Most of our US and Canada based readers are likely familiar with Rosewill. The company started as a subsidiary of Newegg and they were initially focused on producing simple bits and hardware at competitive prices. As the company grew larger and diversified into other segments of the market, they eventually fledged into a stand-alone manufacturer, with myriads of products filling their ranks and exports outside of the North American markets. Our latest review of their products was that of the Photon 1050W PSU a few months ago. Today we are having a look at another one of their PSUs, the Hive 850W.

Unlike the Photon, the Hive is a series primarily focused on combining high power output and aggressive pricing. They are not lacking any tangible features, as they are semi-modular models with a black chassis. However, they appear to be a little behind technologically for new high performance models, they are just 80Plus Bronze certified and rated for continuous output at 40°C. Their retail prices are enticing but not excessively low, with the 850W unit retailing for $100 including shipping. As a result the question we're looking to answer today is whether the performance of the new Hive units can justify their price tag.

Packaging and Bundle

The Hive is supplied in a sturdy cardboard box, with the artwork hinting that the origin of its name comes from the honeycomb finger guard pattern. Some basic specifications about the PSU can be found on the sides and the rear of the box.

Few extra items are bundled with the Hive. Rosewill only supplied the AC power cable, a few cable ties and the mounting screws. However, the modular cables come supplied into a nice reusable pouch with a zipper. The cables are "flat", ribbon-like, with black wires. Red connectors are installed on the PCI Express cables.

External Appearance

Much like with the Photon series, the Hive is hardly any different from a typical black ATX PSU. The only thing that differentiates it from the core design is the fan finger guard, which is not a separate part but a honeycomb pattern punched on the steel chassis itself. Aside from the sticker with the electrical specifications of the PSU at the top of the chassis, there is virtually nothing else that would break the monotony of the black, plain chassis.

This is a semi-modular unit, with some of the cables hardwired and others removable. The connectors for the modular cables can be seen at the front of the chassis, with a basic printed legend indicating which connector corresponds to each cable. Do note that the connectors for the PCI Express cables are red and the connectors for the 6 pin and 6+2 pin cables are different.

Internal Design

A rather standard, high speed 135 mm fan from Globe is found beneath the honeycomb finger guard of the Hive 850W PSU. The S1352512HH is a sleeve bearing and a maximum speed of 1800 RPM, meaning that at lower speeds it can handle itself well, but at maximum speed it could get awfully loud. Of course, a thermal control circuitry adjusts the speed of the fan according to the load and the temperature of the unit, so we will see how it truly behaves during our testing.

Sirfa is the OEM behind the Rosewill Hive 850W. Although they are not very reputable among enthusiasts, Sirfa is a good OEM and they released several relatively good platforms during the past few years, yet they also faced a couple of mishaps with a certain low-cost platforms. Our sample is based on a slightly modified version of the popular Direct12 Bronze II platform that has been around for a couple of years.

The filtering stage is textbook in design, with four Y capacitors, two X capacitors and two filtering inductors. A small and plain heatsink provides cooling to the main rectifying bridge, while the APFC components are mounted on a long heatsink alongside the edge of the PCB. A very large inductor and a 400V/680μF Rubycon capacitor are the passive PFC components. A half-bridge inversion configuration feeds the main transformer, the output of which is then processed to a single 12V line. The 5V and 3.3V lines are then derived via DC-to-DC conversion circuits.

Despite the presence of the DC-to-DC conversion circuits, the low efficiency transistors prohibit this platform from attaining a better efficiency certification. The electrolytic capacitors and the polymer capacitors on the secondary side are supplied by Teapo and Nippon Chemi-Con respectively. The presence of so many Teapo capacitors is likely to negatively affect the opinion of enthusiasts, as they are not the most reputable supplier. The build quality of the Hive 850W is rather good, albeit the design is dense and a bit messy. A lot of glue has been used to maximize the mechanical strength of the PSU. 

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.

Hot Test Results

As we can see in the results displayed in the following tables, the Rosewill Hive 850W offers acceptable power quality considering its price range and performance class. The maximum ripple on the 12V line was 40mV under full load, a very good figure. However, the Hive 850W is not really fond of getting cross-loaded, as the ripple of the 12V line increased by over 50%. Nevertheless, 64mV is a mere half of the 120mV design limit. Voltage regulation could see some improvement, as we recorded a fluctuation of 3.4% for the 12V line and about 2.5% for the 3.3V/5V lines. On an absolute basis these are good figures, but relatively speaking high performance products nowadays rarely surpass 2%.

Meanwhile the Hive 850W's temperature rating of 40°C is not doing it any favors in our hot test. As we run our hot test at temperatures over 45°C, the Hive is operating outside of its comfort zone. Reducing the ambient temperature of our hotbox testing to base it around the Hive's 40°C is an option here, but ultimately we chose not to do so as any change for the Hive 850W in particular would mean that the results here would not be comparable with our previous reviews.

High ambient temperatures have a strong negative effect on the electrical performance of the Hive 850W. The energy conversion efficiency is reduced by an average of just 1.5%, yet the effect is stronger at high loads, where the performance of the Hive 850W was already suffering. Considering that this unit is rated at 40°C and we have over 50°C ambient temperature with the Hive 850W under maximum load, these are overload conditions for this unit and it shows, as the efficiency drop is over 2.4% and the internal temperatures are very high.

The high internal temperatures of the Hive 850W decrease the efficiency of its active components, creating a cascading effect that increases the heavy load temperatures of the Hive 850W even further. The lack of efficiency combined with the simplistic cooling design creates a major thermal load that cannot be easily dissipated, leading to heatsink temperatures nearing 100°C under maximum load. There is little that the small and plain heatsinks of the PSU can do under these conditions, leaving the fan to cope with the high thermal load. As a result, the fan reached its maximum speed, generating intolerable noise levels while the PSU was heavily loaded inside the hotbox. 

Conclusion

Bringing our review of the Hive 850W to a close, perhaps the best jumping-off point is to start with the underlying platform itself, the Direct12 Bronze v.2.

Overall the platform the Hive 850W is based on is not bad, just somewhat outdated. Sirfa designed the Direct12 Bronze v.2 platform a couple of years ago, to compete with other 80Plus Bronze certified products at a time when technologies that are more efficient were very costly. This is why the PSU implements technologies that are normally reserved for higher performance units, such as DC-to-DC conversion circuitry. They were inserted in order to provide a performance edge over other platforms available at the time without creating a very expensive product. At the same time, the inversion/conversion circuits are using active components that are not very efficient. Their high energy losses generate significant amounts of heat, with that heat further decreasing their efficiency, creating a cascading effect when the PSU is heavily loaded.

We cannot complain at all about the quality of the Hive 850W PSU. It is not the best that it could be, but it is very good and certainly on par with other similarly priced products. The OEM is reputable, the components are of very good quality and the assembly job is excellent. What the Hive 850W could use is better heatsinks, but that is a design/performance issue, not a sign of bad quality. It does work fine with its current heatsinks, but the brunt of the cooling requirements falls on the fan, forcing it to spin very fast and becomes very loud if the Hive is under very heavy load or installed in harsh ambient conditions. The Hive generally is quiet when lightly loaded, as the fan does not have to work as hard to dissipate the heat. As such, the Hive 850W displays troubling thermal behavior and mediocre acoustics performance.

As for its electrical performance, it is good but uninspiring by today's standards. We recorded very low voltage ripple levels and found the output power quality of the Hive to be very good, even considering the higher ripple that we saw with the unit heavily cross-loaded. The regulation of the voltage lines could be improved, as it is acceptable but not really good for a high performance PSU. Finally, the electrical conversion efficiency is obviously not competitive against the newer, more advanced platforms available today, but it is good for an 80Plus Bronze certified unit and meets the performance levels it is supposed to.

Rosewill designed the Hive 850W mainly to lure mainstream users and enthusiasts on a tight budget. The primary purpose of this PSU is to entice via its good value. As such, it is not a top performer, as it was never meant to be. However, the retail price of $100 including shipping is not particularly cheap, even for an 850W PSU. Considering that the target group of the Hive 850W PSU is enthusiasts with rather powerful gaming or professional systems - users that often don't mind spending a little extra for a high quality product - it will be very hard for Rosewill to convince them that the Hive 850W is the right choice for them. On the other hand, if someone is on a very tight budget, other companies are lurking with equally well-made products at even lower prices. At the time of this review, EVGA is offering the SuperNova 850 B2 for $90 incl. shipping and 800W LEPA MaxBron similarly retails for $90 incl. shipping. If the retail price of the Hive 850W were to drop a little, it could compete in terms of value with the rest of the 800-900 Watt PSUs. Otherwise in terms of overall performance, it may not generally be a bad performer, but it does not really stand a chance against the more advanced platforms available today.