XFX 850W Black Edition Power Supply Overview

Many manufacturers of components in order to promote their brand and expand the market begin to produce devices that are in steady demand by both ordinary users and advanced computer enthusiasts. An example of this is the release of power supplies by such well-known brands as Gigabyte, Zalman, OCZ, BFG. I must say that such PSUs always stand out from the crowd by their unusual design, additional options and packaging.
And so, in the fall of 2009, XFX, known for its graphics cards and motherboards, announced the new 850W Black Edition modular power supply. As in the names of the video cards, the “Black Edition” prefix indicates that the PSU belongs to the older product series

Attention! Under the cut a lot of pictures.



Let's look at the packaging, equipment and design of the power supply. The weighty box, painted in the signature colors of XFX, consists of two parts interconnected by a casing of thick laminated cardboard. The packaging is equipped with a convenient carrying handle.
Remove the casing and separate the parts of the package. A large 135mm fan of bright green color can already be seen through a carved window in the cardboard.


To the left of the PSU is a package with cables for 2 types of power outlets and a bag with mounting screws. To the right are fixed wires of the PSU itself, as well as instructions fixed in cardboard.


In a smaller box, a nice black case is found, in which lies a set of plug-in cables.


This kit includes:

• 2 cords for video cards with 6 + 2 pin connectors;
• 3 cords with molex connectors;
• 4 cords with SATA connectors;
• 1 cord with connectors for 3.25 ”devices.

Fixed in the PSU are a 24 pin cable (divided into 20 + 4 pin), 2 processor power cables (8 pin and 4 + 4 pin), 2 video card power cables (6 + 2 pin).
Thus, motherboards with two CPU power connectors, for example EVGA Classified and Intel ScullTrail, can be confidently connected to the XFX 850W Black Edition. The number of power plugs for video cards allows you to simultaneously connect up to 4 boards with 6 pin or 2 boards with 6 + 6 or 6 + 8 pin connectors.

The lengths of each of the power cables are summarized in the table:


Here is the power supply itself. The housing of the XFX 850W power supply is made of two main U-shaped stamped profiles: a supporting frame and a top cover.


The top cover is made in a very original way: relief stamping is applied on all sides, openings resembling cobwebs are cut for the fan. The metal parts of the body are painted in black wet asphalt texture.


The final design element is a plastic strip with embossed XFX logo on the side of the modular connectors.


The load characteristics of the power supply are as follows:


It should be emphasized that the XFX honestly indicated the presence of one + 12V line. In power supplies of other manufacturers, you can often see up to 5-6 + 12V lines, which in most cases is not true, and the "lines" themselves are virtual.
Let's see what filling is hidden under a beautiful case. It is enough to unscrew 4 screws to remove the top cover.


A 135 mm fan of bright green color is fixed on a massive black frame. This frame serves both as a fan holder and as part of the case design, peering through the cut openings of the casing.
A transparent plastic pad serves to optimize the passage of air flows in the PSU case.


The fan is fixed through rubber bushings to reduce vibration transmission to the housing.


The fan manufacturer is ADDA. The model ADN512HB-A91 used in the XFX 850W BE has the following characteristics:

• - a rolling bearing is used;
• - fan size 135x135x25 mm;
• - maximum impeller rotation speed of 2200 rpm;
• - noise level 39 dB;
• - power 3.36 W;
• - created air flow up to 94.8 CFM (feet cubic per minute);
• - weight 220 gr.

The filling of the power supply is identical to the Seasonic M12D PSU. This is not something special - many PSU manufacturers have long used the same OEM boards. Only the power supply housing and fan change. Here are two photos for comparison - XFX 850W BE fillings (above) and Seasonic M12D (below):

(Image taken from Overclock3D.net)

However, we were not able to find out the real OEM manufacturer of the board by ID number (E331785).
On the online database website ( database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/template/LISEXT/1FRAME/gfilenbr.html ) of the certification data, the entered number corresponds to XFX.
Unfortunately, some manufacturers make a reservation with OEM suppliers that their identification number will be set. Then in the database you will find out that the power supply is released by the one under whose name it was sold.


The power supply unit uses a single-transformer circuit with a separate DC-DC line converter + 3.3V and + 5V. The converter is assembled on a small separate board and has its own radiator.
The PSU uses high-quality Japanese Nippon Chemi-Con electrolytic capacitors (http://www.chemi-con.co.jp/e/index.html) of three series: KMR, KZE and KZH.


On a separate board housed modular connectors and additional capacitors.


In general, the soldering of the elements is very high quality and accurate. Thick cables of wires are assembled with ties, hinged boards are insulated with gaskets, necessary details are fixed with hot-melt adhesive.

Let's start testing the XFX 850W Black Edition.
To test the power supply, a stand of the following configuration was assembled:

• - Asus P5E motherboard;
• - processors C2D E8600 and C2Q Q6600 (cooling CBO);
• - RAM DDR2 Crucial Ballistix 2x1 Gb PC6400 5-3-3-12;
• - ATI Radeon HD4870x2 graphics card - 2 pcs.;
• - hard drive WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150 Gb;
• - fans for additional cooling of the stand - 2 pcs .;
• - fans used in the SVO - 4 pcs.

Measurements of the BP operation characteristics were carried out in four modes of the stand operation:

• 1) E8600 @ 3.33GHz, HD4870X2 @ 750 \ 900;
• 2) E8600 @ 4,5Ghz 1.4V, HD4870X2 @ 830 \ 970;
• 3) Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz 1.35V, CF HD4870X2 @ 750 \ 900;
• 4) Q6600 @ 4.0Ghz 1.6V, CF HD4870X2 @ 830 \ 970;

Programs for tests:

• 3DMark Vantage - cyclic run of 3D tests (CPU test disabled) in Performance mode.
• wPrime v1.55 1024M

Testing for each operating mode of the PSU lasted at least 20 minutes. The wPrime program worked in parallel with 3DMark Vantage, allowing the maximum load on the processor.

A Fluke 123 portable oscilloscope and a Fluke i410 current clamp meter from the oscilloscope kit were used for measurements. An auxiliary device was a Mustech M890G multimeter. The temperature in the room was maintained at 22-24 gr.
Let's see how the power supply behaves on an un-dispersed bundle of E8600 and Radeon 4870X2.


Such a load does not present any difficulties for the PSU. The voltages on the + 12V and +
5V lines are slightly overestimated, but they do not go beyond even a 5% deviation. The power supply is weak, and the fan is completely inaudible at the overall noise level of the other components of the stand
The second test was the same configuration, but with an overclocked E8600 up to 4.5 GHz and a video card at a frequency of 830/970 MHz:


As in the previous test mode, the power supply copes with the load without any problems. On the + 12V line, the voltage sags to a meager value within hundredths of a volt. + 5V increases slightly.
Now let's see how the XFX 850W behaves under a very serious load. The E8600 processor has been replaced with a C2Q Q6600, a second 4870X2 graphics card for CrossFire mode has been added.
From my own experience I will say that a bunch of two 4870X2 is by far one of the most difficult tests for power supplies. Despite the fact that the new flagship performance from ATI - HD5970 has already been released, the Radeon 4870X2 is still the leader in power consumption among video cards.


In the third test mode, the C2Q Q6600 processor worked at a frequency of 3.2 GHz @ 1.35V, a bunch of video cards worked at a frequency of 750/950 MHz


And the PSU withstands this test with flying colors. The + 12V line behaves perfectly, without reducing the voltage even by a tenth of a volt. In this mode of operation, the fan of the power supply spun, if not at full power, then almost at all. The noise of the power supply, of course, increased, but the noise was heard only of the outgoing air without extraneous overtones. Also, the heating of the XFX 850W increased - the multimeter temperature sensor recorded the temperature of the air leaving the power supply unit at 45 degrees.
The last test of the power supply for the ability to hold the load was the Q6600 processor overclocked to a frequency of 4.0 GHz @ 1.6 V and 4870X2 video cards at frequencies of 830/970 for chips and memory, respectively.


And here we see the almost perfect behavior of the voltage on the + 12V line. Thanks to successful circuitry, the PSU perfectly copes with such a serious load. During testing, the power supply never turned off from overload or overheating. The + 5V line also behaves quite stably. A slight increase in voltage under load still fits into the 5% deviation.
Below are generalized graphs of the voltage behavior on the + 12V and + 5V lines:



Now let's see what current the system actually consumes on the main lines of the power supply: + 12V, + 5V and + 3.3V.


In order to measure the total current consumption on the lines, I had to completely disassemble the power supply and in this form again test in all modes.


The graph shows that the main load on the PSU is precisely due to the + 12V line. The remaining lines do not create a noticeable load, and the current on them weakly depends on the acceleration of the computer.
Please note that in the 4th test, when the quad-core Q6600 processor and the bundle from a pair of 4870X2 are overclocked to the limit, the maximum current consumption still does not reach the declared values ​​on the + 12V line, namely 70A.
The current values ​​shown in the graph above are average. The maximum peak current that the device recorded at some points of the 4th test reached 58A.

Conclusion
Well, to summarize. Undoubtedly, the XFX has launched a very mature product in the form of the XFX 850W Black Edition power supply. The power supply circuitry, also used by Seasonic, has proven to be excellent, providing reliable operation and stable performance. High-quality electrolytic capacitors used in this PSU increase the working life of the device. The power supply itself coped with the tasks perfectly: excellent voltage stabilization on all lines, especially + 12V, quiet fan operation at low and medium loads, a well-thought-out set of modular cables, a bright and stylish packaging design and PSU. Of the shortcomings, it is worth noting very hard wires. The rest of the power supply proved to be only the best.