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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blackmagnum - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
Bean-counters ruining geeks' work once more.StrangerGuy - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
Compared to a Seasonic OEMs this is pretty rubbish in comparison, let alone the better Superflower OEM designs.Samus - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
Seriously...50db?My 8 year old PC Power Cooling 750 Quad uses an ancient design with an 80mm fan and I don't think the fan has ever exceeded 1500RPM (~36db) so anything modern should exceed this, especially for $160. As said, Seasonic, Superflower, and one of my favorite budget PSU OEM's, FSP, are all considerably better options at this price.
Fortron (Sparkle) are pretty good PSU's but I wouldn't spend more than $40 on one as a low-watt office PC replacement.
Tunnah - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
My thoughts too. I have a 3-4 year old Silverstone that cost £80 (I guess about $130 back then), 650w and used for SLI, and you barely hear a peep out of itDanNeely - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
Have you ever actually had your PSU at >90% load? Comparing your PSU at a load significantly below max to a second one at full load isn't a fair comparison.What does surprise me is that the fan speed curve on this one appears to be linear. The last time I was shopping for PSUs (a few years ago); most of the ones I saw that showed a fan curve kept the fan at it's minimum speed (or completely off?) for the bottom part of the load curve and only started ramping the speed when it got within 250-300W of max power, mostly relying on passive cooling below that point. I've used that observation for sizing PSUs to a target size of MaxLoad+250W so the fan never spins up adding to system noise.
Streetwind - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
As a gamer who assembles their own systems, I make a conscious effort to never buy any component that's explicitly marketed "for gamers" - with the sole exception being the graphics card, of course.This review just underlines once again why that practice is a good practice. Here we have a gamer-targeted product that's too highly powered for the average modern gamer PC, offers only mediocre efficiency and performance, errs on the side of unnecessarily hefty cooling and mounts an unreasonable price tag... and the biggest selling point is a different looking outer shell.
My own PSU is from be quiet!, too. But it's not from this gamer-targeted Power Zone series. No, I chose a Straight Power E9 series part with a wattage rating suitable for a single-GPU system. It is practically inaudible even under load, is rated 80PLUS Gold, was tested for excellent voltage regulation and, get this... cost only half the price of the unit tested in this review.
Seriously, people. Stay away from "for gamer" products. Especially if you're a gamer.
romrunning - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
There are far too many reviews for these high-powered PSUs when most people are only running a single GPU. Too many neophyte gamers think they need 750W+ when most can easily get by on 400-550W.We really need more reviews showing the practical power needs of a typical gaming system, and then focus on the PSUs to power them. Just because lower-output PSUs are lower in price doesn't mean we should spend an inordinate amount of time reviewing the higher-powered ones with the higher price tags. Sadly, the "quality" that may or may not be in a mfg's higher-powered PSU doesn't always trickle down to their lower-output models, so it would be good to highlight the ones that are or aren't quality choices at the lower to mid-range.
lmcd - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
Do I qualify if I also have a i7-3960X? Probably. But if I'm re-encoding and streaming video in the background while I play a visually-intensive game, I'd rather not have my power supply be the bottleneck. 140 W from my video card and 200 W from my CPU don't really add up to 750W.But maybe I want another card? Especially with AMD CPU buyers, that scenario is common: a desire for upgradeability encourages the $30 for a higher-wattage power supply, as opposed to paying $50 for the 500W then another $80 for the 750W.
Sidenote: given how low the power consumption of Intel CPUs has gotten I'm surprised more manufacturers haven't considered supporting 4x 6pin or even 2x 6pin + 2x 8pin configurations on 550W and 60W PSUs. Connector count, in many cases, can drive the new system builder to the higher-wattage power supplies.
DanNeely - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
I think they tend to err on the side of caution since they'd take the blame if someone did overload one; and they can't assume people will only use them with cards that barely need a 6+6 or barely need a 6+8 configuration.4x 6 pin at 600W might be OK, since that'd be 2x 225W GPUs + 100W CPU/mobo + 50W drives/fans/etc = 600W total; but 4x6 GPU power connectors on a 550W PSU could go over the limit easily enough. 2x6 and 2x8 would on 600W would be even worse since that's promising enough power to run a pair of 300W GPUs.
inighthawki - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
A good 750W PSU is good enough for even a dual SLI 780Ti system. At 550W, even a demanding single GPU system should have more than an adequate supply of power.However in practice, some people buy these larger PSUs for two reasons:
1) Possibility of future expansion. When I bought my PC last summer, I purchased a larger wattage PSU because I was still debating whether or not to get a second PSU. I haven't yet, but if I decide to, I already have enough power.
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)