XFX Black Edition 850w ATX PSU
Packaging & Appearance
Published: 12th October 2009 | Source: XFX | Price: £159 |
Packaging & Appearance
Starting off with the graphical design of the packaging, the word 'striking' really does not do any justice. XFX have combined a dark 'DOOM-like' grey and black mechanical design along with bright retina burning dayglow green highlights. Aside from the large "850" text and SLI/80PLUS certification stickers there really is very little information on the front of the box, but with a design like this it is highly unlikely that any enthusiast or gamer could casually walk on by without feeling the urge to pick the box up and find out exactly what is inside.
Sliding off the outer cardboard layer reveals a two-tiered box design with the top box (modular cables) interlocking into the bottom box (PSU) with some rather simple cardboard tabs. Opening the larger of the two boxes gives you your first glimpse of the actual PSU with XFX keen to show off the spider web style fan grill and fluorescent green 135mm fan through the middle of two black cardboard flaps. Yet another smaller box can also be found beneath one of the flaps, which is beginning to make me think that XFX borrowed their packaging design from a matryoshka doll!
Included in the box is a fairly basic set of accessories. Your get both a UK and Euro mains cable, a set of case screws and a rather snazzy canvas pouch full of modular cables. Some velcro cable ties would have been nice, but I'm not going to moan.
Moving on to the appearance now and you'd be forgiven for thinking that the unit had fallen off the back of a UFO. XFX really have gone all-out to make this PSU look as extraordinary as possible while still obviously retaining the standard ATX form factor. The aforementioned spider-web style fan grill is obviously the most striking of changes and coupled with the green fan blades, goes a very long way to separating it from the rest of the crowd. A cog-like pattern has also been punched into the top casing of the unit, which joins with three 'valleys' that run down the modular connector area.
The rear of the unit is fairly standard with a square exhaust grill dominating most of the available space. Given the look of the rest of the unit I was half hoping that XFX may have at least installed a couple of green status LED's just for 'extra effect' but alas the only customisation in this area is the vertically mounted XFX logo sticker.
Around the front of the unit are a total of eight PCI-E style modular connectors all finished in lime green plastic. Although this looks immensely good, it is slightly worrying to think that someone may try to force one of the 6-Pin connectors used for the SATA/Molex cables into one of the 8-Pin graphics card connectors thus delivering +12v down the +3.3v and +5v wires. Not that I'd want to spoil the style of the unit, but maybe some kind of visual aid would have been useful to help differentiate the two styles of connector.
Now let's move on to the next page and take a look at the cables and PSU internals in more detail...
Most Recent Comments
ok is it just me or does the top of that psu look amazing?
the bang want that big in the video tho =\ i was expecting the camera to wobble and someone nearly cacking them self
other than that good review from the quick scim i gave it for now.Quote
the bang want that big in the video tho =\ i was expecting the camera to wobble and someone nearly cacking them self
other than that good review from the quick scim i gave it for now.Quote
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Originally Posted by name='I Hunta x'
the bang want that big in the video tho =\ i was expecting the camera to wobble and someone nearly cacking them self |
Jim = Mr Calm.
Couple of cracks and he doesn't jump, flinch, move, gasp... nothing.
If BFG and XFX have taught us anything, and to a certain extent the woeful air performance on Corsairs 800D, it's that companies should stick to doing what they do best.Quote
Couple of cracks and he doesn't jump, flinch, move, gasp... nothing.
If BFG and XFX have taught us anything, and to a certain extent the woeful air performance on Corsairs 800D, it's that companies should stick to doing what they do best.Quote
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Originally Posted by name='tinytomlogan'
Have to say that video is great for suspense! Rather shocking for such a big brand though. Be interesting to see if they say anything.
Still think that people will buy this no matter what just because it looks good and has XFX written on it. |
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Still think that people will buy this no matter what just because it looks good and has XFX written on it.Quote