DeepCool DQ850-M-V2L Power Supply Review

DeepCool is a brand well associated with providing a quality product at an affordable price. With the launch of the new DQ850-M-V2L, however, we see an already popular existing PSU get the revision treatment with a whole host of new improvements to make it an even better proposition as a power supply! DeepCool DQ 850-M-V2L Power Supply With 100% Japanese capacitors, a fully modular design, and an 80-plus gold efficiency rating, these are all excellent factors that you generally only expect or associate with some of the better (if not best) power supplies around on the market. Capping that off with a very eye-catching aesthetic, let's take a look at some of the features and specifications this PSU provides! Features 80 PLUS® GOLD certified - Up to 91.2% efficiency100% High quality Japanese capacitorsFull bridge PFC + LLC Resonant converterFully modular with flat cable designCircuitShield™ — OVP / UVP / SCP / OPP / OTP Specifications For more details specifications, please visit the official product page via the link here! What Does DeepCool Have to Say? "The DQ850-M-V2L fully modular 850W 80 PLUS Gold power supply features 100% Japanese capacitors and high-quality switch MOSFETs. Built to deliver stable output capacity with high conversion efficiency, the DQ850-M-V2L offers better reliability for your PC system.Get all the power you need with a maximum of 91.2% efficiency to reduce excess energy consumption and waste heat." Connections As this is a fully-modular power supply, the power is indeed in your hands to ensure that you only have to fit the cables your system required. Providing you with plenty of options, this design ensures that the vast majority of users (even those with SLI/Crossfire) shouldn't have any difficulties getting everything they need hooked up! Packaging The external packaging carries the silver and green highlights which has recently become something of a signature for DeepCool products. Starting with the front of the packaging, you get a nice clear view of the power supply with all of the key features clearly itemised. It's an exceptionally good use of the space available telling you everything you could want to know at a nice clear glance! The rear of the packaging gets more into the technical aspects of this power supplies specifications. While the written information is somewhat cramped (due to the heavy localization) you are provided with charts indicating the efficiency performance as well as showing you an internal image of the PSUs PCB. The latter aspect is very unusual and, as such, one can only presume that DeepCool is very proud of this power supplies design. Accessories As this is a power supply, you're clearly not expecting to open it up to find absolutely masses of parts. The good news is, however, that while DeepCool has provided you with everything you could possibly want, you also get more than a few helpful additions. Beyond the basic factors such as the screws to attach it to your PC chassis, you're also provided with a good number of zip-ties (or 'tweazers' if you prefer) to allow you to keep your cables nice and tidy. Topping all that off is the fact that both the cables and the power supply itself are kept within separate, high-quality, branded, canvas bags. This is a really nice addition (particular the branding which is uncommon on an aesthetic level) as it ensures that whether in use or boxed up for another day, you can keep things well organized and free from any potential scuffs or scratches! A Closer Look Out of the box, the DeepCool DQ850-M-V2L has a really nice strong aesthetic. A factor of note as this is somewhat unusual from what you see (or expect) from most power supplies as they (more often than now) carry a rather basic visual appeal. One of the most eye-catching aspects is the fan area to the top which is set within a nice highlighted pattern to the edge. The black and grey (with green highlights to the side) really contrast and compliment each other well making for an overall distinctive and attractive design. The modular bank is set in a back-to-back design that makes cable insertion (and particularly removal) a lot easier. In addition, with the ports being clearly highlighted (to denote their specific use) this is absolutely ideal and a practically fool-proof design. The 'back' of the power supply shows a very attractive pattern to the vents which has been well extended to allow for (presumably) excellent levels of exhaust airflow through this area. The base of the PSU has a label confirming how the power is outputted across the individual rails. While this will likely have absolutely no bearing or importance to the vast majority of consumers, for reviewers like me, it's truly excellent to see this information clearly displayed. On the whole, the DeepCool DQ850-M-V2L certainly looks like an attractive and impressive power supply. What about the individual aspects of it though? Well, let's take a closer look! Cabling The cabling is provided within a thick black plastic casing that should ensure that this looks good within a system (in the areas where the cables are exposed - How good is your cable management?...). While the cable length is not exactly overly generous, it should be more than suitable for the vast majority of PC chassis designs. Well, at least presuming that you don't have an absolute monster of a case! Internals - A Look Inside! Having a look inside the power supply, we see a somewhat surprisingly professional appearance. At a glance, everything seems exceptionally well spaced and organized with not a single ugly array of yellow/green/red cabling visible! A closer look at the fan reveals it to be an 'Ong Hua' design. While it is a little disappointing that this isn't a DeepCool own product, we have seen them use this fan in many prior power supply releases and have never failed to be impressed with the performance it provides. A look at the PCB shows all the capacitors to be well spaced including the (somewhat usual) heatsinks which are found in a central location. In terms of PSU designs, this is particularly good as it will allow for the fan to provide a good, solid, and clean airflow throughout this highly critical area. Coming with one main capacitor, we can confirm that this has been designed by 'Nippon Chemi-con' who, as the name might have hinted, is a Japanese manufacturer. Rated to 105C, this is exactly what you want to see and clearly indicates that DeepCool has spared very little expensive with the DQ850-M-V2L. Overall Thoughts! Having looks at both the internal and external aspects of this power supply, it seems pretty clear that DeepCool has clearly created a high-performance power supply here with the DQ850-M-V2L. While pending testing, which we'll get onto shortly, everything we have seen so far here with the DeepCool DQ850-M-V2L (be it in terms of aesthetics or quality) is practically faultless and, put simply, this has every chance of performing every bit as fantastic as it looks! Methodology & Testing At eTeknix we take the power supply testing procedure very seriously and have invested a lot of resources into acquiring the appropriate testing equipment. For all power supply reviews, we test the power supplies with dedicated power supply testing equipment. This means we are able to get the most accurate results from our testing as opposed to using software benchmarks (such as OCCT) or multi-meter readouts which are broadly inaccurate. Testing Hardware Sunmoon SM-5500ATE Active Load Tester (1200W rated)Stingray DS1M12 USB OscilloscopeVoltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer What the eTeknix Test Procedure Involves Testing each power supply at 20/40/60/80/100% load (with load balanced across all rails) and measuring PFC (power factor correction), efficiency (actual power divided by power "pulled at the wall") and voltage regulation (deviance from expected voltages of 3.3/5/12 on the main rails).Measuring ripple with an oscilloscope at 20/40/60/80/100% load.Measuring fan speed after a stabilisation period of five minutes at each load scenario using the Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer and a reflective strip on the fan.Testing each power supply's OPP (Over Power Protection) mechanism and seeing how many watts each power supply can deliver before shutting down Other Things to Consider We recognise that a single 12-volt cable can provide only 6 Amps before overheating (which corrupts voltage regulation and efficiency) and so we used an adequate number of cables for each power supply to ensure there is not efficiency loss from poor cables selectionOur Sunmoon SM-5500ATE power supply tester is not capable of testing more than 300W on each of the 12-volt rails so where a power supply provides more than 300W on a 12-volt rail that power is distributed over multiple 12-volt rails on the load tester. For example a power supply with one 12 volt rail supplying 750 watts would be spread equally over three 12 volt rails on the load tester, a power supply with two 450W 12v rails would be spread over four 12v rails on the load tester, two 225W 12v rails for each of the 12v rails on the unit.We use the same time scale and horizontal millivolt scale on our oscilloscope for all ripple tests, that is a 20ms T/DIV (horizontal) and a 0.02 V/DIV (vertical) meaning the scale is from -80mV to +80mV, ATX spec dictates that the 12v rail must fall within 150mv of ripple and the 3.3/5 within 50mv so that scale allows us to include both 150 and 50mV peaks. (Some older PSU reviews use different scales which were later ditched as the visual representation they give is inadequate, in these reviews written measurements are provided only).Deviance is the terminology used to represent the way voltages diverge from the expected values Voltage Regulation To test voltage regulation we load the power supply to five different load scenarios that give an equal spread of load across every single rail. So that means 20% on all rails, 40% on all rails and so on. We then calculate the average deviance of each rail from its expected voltage. Ideally, anything of +/- 2% regulation is seen as a very good result. Power Efficiency Power efficiency is measured by calculating actual supplied wattage divided by the wattage drawn at the wall/plug, multiplied by 100 to give a percentage. We then compare that to the particular 80 Plus certification the company claims to see if it meets that. You can see the 80 Plus certifications below, we always test power supplies at 230v. Power Factor Correction Power Factor Correction is the ratio of the real power flowing to the load, to the apparent power in the circuit. The aim of PFC is to make the load circuitry that is power factor corrected appear purely resistive (apparent power equal to real power). In this case, the voltage and current are in phase and the reactive power consumption is zero. The closer the number to one the better as this allows the most efficient delivery of electrical power (Source - Wikipedia). Ripple Noise and Ripple can easily be measured by an oscilloscope. These show how much voltage fluctuation there is on a particular rail. We tested the rail stability of the 3.3-volt, 5-volt and 12-volt rails using an identical time and millivolt scale for all graphs. millivolt ripple is measured by the peak to peak size of the voltage curve. The latest ATX 12 volt version 2.3 specifications state that ripple from peak to peak must be no higher than 50 millivolts for the 3.3-volt and 5-volt rails, while the 12-volt rail is allowed up to 120 millivolts peak to peak to stay within specifications. Millivolt figures are stated to the closest increment of 5 given their variability. OPP Power supplies often quote as having various protection mechanisms such and the most important of these is Over Power Protection. In our testing we crank up the power draw until the power supply either shuts down (meaning the OPP mechanism is present and working) or blows up (meaning it is either not present or not working). We then note the maximum power consumption before the power supply shut down, or before it blew up. Fan Speed When testing in a power supply laboratory it is difficult to take fan noise readings as the noise from the Sunmoon test equipment and air conditioning corrupts everything. The next best thing in our circumstances was reading off the fan speed with a tachometer to get an idea for the noise. The ambient temperature during testing held constant at 22 degrees, with 1 degree of variation. Each power supply had a consistent time period of 5 minutes to stabilise between each load scenario. In my experience, the following general relationships apply between noise levels and fan speeds, though it can vary greatly between the type of fan used. Below 800 RPM - Inaudible/Silent800 to 1000 RPM - Barely audible1000 - 1200 RPM - Audible but still quiet1200 - 1400 RPM - Moderately noisy1400 - 1800 RPM - Noisy1800 RPM or above - Intolerable Efficiency Despite the DeepCool DQ850-M-V2L officially being gold efficiency rated (up to 91.9%) our testing found that the efficiency rating was substantially higher than this. Practically falling into the remits of Platinum efficiency, but simply, in our testing this performed far better than the packaging and features suggested. And, by a pretty huge margin too! Achieving a minimum of 91.6% and a maximum of 94.9%, this was amazingly good! PFC (Power Factor Correction) Although starting off quite low at 20% (which is perfectly normal by the way) the PFC rating ramps up considerably the more you ask this power supply to work. Achieving over 0.95 at 100%, it clearly indicates that the correction rate is excellent! Voltage Regulation When it comes to voltage regulation, you ideally want to see two factors present. Specifically, consistency and and a solid average deviancy. In this regard, the DeepCool DQ850-M-V2L is truly fantastic. As you can see below, the results provided are remarkably consistent in many areas and, where they are not, the average deviancy works out to provide a very solid result. Ripple Throughout the entire ripple test, all of the results were exceptionally low and if you were, therefore, thinking that this might've been the exception to the good results so far, you would be mistaken. The only item of note was a moderately higher than average result of 22.6. This is, however, settle down quite significantly in both higher and lower load tests and, as such, we'd consider this in aberration rather than anything indicative. When you consider that EU standards allow for a maximum result of 50, however, the results clearly indicate that the power is being delivered exceptionally cleanly. Load (%) 3.3V Ripple 5V Ripple 12V Ripple 202.43.24.8 402.84.822.6 603.612.214.4 803.612.812.8 10057.813 Over Power Protection and Max Wattage While power supplies are always rated to a specific wattage output, it's not uncommon for them to often have a little bit of 'wiggle' room. While this is usually only 10-15% in regards to the DeepCool DQ850-M-V2L it is a huge 21%! While you should, of course, buy PSUs to suit your needs, this one clearly has a pretty substantial overhead to ensure that even if you push your parts a little harder, perhaps through an overclock or exceptionally powerful specifications, it'll still have all the power you need to keep things running happily. Fan Speed Unlike many power supplies that may alter their fan speed depending on the power output, the DeepCool DQ850-M-V2L seems to run at a fairly static level. Throughout all of our load tests, we found that the fan speed was generally consistent between 940RPM - 975RPM. In terms of noise levels, this is hardly noticeable and when installed in a chassis, I daresay you'd barely hear this at all! A pretty positive factor when you consider that this power supply does not have a 'zero' or 'hybrid' function. How Much Does it Cost? DeepCool has confirmed that the DQ850-M-V2L will retail with an MSRP in the region of £119.99. While this is clearly a substantial amount of money, in terms of high-performance power supplies, you really do get what you pay for. With a gold-rated efficiency rating (that was closer to Platinum in our testing) and a huge 10-year warranty, based on everything we have seen here, the DQ850-M-V2L really should cost more than it does! In other words, it's a top-spec bargain! Performance Throughout all of the various tests we conduct on power supplies, we found absolutely nothing to warranty any criticism here. The DeepCool DQ850-M-V2L is well built, looks fantastic, and performs just as well. The biggest stand-out highlight, however, is the efficiency rating. As noted above, despite only been gold-rated, this performed more within the remits of Platinum and, trust us, if it was certified at that level, you could easily throw at least another £30 at the price tag. Practicality & Functionality With its sleek design, although a power supply rarely forms the most aesthetically appealing part of a PC built, this is certainly distinctive enough to stand out. In addition, with its fully modular design, you have the ability to only install the cables you need meaning that the overall tidiness of your build can (and should) be significantly improved. If we were to call it faultless, it might sound like we were at risk of waxing-lyrical about it. In truth though, if we did find something to criticize, it would only be because we were getting overly picky! Should I Buy One? There are so many factors that make the DeepCool DQ850-M-V2L appealing. It's excellent array of features, it's strong aesthetics, the manner in which it completely ate up our tests. The bottom line, however, is that if you have any reservations over DeepCool as a brand (and we see no real reason why you should), this PSU should single-handedly remove all of those. It looks great, it achieves everything it claims on the box (with, in many areas, some surprisingly good levels that even exceed that), and it's also very competitively priced to the point of being an outright bargain! Put simply, if you're in the market for a power supply and are not at least considering this, you definitely need to do more research! DeepCool DQ 850-M-V2L 850w Power Supply Review

Over Power Protection and Max Wattage

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