Chieftronic PowerUp GPX-850FC (850w) PSU Review

A Closer Look

Your initial aesthetic impressions for the Chieftronic PowerUp GPX-850FC will almost certainly be drawn to the top fan area of this power supply. With it’s distinctive cover and logo to the centre, it’s certainly eye-catching.

Whereas many PSU manufacturers tend to go for a rather plain appearance, you have to credit Chieftronic for attempting to do something a little unusual here (where arguably they didn’t have to). And, at least in my opinion, it works. I honestly love how this looks and feel that the style presented here in this power supply wouldn’t look out of place in any system build.

The modular cable input bank of the PSU is well organized with each particular port being itemized for its specific usage. In addition, with the cables inserting ‘back to back’, while the space is a little cramped, you shouldn’t have any problems in either removal or insertion.

The exhaust panel to the Chieftronic PowerUp GPX-850FC is excellent with pretty much all of the available area utilized to its fullest airflow potential. In addition, with this is not a ‘hybrid’ design (as fan low-noise functionality has been built-in making it seemingly redundant in this design), the only ‘clutter’ visible here is the main on/off switch and power input port.

In terms of other aesthetic choices, you will find the ‘PowerUp’ branding to the sides. This is, however, exceptionally well placed and sized meaning that, overall, it adds rather than detracts.

The only mild grumble we can make on an aesthetic level is that one portion of the power supply does come out of the box with these rather unattractive barcode stickers attached. Given that they can be (relatively easily) removed, however, it’s certainly not a major issue. And yes, if I was to use this PSU, I would probably remove them!

So, at least externally, the Chieftronic PowerUp GPX-850FC presents itself well. Something more than a little unusual as often power supplies can be quite bland and boring affairs. Let’s take a close look at some of the other aspects of this design.

Cabling

The Chieftronic PowerUp GPX-850FC comes supplied with more than enough cables to hook up even the most elaborate of PC gaming systems. Albeit, we do, of course, recommend that you always check this before clicking on that ‘purchase’ button.

In terms of the cables, they are provided in a fairly thick black strip protective coating that offers more than enough flexibility for cable management while giving you the peace of mind that they should be more than strong enough to cope with even the most elaborate of weaving.

In terms of length, however, they’re not particularly generous. While we doubt this should present a problem to the vast majority of users though, we would recommend further investigation if you have a notably awkward or large chassis design. Put simply, for a couple of extra inches, these would’ve been vastly better.

Internals – A Look Inside!

Getting inside the Chieftronic PowerUp GPX-850FC is surprisingly easy. Albeit, we don’t recommend it to you as this will invalidate your warranty. Once inside, however, the initial impression is excellent with a notably clean and tidy presentation.

A closer look at the fan finds that, rather disappointingly, this is not a Chieftec design. They have, instead, utilized a rather generic Chinese ‘YALn’ cooling solution. Albeit, we should note that we have encountered this fan before (from many other manufacturers) and have largely found nothing to complain about in terms of its noise and/or performance.

It is, perhaps, just disappointing that such a generic product has been used for a product clearly marketing itself with such high-performance features.

As noted above, the PCB looks excellent with the components both well-spaced and presented in an exceptionally clean manner. You’ll find no masses of cables here, and even where you do, the ‘ketchup and mustard’ has been kept to an absolute minimum.

In something that could potentially raise more concerns about the components used, we find that the main capacitor is a ‘Chinsan Electronic Elite’ design. Being a Taiwanese company, this clearly doesn’t carry the prestige nor reputation of a Japanese manufacturer. Albeit, we do not profess to be experts in manufacturing quality for the hundreds (if not thousands) of capacitor manufacturers throughout the world.

A closer look, however, does raise more concerns. Being rated to 85C, this isn’t even a particularly high-quality design. Particularly when you consider that many other manufacturers utilize a 105C capacitor in their PSUs.

We’re not saying that the main capacitor is bad, but what we can say is that it’s almost certainly not the best choice available!

Overall Thoughts!

Overall, the Chieftronic PowerUp GPX-850FC looks excellent both inside and out. Yes, we do have some concerns in regards to some of the components utilized in this design and specifically how they may potentially affect our comprehensive test results, but in those regards, there’s only one way to find out! – Let’s get this hooked up and see what it can do!