High Power Direct12 BR 850 W Power Supply Review

Introduction

High Power is an OEM, i.e., Original Equipment Manufacturer. This means that their core business is manufacturing products for other brands. For instance, some units from OCZ and Enermax, and units from Thortech are manufactured by them. Now, in a move that several other OEMs are also attempting, they want to enter the retail market using their own brand. Let’s see if the Direct12 BR 850 W, a unit with the 80 Plus Bronze certification, modular cabling system, and single +12 V rail, is a good option.

Here is just a little bit of information on the history of this company. Sirtec established Sirfa Electronics in 1996, and in 2008 Sirtec sold Sirfa. Sirfa then created the High Power brand in 2008. In some forums, you will still find some people saying that Sirfa and Sirtec are the same company, although they broke up in 2008.

Internally, this unit seems to be identical to the Enermax NAXN 82+ 850 W. However, since we haven’t reviewed this unit from Enermax, we can’t say this with total certainty.

Figure 1: High Power Direct12 BR 850 W power supply

Figure 2: High Power Direct12 BR 850 W power supply

The High Power Direct12 BR 850 W is 6.3” (160 mm) deep, using a 135 mm ball bearing fan on its bottom (Globe Fan RL4Z-B1352512H).

This unit has a modular cabling system with eight connectors, four for video cards (red) and four for SATA and peripheral power connectors (black). The motherboard cables are permanently attached to the power supply, and they are protected with nylon sleeves that come from inside the unit. This power supply comes with the following cables:

• Main motherboard cable with a 24-pin connector, 21.6” (55 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
• One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form an EPS12V connector, 24” (61 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
• One cable with one EPS12V connector, 24” (61 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
• Four cables, each with two six/eight-pin connectors for video cards, 20” (51 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors, modular cabling system
• Four cables, each with three SATA power connectors and one standard peripheral power connector, 18.1” (46 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors, modular cabling system
• One adapter to convert a standard peripheral power connector into a floppy disk drive power connector

All wires are 18 AWG, which is the minimum recommended gauge, except for the main motherboard cable, which uses thicker 16 AWG wires.

The cable configuration is outstanding, with a total of eight power connectors for video cards, allowing you to install four high-end video cards at the same time without the need for adapters, and 12 SATA power connectors.

Figure 3: Cables

Let’s now take an in-depth look inside this power supply.