XPG Core Reactor 850 Gold Power Supply Review

A Closer Look

The first thing that grabs your attention when you unbox the XPG Core Reactor is the rather unusual aesthetic. What’s so unusual about it? Well, while we’ll admit that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this on a power supply, the fan location does look a little curious with it being located slightly off-center.

You can get a better idea of what we mean by looking at the image below. We presume that this has been very deliberately done for design purposes rather than aesthetic, but in regards to the latter, there is something that just looks a little bit odd about this.

With the XPG logo found to the centre (which is in white rather than red), however, there is nothing here that looks unattractive.

As you might expect, the two sides of the power supply carry a little XPG branding as well as the product name. This is well situated between two recessed points and, strictly from a visual appearance, it is arguably the single most attractive aspect of the design.

The base of the power supply contains a label featuring all of the technical specifications. While it’s highly doubtful that this information will be relevant to the vast majority of users, it’s always helpful to have this so conveniently located in case you ever do need it, but can’t find the packaging/manual.

The power cable input bank is well presented with each specific cable application being clearly designated. In addition, with it coming with a ‘piggy back’ style design, both the insertion and removal of power connectors is very easy.

The air intake vents are nice and large with them covering practically all of the space available on this panel. This area is, however, otherwise pretty standard and exactly what you would expect to see.

Cabling

The cabling comes in a highly durable protective sleeve that should prove to be exceptionally resistant while also offering more than enough flexibility for good cable management. While the length of the cables are not massively generous, unless you have a particularly unforgiving chassis design, you shouldn’t have any problems weaving these exactly where you want them to go.

Internals – A Look Inside!

Getting inside the power supply, our initial thoughts are good with a clean and tidy presentation. You’ll find no ketchup and mustard cabling (which is always a worry when you do find it) and, overall, the components look exceptionally well organized.

A closer look at the fan does reveal this to be a ‘Ong Hua’ design and, we must admit, we’re a little disappointed that ADATA didn’t use one of their own apparent designs. That being said though, we have seen this fan used in a lot of power supplies in the past and, in terms of performance, while offering nothing stunning, it does its job both quietly and competently.

Looking at the power supply’s PCB, all of the components look well spaced which should allow for good cooling performance. You’ll additionally note that the two banks of heat sinks are well situated between where the fan will sit and the rear intake vent.

The only matter that does raise some curiousity is in regards to our prior comments regarding the off-center fan placement. Looking inside the XPG Core Reactor, we see no reason why this couldn’t have been located more centrally. Albeit, we doubt this will have any effect on this PSUs performance. We’re just making an aesthetically curious point.

Given that XPG cites this power supply as having a Japanese capacitor, a closer look 100% confirms this to be correct. Being a ‘Nippon Chemi-Con’ design and rated to 105c, we’ve seen this capacitor used in a lot of power supplies and, in terms of durability, is it clearly one of the best around!

Overall Thoughts!

So, aside from a few mildly curious points to the fan placement, the XPG Core Reactor certainly looks (both internally and externally) to be an excellently designed power supply. It doesn’t offer much in terms of eye-candy, but it does ooze of a sleek and professional style.

Every indication suggests at this point that it’ll easily eat up our testing process with no problems what-so-ever. There is, however, only one way to find out!