PowerColor Extreme 850 W Power Supply Review

Introduction

The traditional video card manufacturer PowerColor decided to enter the power supply market. Let’s see if their 850 W unit (a.k.a. PX-850W) is a good product.

We couldn’t determine the OEM they are using. The printed circuit board carry the model number, “SL-850EPS,” which may indicate that this unit is manufactured by Solytech. But this is just a guess.

Figure 1: PowerColor Extreme 850 W power supply

Figure 2: PowerColor Extreme 850 W power supply

The PowerColor Extreme 850 W is 7.1” (180 mm) deep, with a 140 mm ball bearing fan (Globe Fan RL4XB1402512HH, 135.74 cfm, 1,800 rpm, 36.7 dBA).

The new PowerColor Extreme 850 W has a modular cabling system with eight connectors. The power supply comes with the following cables:

• Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector, 22.8” (58 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
• One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form an EPS12V connector, 22.8” (58 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
• Another cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form an EPS12V connector, 22.8” (58 cm) long, modular cabling system (can’t be used if the two video card power cables from the modular cabling system are installed)
• Two cables with one six/eight-pin connector for video cards each, 23.6” (60 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
• Two cables with one six/eight-pin connector for video cards each, 22.8” (58 cm) long, modular cabling system
• Two cables with three SATA power connectors each, 23.6” (60 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors
• One cable with three standard peripheral power connectors, 23.6” (60 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors
• Two cables with two standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector each, 23.6” (60 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors

All wires are 18 AWG, which is the minimum recommended gauge, except the wires used on the main motherboard cable, which are thicker (16 AWG).

We’d like to see at least eight SATA power connectors on a 850 W power supply. Also, we’d like to see six connectors for video cards on an 850 W power supply, which would allow us to connect up to three video cards that require two power connectors each without the use of adapters.

Figure 3: Cables

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