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- Date:
- Tuesday , February 16, 2010
- Author:
- Paul Johnson
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Nexus NX-5000 R3 & RX-5300 PSU Reviews
Nexus is back with us today and we have a look at two of its computer power supplies; the NX-5000 R3 and the N-5300, both 530 watt units. One of these new units is "Real" and very small in terms of form factor and both are nearly silent. Are these units supplying quality power along with silence? We find in our testing.
Overview
The first thing we are going to look at with the Nexus NX-5000 R3 or RX-5300 are their packaging, accessories, and documentation. While normally none of these items is a make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there are cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing, and use more efficient.
NX-5000 R3
RX-5300
The tri-colored Nexus RX-5300 packaging is identical to the RX-6300 packaging we recently saw, while the NX-5000 R3 carries on in the same form but decked out in only two colors. Each unit’s packaging carries the power table (reproduced below), the cable count (also reproduced below), an efficiency graph, a fan noise graph, and a number of marketing points. Once more, the majority of those marketing points tie directly into the two graphs we find on the packaging. The efficiency curve for both the RX-5300 and NX-5000 R3 looks like a tilde. This is certainly interesting and remains above 82% at all times and peaks as 85%. These identical efficiency curves make it seems as if these three units (NX-5300,NX-6300, and NX-5000 R3) are all based on the same ATNG A(x)L-780 base model that is on the 80Plus website certified for various levels of Climate Savers. Once more though, we find that the Nexus versions are not 80Plus certified at the time of writing. Moving on, we once more see the noise, or lack thereof, claims for these units on the packaging. The Nexus box, marketing, and webpage all go into great detail about just how quiet these units are including information about their ISO certified testing environment. As we have said before, we have seen a lot of claims about noise levels from units that were flat out false, but Nexus has built their company on the basis of quiet cooling and much to our delight, the RX-6300 did exactly what it said it would do. So we again have high hopes for these units in this regard today. When we turn to the US Nexus webpage we find out that the NX-5000 R3 and RX-5300 are once more covered by a limited 2 year warranty as explained here, and reproduced below:
Limited Warranty
For a period of two years from the date of original purchase, Nexus Technology USA will replace or repair any hardware product that we've sold to you that has been proven to be defective in workmanship or materials. New or refurbished, repair or replacement parts, will be provided by Nexus Technology USA on an exchange basis only.
The customer is responsible for freight charges to return the defective product to us via an insured and trackable carrier (such as UPS or Fed Ex). This warranty does not cover any damage to products. Damage to product includes, but is not limited to, damage that results from the improper or incorrect installation, misuse, accident, abuse, incompatibility, disaster, or any unauthorized disassembly, repair or modification.
We kicked Nexus around a bit in our last review for having such a shoddy warranty, and much to our surprise we received an email from Dennis van Driel at Nexus informing us that the units carried a warranty of 3 years, not 2 years and that the Nexus US webpage would be updated. At the time of writing however, this has yet to happen and since there is absolutely no manual or warranty card that comes with these units we are going to have to go with what the website says as it is the only support available to North American customers. This does, however, begs the question of which to kick Nexus for here, the 2 year warranty or not updating their website as it is the sole source of information? Take your pick, but the amount of support for these units is already seeming to be a bit lacking since we can’t expect the sole support contact location to have the "correct" information. (Editor's Note: As of publishing this today, no warranty information is included on the Nexus product pages and retailers are still listing these units' warranties as 2 years.)
The power label and connector counts for the RX-6300 and NX-5000 R3 are identical and seem in line with more modern, yet lower powered, power supplies we have seen the last couple of years. The 12v rail is capable of supplying up to 41A, or ~93% of the unit’s total output, if needed which is slightly less percentagewise than what we saw from the RX-6300. This 12v output is paired with one 6-pin PCI-Express connector, one modified 8-pin PCI-Express connector, and 12 peripheral connectors (split evenly between Molex and SATA connectors). Interestingly, this is exactly the same complement we found the RX-6300 decked out with. As such, this may be a bit of overkill for 530W units. This also is a bit interesting as unlike other companies Nexus surely isn’t trying to segment these products by physically limiting what they can support when it comes to connectors.
NX-5000 R3
RX-5300
Once we open the packaging of the RX-5300 and NX-5000 R3 we find the power supply, power cord, the modular cables, and some silica. Once more we get no other accessories or documentation. No mounting screws, and no manual at all. Certainly this aspect of this retail unit is bad beyond measure, and doubly sucks since Nexus claims one warranty length via email to us and a second length on their website while giving the user no documentation. This is just bad business on a consumer level and the only thing Nexus needs to do is look to its competition for a quick lesson. Certainly I would hate to be a person newer to building my own systems and find out I did not even have screws to install my PSU.