronze standards, reducing energy waste and heat. A 120mm fluid dynamic bearing fan delivers low-noise performance with enhanced longevity. DC-to-DC conversion ensures consistent power delivery to GPUs up to 220W, such as the RTX 3070. Tested for safety at up to 40°C, and features over-temperature and over-current protections. Main PSU cables are nylon-sleeved for durability with a matte black finish to match any build. For further specifications, please check out the official product page here. A Closer Look The NZXT C750 Bronze is a fairly basic power supply in terms of design, and I'm perfectly OK with that, as not every PC needs to be a flashy gaming monster, and for the most part, most PC builds hide the PSU out of sight anyway. It's finished in all-black, and looks clean and tidy. There's a 120mm FDB fan on the top, with a metal fan grille to stop you from poking your fingers in here, and help with airflow. On the back, there's the AC line-in, a master power switch, and a decent amount of ventilation allowing heat to be exhausted out of the back. Down the sides, you'll find the NZXT C750 branding, nice and simple. There's a specifications sticker on the bottom, should you need to chair the limits of any of the rails. And finally, the cables, which are hard wired into the PSU, and come with a protective nylon sleeving. However, the cables themselves are finished in a matte black with black connectors. Nice and simple, but certainly effective. A Closer Look - Interior On the interior, there's a lot of space, but that's not surprising given that the 750W power output doesn't require as much hardware as you would find in something like a 1000W+ Platinum rated unit. However, that does mean that components are well spaced out and overall airflow and cooling will benefit from this. There's a DC-to-DC design, which will help with the efficiency and produces less heat, but also means a more stable power delivery for things like graphics cards. There's are also a couple of heatsinks running parallel down the middle of the PSU. The main bulk capacitor, and all of the smaller capacitors throughout are rated at 105c, which is always good to see; It's rated at 650uF and 400v. And on the side, you'll find a small daughter board with the 3.3 and 5v coils, and as you can see, all the cables feed into the PSU and are hard wired into the PCB. There's a bit of empty space here too, and while NZXT could have made the PSU shorted easily enough, that would have also required a smaller fan, hence the blank space here. Methodology & Testing At eTeknix we take the power supply testing procedure very seriously and have invested a lot of resources into acquiring the appropriate testing equipment. For all power supply reviews, we test the power supplies with dedicated power supply testing equipment. This means we can get the most accurate results from our testing as opposed to using software benchmarks (such as OCCT) or multi-meter readouts which are broadly inaccurate. Testing Hardware Sunmoon SM-8800 Active Load Tester Stingray DS1M12 USB Oscilloscope Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer What the eTeknix Test Procedure Involves Testing each power supply at 20/40/60/80/100% load (with load balanced across all rails) and measuring PFC (power factor correction), efficiency (actual power divided by power "pulled at the wall") which also uses a 50% load test, and voltage regulation (deviance from expected voltages of 3.3/5/12 on the main rails). Measuring ripple with an oscilloscope at 20/40/60/80/100% load. Transient loads taken with an oscilloscope are taken from 0% to 100% on the 12v raid, 3.3v rail, and then both combined. Measuring fan speed after a stabilisation period of five minutes at each loading scenario using the Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer and a reflective strip on the fan. Testing each power supply's OPP (Over Power Protection) mechanism and seeing how many watts each power supply can deliver before shutting down. Any deviation from this will be explained per review as appropriate on the respective testing pages, but this methodology page will remain unchanged. Other Things to Consider We recognise that a single 12-volt cable can provide only 6 Amps before overheating (which corrupts voltage regulation and efficiency) so we used an adequate number of cables for each power supply to ensure there is no efficiency loss from poor cable selection. If there is more than one 12VHPWR on a PSU, all will be used to test their combined loads. We use the same time scale and horizontal millivolt scale on our oscilloscope for all ripple tests, that is a 20ms T/DIV (horizontal) and a 0.02 V/DIV (vertical) meaning the scale is from -80mV to +80mV, ATX spec dictates that the 12v rail must fall within 150mv of ripple and the 3.3/5 within 50mv so that scale allows us to include both 150 and 50mV peaks. (Some older PSU reviews use different scales which were later ditched as the visual representation they give is inadequate, in these reviews written measurements are provided only). Deviance is the terminology used to represent the way voltages diverge from the expected values Voltage Regulation To test voltage regulation we load the power supply to five different load scenarios that give an equal spread of load across every single rail. So that means 20% on all rails, 40% on all rails and so on. We then calculate the average deviation of each rail from its expected voltage. Ideally, anything of +/- 2% regulation is seen as a very good result. Power Efficiency Power efficiency is measured by calculating the supplied wattage divided by the wattage drawn at the wall/plug, multiplied by 100 to give a percentage. We then compare that to the particular 80 Plus certification the company claims to see if it meets that. You can see the 80 Plus certifications below, we always test power supplies at 230v. Transient Loads Power Factor Correction Power Factor Correction is the ratio of the real power flowing to the load, to the apparent power in the circuit. PFC aims to make the load circuitry that is power factor corrected appear purely resistive (apparent power equal to real power). In this case, the voltage and current are in phase and the reactive power consumption is zero. The closer the number to one the better as this allows the most efficient delivery of electrical power (Source - Wikipedia). Ripple An oscilloscope can easily measure noise and Ripple. These show how much voltage fluctuation there is on a particular rail. We tested the rail stability of the 3.3-volt, 5-volt and 12-volt rails using an identical time and millivolt scale for all graphs. millivolt ripple is measured by the peak-to-peak size of the voltage curve. The latest ATX 12-volt version 2.3 specifications state that ripple from peak to peak must be no higher than 50 millivolts for the 3.3-volt and 5-volt rails, while the 12-volt rail is allowed up to 120 millivolts peak to peak to stay within specifications. Millivolt figures are stated to the closest increment of 5 given their variability. OPP Power supplies are often quoted as having various protection mechanisms and the most important of these is Over Power Protection. In our testing, we crank up the power draw until the power supply either shuts down (meaning the OPP mechanism is present and working) or blows up (meaning it is either not present or not working). We then note the maximum power consumption before the power supply shut down, or before it blew up. Fan Speed When testing in a power supply laboratory it is difficult to take fan noise readings as the noise from the Sunmoon test equipment and air conditioning corrupts everything. The next best thing in our circumstances was reading off the fan speed with a tachometer to get an idea of the noise. The ambient temperature during testing is held constant at 22 degrees, with 1 degree of variation. Each power supply had a consistent period of 5 minutes to stabilise between each load scenario. In my experience, the following general relationships apply between noise levels and fan speeds, though it can vary greatly between the type of fan used. Below 800 RPM - Inaudible/Silent 800 to 1000 RPM - Barely audible 1000 - 1200 RPM - Audible but still quiet 1200 - 1400 RPM - Moderately noisy 1400 - 1800 RPM - Noisy 1800 - 2000 RPM or above - Intolerable Internal Components This is just an example of what you can expect to see on a PSU interior. Efficiency It's an 80 Plus Bronze rated unit, which isn't great, but really not to bad either, it does drop off a bit at 100% load, but holds strong around the mid, which is about a typical mid-range PC load anyway, so that's good. PFC (Power Factor Correction) Surprisingly, the PFC is really excellent, holding very consistent thanks to that DC-to-DC topology. Voltage Regulation And for a budget PSU, the voltage regulation is really fantastic, with excellent tolerances throughout. Ripple Ripple is decent too, well within the specifications and really impressive, so I have high confidence for system stability here. 3.3V 5V 12V Over Power Protection and Max Wattage It even managed to pull close to a 1000W before the OPP kicked in. Not that I recommend you exceed the 750W consistently, but for soaking up the occasional power draw spike, it's more than up to the job. Cross-Loads In cross loads, stability is excellent here too, we like to see it within +/- 3.0% and these are all well within that safety margin. Fan Speed The fan was quiet enough, obviously it gets up a pace at 100% load, but really no more noise than a good quality case fan at about half power. How Much Does it Cost? The NZXT C750 Bronze Non-Modular Power Supply is available now for just £74.99, and while it's not going to blow you away with incredible efficiency or massive power output, I think it's fair to say that much is reflected in the price. The NZXT C850 Gold is £129.98, and that's a big price leap for someone on a tighter budget, and for the NZXT C1000 Gold power supply, and you're pretty much doubling the price of the C750. Overview This power supply is quite simply OK, it's not the best, but it's pretty cheap. For a modern gaming system, it's lacking in power output and efficiency for my taste. However, if you're needing to replace some junk PSU in an older system that's closer to a hand grenade than a power supply, something like this is a cheap upgrade/replacement path for older systems, and the PSU can manage something like an GTX 1660 Ti or something similar. Then again, not every PC is a gaming PC, and if you're running a powerful CPU and using the iGPU or a basic video card just to run multiple displays and not gaming, then again, 750W is loads of power. Budget office systems and work from home setups don't need to be expensive. Especially when a lot of peoples most intense work load is opening Photoshop, or browsing reddit while on a Zoom meeting. In terms of efficiency 80 Plus Bronze is the bottom rung of the ladder, as I think plain old 80 Plus "white" has been retired now, and I suspect Bronze will soon be phased out as more efficient technologies are becoming a focus for the market. The C750 at least did meet its ratings in my testing though, so no issues there, but wasting 10-15% of the power you put in still isn't ideal. I actually like non-modular PSUs too, they are just so easy to use, and quick to deploy and that ease of use is certainly going to appeal to some people. No need to go digging in my loft for the spare cables when I make a system change, as they're all on the PSU already. Also, it's a move that keeps the cost down even more too, and when cash is tight, that's always a bonus when buying PC hardware. What did surprise me is the quality of the power delivery. There's low ripple, good voltage regulation and tight PFC, so it's doing a lot right considering the low power output and efficiency rating. Should I Buy One? A modest PSU with limited capabilities, but at just £74.99 it's also one of the most affordable brand-name power supplies on the market. Sure, it's not going to go into your flagship gaming PC, but for replacing an old PSU in a more dated system or for building an affordable work computer or family PC, then it's more than up to the task.

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Over Power Protection and Max Wattage

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