Date:
Tuesday , January 08, 2008
Author:
Paul Johnson
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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StarTech.com WattSmart EPSPOW850PRO 850w

While StarTech.com is not extremely well known among enthusiasts, it is up to the challenge of facing the PSU crushing machine here at HardOCP. Is the 850 watt WattSmart computer power supply smart enough for your system?

Introduction

Today we are looking at our first product from a very interesting addition to our power supply reviews, StarTech.com. StarTech.com as a company has been around since 1985 and is an ISO9001 certified manufacturer that builds some of the products it sells direct to consumers, but it does not manufacturer its own power supplies. Rather StarTech, like most brands turns to an OEM supplier. Today’s power supply we are reviewing from StarTech.com comes from their new WattSmart line of power supplies and is the 850w EPS0W850PRO which is manufactured by ATNG Power Co. LTD.

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ATNG Power Co. LTD (I Horng Power Co. LTD.) is one of the larger providers of power supplies in various markets including the US and is fairly well known to many users. As a company ATNG has been in business since 1987 and currently has a production capacity of ~900,000 units a month. ATNG branded power supplies can be found under other brands such as Rosewill, older BFGTech models, Coolmax, StarTech.com, the ATNG brand itself, and others. Typically ATNG power supplies have not been what most users have considered to be a premier product offering but with the increased competition in the power supply market of late ATNG has released a number of new products that are of great interest to us including today’s StarTech.com branded unit.

Shooting Star?

The 750w to 850w range of power supplies is, like many realms, becoming a very crowded field these days as more companies are releasing higher powered offerings than in years past. As such to stand out in these increasingly crowded fields manufacturers and brands alike really have to work to set their product apart. So how does StarTech.com feel that the EPSPOW850PRO stands out? Well a quick check of the StarTEch.com product page reveals the following:

As part of our high efficiency WattSmart line, this EPS12V 2.91/ ATX12V 2.2 80 PLUS certified Power Supply with two 80mm dual ball bearing Fans is the perfect example of "waste not, want not"! Ideal for advanced servers and desktops requiring the added capability to handle modern processors such as Intel Pentium 4, Pentium D, Core 2 Duo and AMD Athlon 64 processor-based systems (single and dual core), EPSPOW850PRO provides stable power while balancing maximum energy efficiency.

Designed to support a versatile range of systems including servers and high-end graphic and gaming PC systems, EPSPOW850PRO is SLI Ready certified, making it a perfect selection for powering far-reaching video chipsets such as the nVidia 8800GTX GPU. And, because exceptional output should mean having to compromise, EPSPOW850PRO remains an eco-conscious, energy-saving choice - meeting 80Plus certification requirements (80% or greater efficiency at 20%, 50% and 100% load).

Interestingly StarTech.com seems to be trying to target both highend desktop usage and “advanced servers” at the same time with the EPSPOW850PRO. Given that these two arenas cater to two vastly different set of requirements (and feature sets) it will be interesting to see how StarTech.com bridges the chasm between the two and whether or not this unit is capable of satisfying the demands of enthusiasts in addition to being a no frills just get the job done power supply.

So let's move on to see what we have to look forward to when we purchase the StarTech.com EPSPOW850PRO power supply in terms of documentation, accessories, cable count, rail layout, output characteristics, and general build quality.