The Rosewill Hive 850W PSU Review
by E. Fylladitakis on July 28, 2015 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- PSUs
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Rosewill
- 850W
Cold Test Results
For the testing of PSUs, we are using high precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2700 Watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox and various other bits and parts. For a thorough explanation of our testing methodology and more details on our equipment, please refer to our How We Test PSUs - 2014 Pipeline post.
The Rosewill Hive 850W displays very high efficiency levels under low to medium loading. It would very easily receive a better efficiency certification as well if not for the sharp efficiency drop above an output of 500 Watts. It manages an average efficiency within the nominal load range (20% to 100% of the unit's capacity) of 84.9% and a maximum of 86.5% when operating at exactly 50% load. However, the efficiency drops significantly at high loads, dropping all the way down to 82% at 100% load, preventing the platform from reaching higher efficiency certifications.
Due to the significant efficiency degradation at higher loads, the Hive 850W PSU displays a highly uneven temperature increase across the load range. It is rather cool and quiet at low to medium loads, with the fan maintaining very comfortable noise levels. However as the load increases, the lower efficiency generates heavy thermal losses and the speed of the fan increases rather abruptly, reaching what I feel are aggravating noise levels if the PSU is operating near its maximum capacity.
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doggface - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
Great review. I really appreciate that you test these less capable units. Reading this helps me to realise why those 1200 watt PSUs are so good. To see what happens when the cooling isn't sufficient.Also that this psu seems like it would be good for systems that might generally sit at around 2-400watts and occasionally pulls 5-600+ on a more epic game.
BrokenCrayons - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
Nice review. The PSU looks pretty decent up to around 500 watts and, realistically, that's about the maximum draw of most gaming computers even those running two GPUs (presuming about 100 watts for the CPU and then another 125-ish for each video card, plus some extra wattage for drives and other bits) so it's more than enough. As I've never found a reason to run more than one mid-range graphics card, I personally can't see buying anything rated over 450 watts. The price is a little too high, but aside from that, its good enough.Oxford Guy - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
"I personally can't see buying anything rated over 450 watts."In that case you can get a platinum PSU on sale (rebate) for less than the price of this one.
cykodrone - Saturday, August 22, 2015 - link
Anything lower than 'gold' is junk. This thing is a budget brand 'bronze', blech, no thanks. That's why it's only a 3 year warranty, low quality components. It doesn't even look that great, enthusiast like snazzy, especially modders with window cases. Punching sheet metal with a honeycomb pattern has been around for years already, *yawn*.