Sparkle Gold Class Series 80 Plus ATX 850 Watt Power Supply Review

Hey, I’m back with another power supply review and it’s another from Sparkle. Yesterday I took a look at the Gold Class Series 750 Watt version and today I have the 850 Watt one. Not much else to say really so let’s just get into it…

Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

SPARKLE SCC-850AF GOLD CLASS SERIES 80PLUS 850W ATX POWER SUPPLY

-850W Modular Power Supply

-80 Plus Gold Certified

-Double Ball Bearing Fan

-All connector AU coating to keep Ultra high efficiency

-Full Thermal Control with super silent fan

-12V peak at 80A

-Temperature control design mode

-Active PFC design

-Keep PSU fan running for 5-10 seconds after shut down to dissipate the remaining system heat and prolonging system lifetime.

-Ultra-quiet 13.9cm Fan with intelligent RPM control guarantees cool performance and silent operation.

-99.9% 12V Power

-SYNC Transformer Array

-Double main electrolytic capacitors

-DC to DC circuitry design with solid capacitors

-Forward Safe Guard Circuitry Design

-Dual Layer main PCB 1.6mm thickness

-Quintuple 12V Rails

-100A Mosfet 12V Rectifiers

-20k µF low ESR secondary 105℃ electrolytic capacitors

-Triple AC EMC Filtering stage

-Dual capacitors design to protect system safety when sudden shut down

UPC No.: 843636004048

Series: Gold Class Series

Intel Specification: ATX12V / EPS12V

Energy Efficiency: 80Plus Gold

Modular Cabling: Yes

Fan: 139mm Fan

Fan Type: Double Ball Bearing

+12V Rail: 5

AC Input Range: Full Range: 100~240Vac

Frequency: 50/60Hz

Input Current: 10-6A

+5V: 30A

+3.3V: 24A

+12V1: 16A

+12V2: 16A

+12V3: 16A

+12V4: 18A

+12V5: 18A

-12V: 0.5A

+5VSB: 3A

Total Power: 850

24P Mainboard Connector X 1

4+4P CPU +12V Connector X 1

6+2P PCI-E Connector X 4

SATA Connector X 9

4P Molex Connector X 9

4P FDD Connector X 3

Dimension: 175mm X 150mm X 86mm

Price: $159.99 (price form NewEgg at time of year)

 

A Better Look at Things:

So the box for the 850 Watt Sparkle PSU looks exactly the same as the one for the 750 watt as one might expect.

 

When you open the box you’ll find user manual, 80 plus certificate and a membership card.

Under the documentation you’ll find everything all nice and snug.

When you unpack it you’ll find the power supply wrapped in a very nice cloth bag along with two boxes, one small and one big.

In the smaller box is a bag of screws, power cord and Velcro wrap ties.

In the large box is a nylon bag with all of the cables in it.

 

The cables included are:

6+2P PCI-E Connector X 4

SATA Connector X 9

4P Molex Connector X 9

4P FDD Connector X 3

The power supply itself is a metallic dark bronze in color and isn’t exactly modular as it has the main power cord and CPU power cable hard wired into it.

   

On one side of the PSU is the identification label and on the other side is a Sparkle logo.

 

On the back of the PSU are the power connection and a nice large power button.

On the front is where you’ll find the connectors for the cables, yes they’re purple for whatever reason.

Then there’s a purple 13.9cm fan to keep everything nice and cool.

 

Installation, Testing and Comparison:

So here we are once again installing the power supply in my system.

   

My system is a Core i5 based one with four hard drives, an ATI 4890 video card and an ATI 6670.

Same as yesterday, for load and testing I used OCCT 4.0 which is a good way to test your PSU and get some nice graphs. I’ve got three graphs for you that show the voltages and the CPU load at the same time during testing.

+12 VDC ±5% (±0.60 V) +11.40 V to +12.60 V

+3.3 VDC ±5% (±0.165 V) +3.135 V to +3.465 V

+5 VDC ±5% (±0.25 V) +4.75 V to +5.25 V

Essentially you want your rails to be within certain tolerances, about 5% plus or minus or a 10% total fluctuation. For example the 12v rail should be between +11.40 V to +12.60 V when working properly. If it’s not between those voltages then there’s obviously a problem with the power supply.

So let’s look at some graphs starting with the 12v line:

Just like the 750 Watt PSU, the 12v line jumps quite a bit, but it’s well within tolerances.

Here’s the 5v line:

What’s interesting here is that it never drops below the 5v mark even under load.

The last is the 3.3v rail:

This thing looks very stable doesn’t it? Just a few jumps, but you’ll notice that it’s actually below the 3.3v mark even at rest. Not sure what to make of that. It is well within tolerances though, so not much to worry about really.

The fan is quiet even under load which is something I appreciate as I like my system to be quiet.

 

Summary and Comments:

The Sparkle 850 watt PSU is a good one in my opinion. The voltages stay well within tolerances, and it’s nice and quiet. The cables are nice and long and should reach most anywhere you need them. If you’re looking for a good power supply for your system, then this one is a pretty good choice I think.

I’ve checked around for other reviews and most all seem to agree with that assessment as well.

 

Pros:

+Lots of connections

+Quiet fan

+Long cables

+Includes Velcro cable ties

+Runs within tolerances

 

Cons:

-Lines can be jumpy