Rosewill Hercules 1600 W

[crmaris]

Rosewill craves to establish themselves as a top name in the PSU market, so they keep on releasing high-end models. Their top of the line PSU is the Hercules-1600, which we will have the chance to test today. With 1600 W of max power, things are going to be very interesting.

Show full review

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Needs a thumbs up for nostalgia. Hercules need to re-enter the GPU market (semi-off topic)
$400 is way too expensive for my pocket unfortunately.

 

[crmaris]

Had a Hercules VGA around 10 years ago. Don't remember the model any more

 

[TheDeeGee]

For that price you would atleast expect a fully modular design with properly all black cables.

Not to mention it's only Silver.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Had a Hercules VGA around 10 years ago. Don't remember the model any more

I had one of the 3D Prophet cards - ATi 9700 Pro. great card back in its day. Hercules was with us until just after the ATi 9800 series came out then they just completely withdrew from the market. They make audiophile gear now.....

 

[Assimilator]

I guess this PSU is useful for that 1 guy who will buy an eATX server board with 8 PCIE x16 slots and drop in 8 7970s with waterblocks, to mine Bitcoins or crack password hashes. Seriously, who else is going to use SIXTEEN PCIE power connectors? Madness!

Have to compliment the OEM though; to get such performance out of a dated design is quite a feat. Makes one wonder (hope) if they could release an up-to-date design that competes with Seasonic's best.

 

[Stefan Payne]

I can't agree with your scoring.

Your PSU is either defective or something else. Because it has an 80plus badge, it has to maintain a powerfactor of at least 0.90.

So either there is a problem with this unit or it failed miserabely. I'd rather not score something broken...

As for the +12V Rail distribution: That doesn't make sense at all. Why not make a good 6 or 8 rail unit? Oh wait, that would cost more and somebody had to think about wich cable goes to what rail. So it's way cheaper this way.

 

[johnnyfiive]

I guess this PSU is useful for that 1 guy who will buy an eATX server board with 8 PCIE x16 slots and drop in 8 7970s with waterblocks, to mine Bitcoins or crack password hashes. Seriously, who else is going to use SIXTEEN PCIE power connectors? Madness!

Have to compliment the OEM though; to get such performance out of a dated design is quite a feat. Makes one wonder (hope) if they could release an up-to-date design that competes with Seasonic's best.

The hundreds of people with SR-2's or dual processor setups.

 

[Animalpak]

In other words... A Nuclear plant.

 

[Akrian]

Whaaat? Rosewill made something that actually works well ?

 

[crmaris]

I can't agree with your scoring.

Your PSU is either defective or something else. Because it has an 80plus badge, it has to maintain a powerfactor of at least 0.90.

So either there is a problem with this unit or it failed miserabely. I'd rather not score something broken...

As for the +12V Rail distribution: That doesn't make sense at all. Why not make a good 6 or 8 rail unit? Oh wait, that would cost more and somebody had to think about wich cable goes to what rail. So it's way cheaper this way.

I strongly disagree 80 Plus tests with 115VAC while I test with 230VAC. And with 115VAC PF is significantly increased. Also PF doesn't play a role here since it doesn't affect normal consumers and of course doesn't affect performance. If this was an industrial product then I wouldn't give a score.

For the power distribution I agree that it is weird but still it didn't give me any trouble while testing. And I pushed the unit real hard!

 

[crmaris]

Whaaat? Rosewill made something that actually works well ?

Every Rosewill PSU I tested so far is great, since their OEM is mostly Super Flower. The same OEM that makes now Antec, Be Quiet and the new EVGA PSUs.

Also their mechanical keyboards are considered among the best, and mech keyb fans are really hard to satisfy. For the rest of their products I don't know since I haven't checked any of them.

 

[crmaris]

I had one of the 3D Prophet cards - ATi 9700 Pro. great card back in its day. Hercules was with us until just after the ATi 9800 series came out then they just completely withdrew from the market. They make audiophile gear now.....

Remembered my card. I had a 9800 Pro Really great VGA back at this time.

 

[Stefan Payne]

I strongly disagree 80 Plus tests with 115VAC while I test with 230VAC. And with 115VAC PF is significantly increased. Also PF doesn't play a role here since it doesn't affect normal consumers and of course doesn't affect performance. If this was an industrial product then I wouldn't give a score.

Still, the Powerfactor should be better.

And I don't think that this PSU may be sold inside the EU with such low power factor.

Anyway: I think your unit may be defective, have you informed the manufacturer and asked for a second sample?

 

[crmaris]

For the PF! Nope I asked for another one to check the fan profile. But shipping from US to my country is a real headache due to strict customs. I was lucky enough the first package went through.. Also availability on these ones as they told me is very limited (at least for review samples).

 

[Champ]

I always thought of Rosewill as a mid to low end company. I learned something new today. Checked out the website and didn't realize they had as much as they do.

 

[HammerON]

Interesting and powerful PSU
Nice review (as always crmaris)

 

[Joe Public]

Rosewill PSUs have been generally good for a long time now. Though this unit is too large and too pricey imo. There are better choices out there.

 

[EarthDog]

Rosewill PSUs have been generally good for a long time now. Though this unit is too large and too pricey imo. There are better choices out there.

They have? Correct me if I am wrong, but most of their line was laughed at until recently (a year or so?). NOW they are making decent PSUs. Otherwise, people steered clear of those things.

 

[Fourstaff]

They have? Correct me if I am wrong, but most of their line was laughed at until recently (a year or so?). NOW they are making decent everything. Otherwise, people steered clear of those things.

Fixed that for you. They have been making a lot of no frills products these days which just works, for good value. You can probably provide counterexamples of course, but those can be easily avoided with a bit of reading.

 

[Jstn7477]

I have two Rosewill RG530s (the old ones before they went Bronze) as well as a Rosewill CAPSTONE Gold 550w that have all served me well. I've also purchased numerous other Rosewill products such as cases, earbuds, a network switch, IR wireless adapters, etc. and the only defective device I have received is a 4 port KVM that has a defective third cable, but I got it on sale and the other three inputs work so I haven't bothered RMAing it.

 

[EarthDog]

Fixed that for you. They have been making a lot of no frills products these days which just works, for good value. You can probably provide counterexamples of course, but those can be easily avoided with a bit of reading.

True. At CES I found they sold everything BUT the kitchen sink (due 4Q 2014 ),

They are a good value for their products. But speaking within the context of this thread and the posts, their PSU's have only recently been worth a look, versus say Corsair and Seasonics line where you could know nothing and get a decent to great PSU.

 

[crmaris]

they use for quite long now Super Flower which is one of the best OEMs out there. It is all has to do with the OEM you use since none of these companies made the PSUs by themselves, except for very few cases like Enermax, Inwin, Seasonic etc.