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BFGTech ES-800 800w Power Supply

BFGTech comes back to HardOCP’s computer power supply review program a full year later, and this time BFG comes loaded for bear with an 800w PSU that actually has new features that should certainly interest most high end PSU users and hardware enthusiast alike.

Overview

The first thing we are going to look at with the BFG ES-800 is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While none of these items is a real make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing and use more efficient.

The BFG ES-800 packaging is trimmed out in a subdued black finish that is far less flashy than what we have seen from BFG in the past. The packaging is for the most part all business as the side and back of the packaging contain all pertinent information such as the power label (reproduced below), contents, connector count, pictures of the various connectors, efficiency curve, fan speed graph, some very basic instructions on installing the unit, and various safety certifications. We also find the unit as being SLI certified and a quick check of the SLIZone website indicates that the unit is indeed certified for 8800GTX SLI. We also see that the unit is advertised as being 80-85% efficient at typical loads but a quick check of the 80Plus website doesn't find this unit listed currently. This is very likely due to the ES-800 being so new, and certainly we will see if the unit’s efficiency claims hold up under our own testing. Finally, we see on the front of the packaging that the unit is covered by BFG's Lifetime Warranty. The details of this warranty were not available on BFG's Support Page as of the time of writing nor was this unit’s product page yet active. Again, this ES-800 has yet to be officially launched by BFGTech. The manual states that the warranty only applies to the original purchaser; "for as long as the original purchaser owns the product, when given normal wear and proper usage."

The BFG ES-800 specifications are really rather extraordinary in a couple of ways. First, the unit has 780w out of 800w available on the 12v rails which works out to 65A or 97.5% of the units total DC output capacity. Generally when we see numbers like this they are a bit handicapped by the fact that the unit will have a minimum load requirement of ~1A on the 5v and 3.3v rails. This, however, is NOT the case with the BFG ES-800 as it DOES NOT have a minimum load requirement for the 5v and 3.3v rails. This ES-800 can in effect be a 12v-only power supply. Coupled with this we find that the ES-800 is really the model for how a multi-12v rail power supply should be configured as the 12v rails are divided up such that it really would be almost impossible to overdraw any one rail given the connector restrictions in place. This is especially apparent on the most problematic rails (12v3 and 12v4) which can support the most power hungry components in a modern system; the graphics cards. With 36A available on each 12v rail that supports one modified 8-pin PCI-Express connector and one 6-pin PCI-Express connector, the problems of the past with video cards overdrawing one 12v rail on a multi-12v rail design should be near impossible given the ES-800’s split configuration. Finally, we see that on 12v1 rail, along with the ATX connector, there are six Molex and six SATA connectors to fill out the rest of the components for the vast majority of PC's.

Once we open the packaging of the BFG ES-800 we find the typical arrangement of power supply goods including the power supply itself, power cord, mounting screws, manual, and some straps for securing cabling (straps not pictured). The manual is 12 pages long in English only and is quite complete. In addition to providing the power table, pinouts, rail breakdown, safety features, warranty information, installation instructions, electrical specifications, and physical specifications the manual also has instructions on how to test the ripple/noise of the unit. About the only thing missing from this bulk of information in the spirit of full disclosure is the unit’s derating curve, although the addition of the instructions for testing ripple/noise certainly go a long way towards full disclosure. Overall the documentation is chock full of excellent information true hardware enthusiast will value and BFG has supplied all of it without it being overly tedious or long.