NZXT C1500 80 PLUS Platinum ATX 3.1 PSU Review

TweakTown's Rating: 95%

The Bottom Line

NZXT's C1500 is an extremely efficient ATX 3.1 PSU that can easily power multiple GPUs while maintaining 80 PLUS Titanium efficiency levels. It offers outstanding performance.

Pros

• + Magnetic levitation 140mm fan
• + Dual PCIe 5.1 600w 16-pin 12V-2x6 cables
• + Cybenetics Titanium certification
• + 80 PLUS Platinum certification
• + 10-year warranty and premium high-quality components

Cons

• - Cost

Should you buy it?

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Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

NZXT has just announced a new high-end ATX 3.1 PSU, the C1500 Platinum. Equipped with dual PCIe 5.1 600w 16-pin 12V-2x6 cables, the C1500 might be the end-all PSU.

It's not cheap, at $370, but the real question is, is it worth it?

NZXT C1500 80 PLUS Platinum ATX 3.1 PSU

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$359.99	$359.99	$359.99	$369.99	Buy
	$299.99	$299.99	$359.99	$369.99	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 8/28/2024 at 12:35 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Packaging

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The outside of the packaging is purple, with white on the product sides. NZXT sure loves its purple color.

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The backside of the packaging shows all the specifications, a few key features, AC Input and DC Output ratings, and efficiency.

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One side of the box shows all the cabling included with the C1500.

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We are greeted with more purple and high-density foam around the C1500 PSU.

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All the cables are in a clear plastic bag except for the thick NEMA 5-15P to C19 power cable.

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NZXT has included a huge plethora of cabling, and all of them are sleeved. Included cables are laid out as follows: 24-pin Motherboard, 8-pin EPS CPU, 4+4-pin EPS CPU, six 6+2-pin PCIe, 2 16-pin 12V-2x6 PCIe, 3 SATA, and a single peripheral cable.

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NZXT's packaging has been carefully considered. It uses high-density foam for the top and bottom, while an NZXT-branded white bag protects the middle.

Outside the NZXT C1500 Platinum ATX 3.1 PSU

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Removing the C1500 from all the packing materials reveals the slender 1500-watt ATX 3.1 PSU.

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The C500 has a 140mm fan grille design with a gunmetal gray finish and a large hexagonal ventilation pattern.

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The C1500 design has a two-tone finish and a gray fan grille featuring a large honeycomb mesh for ample ventilation. Under that grille is a 140mm MagLev fan; more on that later.

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On the side of the C1500 is quite simple, with NZXT and C1500 in gray.

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The product informational sticker on the underside of the C1500 shows 125A on a single 12V rail-just insane.

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The cable input side is littered with inputs, starting with 18-pin and 12-pin motherboard connections that terminate at 24-pin on the motherboard side. Next, we have the CPU and PCIe sections, totaling eight 8-pin inputs that can be used for either the CPU or PCIe.

Inside the NZXT C1500 Platinum ATX 3.1 PSU

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Now, taking a peek inside the NZXT C1500 ATX 3.1 PSU, we are greeted by a 140mm Sunon MagLev fan, which is very nice. Model number MFE0251VX-1Q010-S99 is rated for 4.97w and runs on DC12V with 7 fan blades.

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The inside of the C1500 shows a very robust design with three large capacitors, two transformers, and two PFCs (Power Correction Factor). The OEM is from CWT and is on the semi-digital CTT platform, which is used in two other PSUs: the XPG Cybercore II 1300 and MSI's 1000P PCIe5.

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The three capacitors, which Rubycon makes, are 100% Japanese-built and are rated for 420V at 820µF each, totaling 2,460µF while being able to withstand up to 105C in terms of temperature. This capacity is a mental amount of capacitor.

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The two main transformers, which normally appear only in a single configuration, testify to this PSU's power.

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The two large PFC units are in the lower right corner of the C1500.

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The minor rail FETs and the controller are finishing up our look inside of the C1500 from NZXT.

Test System, Installation, and Finished Product

• Motherboard: Z690 AORUS Pro (Intel Z690) - Buy from Amazon
• CPU: Intel Core i5 12600K - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro X Series iCUE XH305i RGB PRO - Buy from Amazon
• Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5-7200 - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA RTX 3090 Founders Edition - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity - Buy from Amazon
• Storage: Corsair MP600 PRO XT Gen4 PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 SSD - Buy from Amazon
• Case: Lian Li T70
• Power Supply: NZXT C1500w Platinum ATX 3.1 PSU - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit Build 22621 - Buy from Amazon
• Software: AIDA64 Engineer v7.20.6800, CPU-z 2.09.0 x64. GPU-Z 2.59.0, and HWiNFO64 v8.02-5440

Final Thoughts

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For this review, I used an Intel Core i5 12600K on a Z690 AORUS Pro. I know I stated in my last review that I would be using the AM5/7950X platform to test PSUs, but I ran into stability issues with that testing setup. Expect the AM5/7950x setup to return in the future.

The Core i5 12600K was set at auto for the VCORE, which pulled around 102 watts at full load, plus 15 watts from the iGPU, totaling 127 watts. The AM5 motherboard used again here was the Z690 AORUS Pro, for RAM 32GB of Dominator Platinum DDR5-7200 MT/s from Corsair. The GPUs used here consisted of an NVIDIA RTX 3090 FE and a Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity OC, both power limited at 77% via MSI's Afterburner software. Both RTX 3090s drew around 268 watts each on average. In contrast, the motherboard, the Z690 AORUS Pro, six 120mm ARGB fans, and a Corsair D5 pump drew approximately 56 watts in total, which was measured from pins 24 (ground) and 11 (+12V1) using a digital multimeter.

The total power reported from HWINFO64 was 694 watts on average, with over 20 hours of testing. The power drawn from the wall was measured with a Killawatt P3 digital electrical usage monitor, which read around 750 watts during the testing. Taking 709, divided into 750, makes the C1500 94.5% efficient at a 50% PSU load, passing the 80 Plus Titanium certification; great work, NZXT.

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This testing was done for over 20 hours by running the Aida 64 Engineer's Stability Test. Other monitoring software used was HWiNFO64 v8.02-5440, TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.59.0, CPU-Z 2.0.9.0.x64, and MSI Afterburner v4.6.4.16255.

The C1500 from NZXT is a great ATX 3.1 PSU if anyone needs to run multiple high-power GPUs simultaneously, especially if dual PCIe 5.1 600-watt 16-pin 12V-2x6 cables are required. One question that comes to mind is whether 1,500 watts are needed for a high-end gaming PC. No, not really. A high-quality 1,000-watt 80 Plus Gold or Platinum ATX 3.1 PSU will certainly do the job with more than adequate headroom. That said, having a higher-wattage PSU with a lower power draw has increased efficiency, which is something to consider.

Looking at pricing, the NZXT C1500 is priced at $370, which, for the budget-minded, is quite a bit to spend on a PSU; however, it does make for a solid investment that can last for quite a few upgrades, thus saving money in the long run.