Zalman ZM850-HP Plus Power Supply Review

Introduction

Zalman has just released a new power supply line, the HP Plus, featuring two internal heatpipes and modular cabling system. Currently only two models are available, 850 W and 1,000 W, both with 80 Plus Silver certification. Although they are not selling them yet, Zalman has already got 80 Plus Bronze certification for the 500 W, 600 W, and 700 W models, so they will be releasing these models in the near future. Let’s see if the 850 W model is a good buy.

Models from the original Zalman HP series below 850 W were manufactured by FSP, while the models 850 W and 1,000 W models were manufactured by Enhance Electronics, and the new HP Plus 850 W and 1,000 W models continue to be manufactured by Enhance Electronics.

Figure 1: Zalman ZM850-HP Plus power supply

Figure 2: Zalman ZM850-HP Plus power supply

The Zalman ZM850-HP Plus is huge, being 8.3” (210 mm) deep. It comes with a 140 mm dual ball bearing fan (Zalman ZF1425ATF) on its bottom.

The new Zalman ZM850-HP Plus 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,20.9” (53 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
• One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form an EPS12V connector, 21.3” (54 cm) long, permanently attached to the power supply
• One cable with one six-pin connector and one eight/six-pin connector for video cards, 19.7” (50 cm) to the first connector and 5.5” (14 cm) between connectors, permanently attached to the power supply
• Two cables with one six-pin connector and one eight/six-pin connector for video cards each, 20” (51 cm) to the first connector and 5.5” (14 cm) between connectors, modular cabling system
• Three cables with three SATA power connectors each, 19.7” (50 cm) to the first connector, 5.5” (14 cm) between connectors, modular cabling system
• One cable with three standard peripheral power connectors, 23.6” (50 cm) to the first connector, 5.5” (14 cm) between connectors, modular cabling system
• One cable with two standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector, 23.6” (50 cm) to the first connector, 5.5” (14 cm) between connectors, modular cabling system
• One fan power adapter with two outputs, high speed (+12 V) and low speed (+5 V), to be attached to any standard peripheral power connector

The cables with SATA and peripheral power connectors use 18 AWG wires, but the main motherboard cable, the EPS12V/ATX12V cables and the video card cables use thicker 16 AWG wires, which is always nice to see.

The number of connectors and cable configuration is perfect for an 850 W product, and it was nice to see the presence of six video card power connectors instead of the traditional four, allowing you to install up to three high-end video cards at the same time without using adapters. The number of SATA power connectors (nine) is satisfactory, but we’ve seen competing 850 W units with 12 of them.

Figure 3: Cables

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