While most brands avoid sending me their budget units for evaluation, Pichau was brave enough to ship me their Nidus model, and this alone is a good sign. While the Nidus 500 wasn't a record-breaker, its performance per buck ratio is still pretty high. This product is not meant for enthusiast users after all, but for budget builds where reliability and cost come first, with performance being far behind. The overall performance of the Nidus unit is decent, though, given the mainstream platform it uses. Another major advantage is the low noise output because of a fan profile that is not aggressively tuned and the good Hong Hua fan Pichau uses. Not everything is perfect, though. I would like to see a lower OCP triggering point at +12 V and a longer warranty period. The platform is well made and uses parts that will easily outlive the one-year warranty, so I see no reason for the provided warranty not to be increased to two or even three years. Pichau mentioned that they are thinking about a two-year warranty given RMA rates are very low thus far. Surely, Brazil's conditions can be tough given the hot climate and weird electrical system with both 127 V and 220 V mains, but the Nichicon bulk cap along with the reliable FETs and boost diode on the primary side won't struggle with such conditions. A possible future upgrade for this platform could be the addition of a heat sink on the bridge rectifier, although I didn't face any problems in even extreme usage scenarios (protection features evaluation testing).
The Nidus 500 is among the best variations of CWT's GPT500S-A platform. Pichau didn't just take a GPT500S-A unit and relabeled it, but asked for major internal changes and modified the cabling for enough connectors on long cables. It is also rare to see a budget unit with adequate distances between peripheral connectors since the longer the cables, the higher the production cost, which has many brands cut corners in this section with even more expensive products. Besides the Nichicon bulk cap, the Hong Hua fan is also among the most important parts in this platform because it ensures the PSU will last for an adequately long time without causing any issues.
You will find the full review at TechPowerUp:
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