GoKawiilNearly every power supply you buy today will be part of a series - a collection of two to four power supplies with the same branding across different wattages(i.e. FOCUS , RMe , MAG ). These series will cover ranges of power like 500-800 W, 750-1000 W, or 1000-1200 W.
Why do manufacturers produce these series, how similar are the power supplies within a series, and is it a good assumption that models within a series will perform similarly?
We don't typically test all models in a series but we did for the recently released NZXT C Gold Core series that we'll look at in this article.
NZXT C Gold Core Case Study
The extent of the similarities will differ between manufacturers and series, but in this article we've tested and opened up the NZXT C Gold Core series of power supplies to explore this question.
Consider this photo of the inside of the three power supplies, it's a challenging game of spot the differences between the NZXT C750 Gold Core , C850 Gold Core , and C1000 Gold Core .
NZXT C750 Gold Core, C850 Gold Core, and C1000 Gold Core Internals
All models in a series will typically share the chassis, PCB, electrical topology, heat management, feature set, and to a certain extent, performance(this will be covered more later). From the series that we've inspected, we've found it easier to list the differences than the similarities.
What are the Hardware Differences?
The largest and most visible difference as you increase in wattage is the greater selection of cables to allow connection to more components. This mostly manifests with additional PCIe cables, but there may be more subtle differences that might make a difference. For the NZXT C Gold Core series, the 12V-2x6 connector on the 750 W model is limited to 300 W , the 12V-2x6 output of the 850 W and 1000 W models can supply the full 600 W.
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