BFG ES-800 Power Supply Review

[jonnyGURU]

Originally Posted by stinger608

Hey Johnny, how good is the 800w LE power supply?

Where do I start... First off, the only difference between the "old" 800W and the one being sold as an "LE" is that the LE has four PCIe connectors.

Chris reviewed that 800W here about three months ago and it did pretty good. But there's always the same two complaints: the cables are short and there's only two PCIe connectors. Well, you can't economically go back and lengthen all of the cables on a PSU, and the cables were long enough for 99% of the folks out there. If you did SLI though, you couldn't get one of the two PCIe connectors to reach. So by adding two more PCIe connectors, and making their cables longer than the other two, you can not only accomodate a pair of 225W PCIe cards, but also accomodate a second card better because you now have a PCIe connector that reaches.

The "LE" is EOL now, so you're seeing it get "blown out" all over the place. It's a hell of a deal right now at $100. It's not really a "bad" product at all, it's just not somewhere I want to be with BFG right now. If given the opportunity I would certainly use the Topower platform the LE uses to make another 800W in the future. I just wouldn't use 80MM fans, I'd use 135MM fans, I'd use "brand name" caps like SamXon or Teapo and not "AsiaX" and... naturally... I'd make the cables a good 2" longer.

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Would you say that this market ($100 range) sells more PSUs than the $200+ range?

Absolutely. Just like how MOST people don't have dual graphics cards, MOST people don't water cool, etc. It's a niche. But it's still good to have a few "flagship" products under the belt. ;)

[RAID]

wow, i never knew they made shecksy power supplies

[MantaBase]

To add to what Jonny has said....and add in general.

When I start the PSU reviews here, I said I wanted to avoid steering folks toward $200 PSU if they didn't need them. The short and sweet of it is that just about every PSU (if not every single one) we have reviewed is deployable in an appropriate system.

I try to point toward what an appropriate system is for a PSU at the end of the review. If you have a single card system, for example, and plan to stay with one (as I do with my home system), you don't need a $200 PSU. There are plenty in the $80-120 that will work great and give room to grow modestly.

If you do not overclock (or much), then uber ripple stability, I think, is also not so much a concern. Of course, a really noisy PSU would prove me wrong.

If you don't watercool, then you don't need the extra watts to drive the pump - but you might need them to drive a few fans (minor drain really).

The point being, that the score we give a PSU is a combination of things - and it may not reflect how a PSU will work for you. For that, you need to really get into the review - and we suggest many reviews.

Consider, a 1000 watt PSU in a 550 peak load machine. There are many folkls who have this setup and believe they really need the 1000 watt PSU. The reality is, a 600 watt PSU would actually be better. In general, it will run more efficiently and the crossloading (I think) would stay more in the "sweet spot" and be more stable. You would never max it out and likely your heavy loads will be only for a few seconds or minutes. By moving down from a 1000 watt to a 600 watt, you can focus a few extra dollars toward quality and stability.

There is a "Niche" market as Jonny says - and a vendor that sells PSU is well advised to have some offerings in that market. They are also well advised (IMO) to have some other offerings that apply to the "reality" market.


All that said, the ES-800 and other PSU like it are kind of an exception. This unit would be fine in just about any system that would max at under 800 watts (and that is nearly every system out there). With the 10 year+ warranty, it's like an investment.

I don't want to sound like a fan boy - so I will leave it at that.

I will say that it sounds like its time for me, Jonny, Olin, Wolf, etc... to get together and re-dis-spell some myths (especially the myths about myths). I myself have some unanswered questions about certain details.

Manta

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by MantaBase

I will say that it sounds like its time for me, Jonny, Olin, Wolf, etc... to get together and re-dis-spell some myths (especially the myths about myths). I myself have some unanswered questions about certain details.

Sounds good to me!

[Stormcrow]

I'd love it see more PSUs with 80+ at 20%, since my rig sits idle playing music or web browsing a good deal of it's time.
Instead of modular, the idea of retractable PSU cables has been kicking around my head for awhile...retractable mains with an extender setup like Hiper uses on it's 680w Type-R, but seems like it would add way to much girth to the PSU to be feasible.