be quiet! Power Zone 850W CM Power Supply Review
by E. Fylladitakis on August 14, 2014 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- be quiet!
- FSP
- Fortron/Source
Conclusion
The Power Zone series is supposed to be a mainstream "gamer" series, to fill the gap between the basic Pure Power and the premium Dark Power Pro 10 series. True enough; the Power Zone units are far more advanced and more powerful than the basic Pure Power units are, yet cheaper than the top-tier Dark Power Pro 10 models. However, things are not quite as simple as that.
be quiet!'s strongest selling points are quality and low-noise operation. The Power Zone 850W CM is a well-made product, with great emphasis given on its external design. Aesthetics are a subjective matter, but we do believe that the Power Zone 850W CM is one of the best-looking PSUs currently available. It does stand out visually, yet not extravagantly so. Externally, the designers did an exceptional job.
When the cover of the Power Zone 850W CM is removed however, our feelings become mixed. Fortron Source is a reputable OEM and the unit is indeed very well assembled, but the quality of the components is disappointing given its class. The use of better active components would both increase the conversion efficiency and decrease its operating temperature, allowing it to perform better, cooler, and quieter. Furthermore, the use of Teapo capacitors in a PSU of this league is disappointing. It's not that Teapo capacitors are bad - as a matter of fact, Teapo's products are nearly on par with Nippon Chemi-Con's and Rubycon's. However, the key word here is "nearly" and we cannot easily justify their use in a product with such a high price tag.
In terms of performance, the Power Zone 850W CM is mediocre. It does have high energy conversion efficiency for an 80 Plus Bronze certified product, but that's where the positive points end. Given its price class, the power quality is average and, ironically, the PSU is far from quiet. It most certainly is not a power supply that has been designed in order to remain quiet for as much time as possible, as the cooling system depends on a powerful fan that will not hesitate to speed up the moment a load is placed on it. Nothing about its performance is actually bad, yet nothing is actually very good either.
The retail price of the Power Zone 850W CM is $159.99 plus shipping at the time of this review, pitting it against many high quality products. As a matter of fact, it is more expensive than many 80 Plus Gold certified 850 Watt units, even top-tier products from other manufacturers. For example, the EVGA SuperNOVA G2 850 we reviewed is currently $139.99 (with a $20 mail-in rebate avaialble), and it performs better and runs quieter. Simply put, the Power Zone 850W CM is not a bad product, but the current retail prices make it virtually impossible to recommend against the competition.
This is a midrange 850 Watt power supply, yet it is priced 30-40% higher than its direct competition. If there is a major price cut, or if you live in central Europe where be quiet!'s products are often less expensive, the Power Zone 850W CM could become a very good choice. For the US market, there are simply far better options in the $160 price bracket.
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inighthawki - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
Sorry, that should read:"whether or not to get a second *GPU*"
Daniel Egger - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
> 2) PSUs generally get their best efficiency while running at 50-60% load. So having a 750W PSU to power a 400W system provides the best efficiency. (Granted I realize for many this is a silly point, since the extra cost of the PSU itself generally will outweigh any cost savings, but maybe they like to be green, or just have the money)Your reasoning is flawed because a typical (even gamers) PC spends considerable amounts of time *way* below the maximum power rating where you'll immediately loose any advantage you would gain from having the maximum rating at the maximum efficiency point big time, especially if your system idles a lot and drops below the miraculous 20% mark.
But with a 400W system a few percent efficiency more or less really don't matter any more as there's definitely no greenness to be had anymore...
DanNeely - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
As a distributed computing (Boinc, primarily Einstein at home) participant, I suspect my system probably spends <95% of its operating time at full load; and my average load while gaming is probably below the non gaming average because the threshold where I have to GPU compute while playing to keep good FPS is lower than what's needed to heavily load the GPU. (Games and Compute are a lot worse at sharing GPU resources than their CPU equivalents.)inighthawki - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
Fair point.Flunk - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
It looks like they spent a good potion of the budget on appearance. Middling electronics and a loud fan don't impress me for the price. Some low end units are built better than this and I personally don't care what power supplies look like, in most cases you don't even see it.Essence_of_War - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
Sidenote on be Quiet's fans, is there some specific reason that they seem to use non-standard fan sizes? This unit uses a 135mm fan, and their HSFs are made for 130/135mm fans as well.DanNeely - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
For the PSU, it's the biggest size that will fit. Meaning that all else equal, it gives the most air movement for the least noise. On the heat sinks I'm not sure why they wouldn't just edge up to 140mm unless it's to exploit volume discounts from their supplier by using the same fans for both products.piroroadkill - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
I thought the 135mm fan in PSU thing was because Zalman has a patent on 140mm fans in power supplies.piroroadkill - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
Actually, I'm going to correct myself, because I don't think it's Zalman. I posted the same thing in 2011, and someone said it was HEC that has the patent.DanNeely - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
*BOGGLE*That's even more appalling than the "standard PC architecture feature on a smartphone" patents because I can't imagine any way that "use the biggest fan that will fit" could be obfuscated into something that a kindergartener, never mind a patent office reviewer, couldn't realize was trivial.