DeepCool PQ850M (850W) Power Supply Review

While DeepCool has perhaps never managed to fully break out into the mainstream (in the West at least), they still remain a highly respected manufacturer. Largely for bringing many excellent, and most notably, affordable products to the market. In recent years, however, it would appear that the company has attempted to distance itself from the more budget-focused (*cough* cheap *cough*) tier of product into more of mid-to-upper strata. A compromise, if you will, of better performance with only a slight increase on the price tag. And with the release of the PQ850M power supply, that's exactly what we're looking at here. DeepCool PQ850M Power Supply The DeepCool PQ850M packs a (perhaps) surprisingly impressive array of features. Coming as a fully-modular, 80-Plus Gold efficiency PSU, this is already ticking off two of the biggest boxes the savvy PSU consumer should be looking for. In terms of what this offers, however, this really is just scratching the surface. - When combining the aforementioned with 850 watts of power output, this is definitely a notable step up from what we'd usually expect to see from DeepCool. As such, it'll be more than a little interesting to see if this step up on paper is translated through into some impressive levels of performance. Albeit, if 850 watts isn't right for you, then there's some excellent news as this new range of power supplies are available now in outputs ranging from 650 all the way up to 1,000! - For this review, however, we will specifically be looking at the PQ850M (850 watt) model! What Does DeepCool Have to Say? "Introducing a new generation of power reliability, the DeepCool PQ-M Series 80 PLUS Gold Modular Power Supply delivers high efficiency and stability for performance PC systems needing ultra-quiet operation with silent fan modes.In our dedication to the mission of self-improvement and higher quality standards, the PQ-M Series PSU is a commitment from DeepCool to provide a trustworthy and reliable power supply. With a strong and dependable foundation, DeepCool is helping build better systems today that meet the expectations of tomorrow." Features 80-Plus Gold Efficiency RatingFully Modular Cable Design100% Japanese CapacitorsFluid Dynamic Bearing Fan for High Levels of Airflow at Low Levels of Noise Output840 Watts of continuous power provided through a Single +12V Rail10-Year Warranty Specifications For more detailed specifications, please visit the official product page via the link here! Connections As this is a fully modular power supply, it's important to know exactly what cables come with this to ensure you can successfully connect all of your components. - In this regard, the DeepCool PQ850M has more than enough for even the most elaborate of gaming systems including, but not limited to, 3 x 6+2 PCI connectors! Packaging If the PQ850M is a new direction for DeepCool, then it would seemingly be reflected in the packaging as this is definitely something we haven't seen before from them. Gone is the mildly questionable green colouring and instead, we find a nice clean piece of box work with a bright white sleave. The front of the packaging does a fantastic job of conveying all of the key information at a glance while DeepCool should also be commended for providing it with a nice large image of the power supply itself. It sounds mad, but you'd be surprised at the number of manufacturers who don't give you 1 good image of the product inside! While the front certainly gets things off to a good start, the back is notably more disappointing. While there is plenty of good information provided here, it's so small (and poorly coloured) that it almost gets lost in the sea of white. This could be improved hugely if the lettering was in black rather than grey, but overall, while the details are good, this certainly isn't easy work on the eyes and with just a few tweaks, it could've been hugely better! Taking the packaging as a whole, however, I am left with a few questions. While I definitely think it's an improvement on their prior branding (which, quite frankly, I always thought a bit ugly), it does come across as perhaps a little spartan. Then again, DeepCool might have an answer to this on an environmental level, or, indeed, perhaps just the basic issue seen around the world at the moment in regards to cardboard being in amazingly short supply. A relatively basic design such as this would be quite easy to fulfil, and, on the whole, I definitely view this as a strong step in a better presentational direction. Accessories As this is a power supply, you clearly don't (or generally shouldn't) expect much in the way of accessories. In terms of what you do get with the DeepCool PQ850M, however, there are certainly some nice surprises. You're given some nice branded cable management ties (not many, but enough for what's on show internally) and also a power adaptor in the unlikely event that you would choose to utilise the DeepCool PQ850M in a 'daisy chain' of connections. A Closer Look Out of the box, the DeepCool PQ850M does have something of a basic feel about it. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that as often less can be more, and particularly so when it comes to power supplies that, in many systems, remain completely hidden. In terms of branding and overall visual appearance, however, I do think that this doesn't look like a particularly inspired creation. With a nice weight feel in the hand, however, while it might be a little uninspiring on the outside, we daresay that there are still interesting things to look at. In terms of overall presentation though, while not an eye-sore, I can't see this winning any GPU beauty pageants. The top of the power supply provides the fan with plenty of ventilation. In fact, the gaps are surprisingly large and possibly a bit too big for their own good (while building a system, a mishandled screw could easily fall in here and vanish into the abyss). All going well though, this will help promote a strong airflow that will undoubtedly have a notable impact on the fans running speed and especially the 'Zero RPM' functionality. The cable input bank is well organised with each section being clearly denoted for its usage. While it is a little cramped, that could possibly result in cable insertion/removal being a bit of a pain, on the whole, it's a nice clean design that does offer a level of 'foolproofing' for the inexperienced user. The exhaust section of the power supply is well represented which pretty much all of the space available being open and available for airflow. Given that this PSU does utilise a passive cooling functionality, this will definitely help that fan run as little as it has to which, by proxy, should allow noise levels to be at a bare minimum when that mode is selected. It does bear note, however, that the gaps to the vents do allow for a not entirely pleasant look a the colours inside to cover some of the components. Cabling The cabling comes in some nice flexible plastic sheathings, and with a decent length, should allow for strong levels of system management from the user. Each cable is also clearly denoted to specify its use, and, what end goes where. It's a simple touch, but again, one that could really help the inexperienced user. Internals - A Look Inside! While getting inside the DeepCool PQ850M is simple enough (not that we'd recommend this to you as it will invalidate your 10-year warranty), the initial visuals are not great. And yes, it's mostly due to that yellow wrapping used on many of the main components. We saw a hint of this through the rear exhaust panel and, on the whole, this not an attractive look. A closer look at the fan reveals this to be a 120mm model from 'Ong Hua'. While some will perhaps be disappointed to see a third party model used in this power supply, we have seen this utilised in many PSU models from other, and significantly more expensive, manufacturers. - The good news is that it's excellent at its job. Hence why, we suspect, so many are using it at the moment. So, we had to do it. Let's take a closer look at that PCB. Sadly, it doesn't get any more pleasant to look at than it did from afar. On the plus side, however, there are some definite positives to take away. Firstly, all of the components look well-spaced and with 3 banks of heatsinks located in good positions, this should help promote a solid bit of cooling and especially so when the fan is switched into, basically, 'passive until absolutely needed' mode. That green PCB though. Let's face it, both inside and out, this power supply isn't much of a looker. Ending on a hugely positive note, however, we can confirm that the DeepCool PQ850M does utilise Japanese capacitors with the main one coming from 'Nippon Chemi-Con'. Rated to 105C, and coming from one of the world's most reputable manufacturers, hopefully this will translate to some excellent performance in our testing. Overall Thoughts! On the whole, the DeepCool PQ850M isn't, purely visually speaking, a good looking power supply. Both inside and out, there are definite signs that costs and compromises have been made in stopping this qualifying as a premium-level product. Don't forget though, aesthetics are, by a huge margin, the least important aspect of a PSU. More so, this isn't a premium-level product! On the more positive side of things, we've definitely seen signs of some good quality components used and a definite thought being placed into the overall application of how this PSU will work. All going well, while this might not win any innovation awards, we suspect that everything might be set to come together here for some surprisingly potent results in our testing! Methodology & Testing At eTeknix we take the power supply testing procedure very seriously and have invested a lot of resources into acquiring the appropriate testing equipment. For all power supply reviews, we test the power supplies with dedicated power supply testing equipment. This means we are able to get the most accurate results from our testing as opposed to using software benchmarks (such as OCCT) or multi-meter readouts which are broadly inaccurate. Testing Hardware Sunmoon SM-5500ATE Active Load Tester (1200W rated)Stingray DS1M12 USB OscilloscopeVoltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer What the eTeknix Test Procedure Involves Testing each power supply at 20/40/60/80/100% load (with load balanced across all rails) and measuring PFC (power factor correction), efficiency (actual power divided by power "pulled at the wall") and voltage regulation (deviance from expected voltages of 3.3/5/12 on the main rails).Measuring ripple with an oscilloscope at 20/40/60/80/100% load.Measuring fan speed after a stabilisation period of five minutes at each load scenario using the Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer and a reflective strip on the fan.Testing each power supply's OPP (Over Power Protection) mechanism and seeing how many watts each power supply can deliver before shutting down Other Things to Consider We recognise that a single 12-volt cable can provide only 6 Amps before overheating (which corrupts voltage regulation and efficiency) and so we used an adequate number of cables for each power supply to ensure there is not efficiency loss from poor cables selectionOur Sunmoon SM-5500ATE power supply tester is not capable of testing more than 300W on each of the 12-volt rails so where a power supply provides more than 300W on a 12-volt rail that power is distributed over multiple 12-volt rails on the load tester. For example a power supply with one 12 volt rail supplying 750 watts would be spread equally over three 12 volt rails on the load tester, a power supply with two 450W 12v rails would be spread over four 12v rails on the load tester, two 225W 12v rails for each of the 12v rails on the unit.We use the same time scale and horizontal millivolt scale on our oscilloscope for all ripple tests, that is a 20ms T/DIV (horizontal) and a 0.02 V/DIV (vertical) meaning the scale is from -80mV to +80mV, ATX spec dictates that the 12v rail must fall within 150mv of ripple and the 3.3/5 within 50mv so that scale allows us to include both 150 and 50mV peaks. (Some older PSU reviews use different scales which were later ditched as the visual representation they give is inadequate, in these reviews written measurements are provided only).Deviance is the terminology used to represent the way voltages diverge from the expected values Voltage Regulation To test voltage regulation we load the power supply to five different load scenarios that give an equal spread of load across every single rail. So that means 20% on all rails, 40% on all rails and so on. We then calculate the average deviance of each rail from its expected voltage. Ideally, anything of +/- 2% regulation is seen as a very good result. Power Efficiency Power efficiency is measured by calculating actual supplied wattage divided by the wattage drawn at the wall/plug, multiplied by 100 to give a percentage. We then compare that to the particular 80 Plus certification the company claims to see if it meets that. You can see the 80 Plus certifications below, we always test power supplies at 230v. Power Factor Correction Power Factor Correction is the ratio of the real power flowing to the load, to the apparent power in the circuit. The aim of PFC is to make the load circuitry that is power factor corrected appear purely resistive (apparent power equal to real power). In this case, the voltage and current are in phase and the reactive power consumption is zero. The closer the number to one the better as this allows the most efficient delivery of electrical power (Source - Wikipedia). Ripple Noise and Ripple can easily be measured by an oscilloscope. These show how much voltage fluctuation there is on a particular rail. We tested the rail stability of the 3.3-volt, 5-volt and 12-volt rails using an identical time and millivolt scale for all graphs. millivolt ripple is measured by the peak to peak size of the voltage curve. The latest ATX 12 volt version 2.3 specifications state that ripple from peak to peak must be no higher than 50 millivolts for the 3.3-volt and 5-volt rails, while the 12-volt rail is allowed up to 120 millivolts peak to peak to stay within specifications. Millivolt figures are stated to the closest increment of 5 given their variability. OPP Power supplies often quote as having various protection mechanisms such and the most important of these is Over Power Protection. In our testing we crank up the power draw until the power supply either shuts down (meaning the OPP mechanism is present and working) or blows up (meaning it is either not present or not working). We then note the maximum power consumption before the power supply shut down, or before it blew up. Fan Speed When testing in a power supply laboratory it is difficult to take fan noise readings as the noise from the Sunmoon test equipment and air conditioning corrupts everything. The next best thing in our circumstances was reading off the fan speed with a tachometer to get an idea for the noise. The ambient temperature during testing held constant at 22 degrees, with 1 degree of variation. Each power supply had a consistent time period of 5 minutes to stabilise between each load scenario. In my experience, the following general relationships apply between noise levels and fan speeds, though it can vary greatly between the type of fan used. Below 800 RPM - Inaudible/Silent800 to 1000 RPM - Barely audible1000 - 1200 RPM - Audible but still quiet1200 - 1400 RPM - Moderately noisy1400 - 1800 RPM - Noisy1800 RPM or above - Intolerable Efficiency Despite the DeepCool PQ850M only being officially rated as 80-Plus Gold, the efficiency performance in our testing was hugely above and beyond that remit. It would be no exaggeration to say that this is very nearly borderline Platinum, and in some respects, nearly Titanium, which, if you're not familiar with PSU efficiency ratings, is not only better but significantly harder to achieve. So far, so really good! PFC (Power Factor Correction) Things continue to impress with the DeepCool PQ850M as the PFC results were, again, exceptionally impressive. Even the 20% load test, which for many top of the range power supplies usually dips down to around 0.8, the DeepCool PQ850M achieved a score of 0.908. With a 60-100% load average of around 0.97, the results shown here are much higher than we anticipated, and, on the whole, very good indeed! Voltage Regulation Consistency is King (or Queen if you prefer) for the DeepCool PQ850M as, throughout all of our load tests, this power supply provided us with amazingly tight results. The 12V, 5V, and 3.3V scores show incredibly small amounts of deviancy. - The only mild fly in the ointment was the -12V scores as they were shown to be overvolting slightly. Given the low importance of this rail, however, this is definitely nothing to worry about! Ripple If you were thinking the ripple results were going to be the Achilles heel of the DeepCool PQ850M, then you're set to be (pleasantly I hope) surprised. On the whole, the results are surprisingly low and particularly so in both the 3.3V and 5V channels with the highest score recorded, from both of them, only being 5.8. And just to put this into context, the maximum allowed under EU standards is 50. Admittedly, the 12V rail is a little more excitable, but still hugely within acceptable limits. - On the whole, while it might not be listed among the DeepCool PQ850M's key features, a low ripple noise is definitely present here! Load (%) 3.3V Ripple 5V Ripple 12V Ripple 2045.811.8 4034.416.6 603.24.819.6 803.85.422.4 1003.85.623.6 Over Power Protection and Max Wattage Although officially rated to 850 watts of power output, it's not uncommon for power supplies to be capable of outputting significantly higher than that value. When things are pushed too hard, however, it's important that the PSU can identify this, and, more specifically, shut itself down before any risk to itself or your PCs components begins to present itself. So, with this in mind, we can happily confirm that the OPP worked perfectly in the DeepCool PQ850M with it able to achieve 310 watts over its rated amount before the protections successfully kicked into place. It should be noted though that while this isn't the biggest overhead we've ever seen, and you should always buy a power supply suitable for your system and its power needs, this is still a very respectable amount. Fan Speed As noted earlier in this review, the DeepCool PQ850M does feature a 'Zero RPM' fan mode that basically only utilises the cooling when absolutely necessary. While this is absolutely fantastic for people who value amazingly quiet systems, it did present an issue in our testing. Namely, that when this mode was enabled, the PSU didn't seemingly deem it necessary to operate the fan once. And this was after running it for more than 15-minutes at 100% load. - While this might sound like a criticism though, honestly, it's not. It clearly shows that the passive cooling capability of the DeepCool PQ850M is exceptionally good! With this mode turned off, however, while the fan does operate, it's still remarkably quiet. It seems to maintain an average of roughly 575 RPM which, even with the added bonus of being able to practically disable this until absolutely necessary, is still barely audible in itself. - Put simply, if you value near-silent system performance, then the DeepCool PQ850M seems like the perfect power supply for you! How Much Does it Cost? DeepCool has confirmed the following prices consumers can expect from this entire range of power supply releases: PQ650M - £99.99PQ750M - £109.99PQ850M - £129.99PQ1000M - £159.99 In specific regards to the 850-watt model, it'd be dishonest of us to say anything other than the fact that this isn't cheap. Based on the high performance and quality you're getting here, however, this still seems to represent some excellent value for money. Throw this in with the huge 10-year warranty that DeepCool provides and you've definitely got a excellent long term bargain here! Performance Despite this power supply not being much an aesthetic looker, the performance it offers is absolutely faultless. In fact, we'll be honest enough to say it's massively higher than we'd even initially hoped. A key highlight is undoubtedly seen in its efficiency performance which, in our testing, was significantly (and by a notable margin) greater than its official 80-Plus Gold rating. Performance-wise, this is an amazingly strong power supply and would be a perfect and reliable complement to any gaming PC. Practicality & Functionality Coming with a fully modular design, the cables are nice, strong, but also long meaning that owners of this PSU should have no excuses for poor management that could impact a systems airflow. Additionally, offering 850-watts of power, this is more than enough for even the most potent hardware currently on the market with, in many instances, a decent amount of wiggle room for future upgrades to your system. Should I Buy One? This is a difficult point to raise, but it seems clear from practically every visual aspect that DeepCool has compromised, wherever possible, to save money on the cost of bringing this PSU to the market. The packaging feels a little cheap, the power supply isn't overly attractive to look at, and the less said about the insides the better. - Despite all this, however, the DeepCool PQ850M has not compromised on the quality of the design. The strong and high-quality components utilised within the DeepCool PQ850M has resulted in a PSU that, while not much to look at, can easily perform (and in many cases outperform) pretty much all of its similarly priced rivals. Rivals who, incidentally, would likely charge another £20-£30 for a product with this kind of specification and performance. - Thankfully, power supplies are not aspects of PC designs that are generally showcased and it is perhaps the one factor that most saves the DeepCool PQ850M because, while it isn't much of a looker, its performance levels at this price point make it one of the best bang for buck PSUs currently available on the market! DeepCool PQ850M (850 Watt) Power Supply Review