Cooler Master XG PLUS 850 Platinum
Cooler Master Co. LTD. is a company that is well known for producing enthusiast computer cases and has been in business for almost 25 years. In addition to cases, Cooler Master has product lines for CPU and GPU heatsinks, case fans, various accessories, and power supplies. Cooler Master’s entry into the power supply market has been rather mixed with some good products and some that could use improvement. Today, we are reviewing one of Cooler Master’s mid-range (capacity-wise) units targeted specifically at gamers the Cooler Master XG PLUS 850 Platinum (MPG-8501-AFBAP-X) which appears to be produced in conjunction with Huizhou Xinhuiyuan Tech Co., Ltd.
Huizhou Xinhuiyuan Tech Co., Ltd. was founded about 15 years ago in 2008 as a subsidiary of Shenzhen Xin Hui Yuan Electronics Co., Ltd. While not a major ATX12/EPS power supply OEM found in North America, Huizhou Xinhuiyuan Tech Co., Ltd does produce a number of products in power electronics, power supplies, and related technologies. These power supplies, power adapters, and custom power supplies are mainly found in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. To date, Cooler Master is the only brand we have seen using Huizhou Xinhuiyuan Tech Co., Ltd as an OEM in the NA market.
PLUS to the RGB MAX!
The Cooler Master XG PLUS 850 Platinum is the third power supply we have seen from Cooler Master here at TheFPSReview following the V650 SFX GOLD and the V850 SFX GOLD WHITE Edition. This particular unit is going to be interesting to a bit of a different crowd than those previous units as we are swinging back to the ATX12v/EPS form factor and loading up on the RGB bling, yo.
However, this is a market where we have seen a lot of products over the years so we have a good idea of what the environment for these kinds of products looks like today. On the flip side, this means that Cooler Master is going to be running right into a herd of other competing products in a very competitive niche. Are they going to be able to handle it? Or is this all going to all show and no go?
Let’s move on now and see what we can expect when a user purchases the Cooler Master XG PLUS 850 Platinum power supply in retail in terms of documentation, accessories, cable count, rail layout, output characteristics, and general build quality.
Overview
The XG PLUS 850 Platinum packaging size is about what we would expect to see given that this is an ATX12v/EPS-sized product. The front of the package has a good bit of information presented to us today with a nice picture of the unit itself on a black and blue background. Among this information we see advertising about the 10-year warranty, 100% Japanese capacitors, MASTERPLUS+ (seriously Cooler Master? Plus plus? It’s like saying ATM machine), and the 80 Plus Platinum seal. When we check the 80 Plus website we find that this unit is listed at the time of testing. So, we will see about how this unit performs in this regard later on in the review.
The rear of the packaging has more in the way of advertising as we find advertisements for the in-house design, Japanese capacitors, gold plated connectors, MASTERPLUS+ software, efficiency curve, and fan curve. The side of the package has the power label (reproduced below) and the connector count (reproduced below).
The XG PLUS 850 Platinum is advertised as being a single 12v rail power supply with a capacity of up to 70.8A (or ~100% of the unit’s capacity) if necessary. The minor rails (5v and 3.3v) have a capacity of 20A each and the combined capacity of those two rails is listed as 120W on the box and online. However, some of the power labels on the unit themselves list this as 100W. So…..
Combined with these outputs, we find that this unit has 6 PCIe connectors, 12 SATA connectors, 4 Molex connectors, and 1 USB 10-pin connector.
Once we open the XG PLUS 850 Platinum packaging we find the power supply, mounting screws, modular cables, the power cord, Velcro straps, zip ties, and the user manual. The user manual comes in two parts and covers some basic installation, warranty, pinouts, USB port installation guide, and troubleshooting items. Let’s move on to the unit itself now.