Lian Li SP850 SFX Form Factor Power Supply Review

How Much Does it Cost?

Lian Li has confirmed that the SP850 is available to purchase now, in black or white, for a price in the region of $149.99. And I’m just going to say this now, based on the level of performance this provided in our testing, and given that this is an SFX PSU coming with plenty of excellent features (and not to mention 750 watts of power output) this figure is highly impressive.

You could easily see similar figures for more ‘standard’ larger PSU designs that wouldn’t perform anywhere near well as the Lian Li SP850. Throw that all in with an impressive 5-year warranty and, overall, I consider this some excellent value for money!

Performance

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’m incredibly impressed as to how much performance Lian Li has squeezed out of this small package. Throughout all of our extensive testing, the SP850 continually provided us with results that were well in excess not of its officially stated figures, but our wildest expectations.

This isn’t just impressive for an SFX PSU, the results in our testing would be impressive for a full-sized model!

Practicality & Functionality

Lian Li SP850’s practicality undoubtedly comes down to the cabling, and in this regard, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Offering a fully modular design, this is clearly good for users as you only need to install the cables your components require. On the other hand, however, the length of the cabling is exceptionally short meaning that good levels of management within a case might be tricky. The main cable for the motherboard power connection would only be, in practical terms, about 20CM long once fitted into a system. That’s not a lot of room and does pretty much necessitate the usage of an SFX/SFF case to ensure that the cabling length isn’t going to be a problem.

It’s a small grumble, but overall I wish the cables were just a little bit longer.

With that being said though, with a PCIe Gen5 cable being offered right out of the box, the Lian Li SP850 certainly offers some solid levels of future-proofing for consumers looking to buy now and upgrade their GPU later! – The only moderate downside is that this isn’t technically PCIe Gen5 compliant as it only offers wattage output of 350-400W. Full compliancy requires up to 600W. – So, think compatible, ready, but not technically at the full-blown PCIe Gen5 standard.

Should I Buy One?

In regards to if you should buy the Lian Li SP850, the better question is are you planning on building an SFX system? – Yes, a rather obvious point, but if you’re not, then you’re clearly better off looking elsewhere. We said at the start of the review that SFX power supplies are, compared to standard models, quite limited and the clear reason for that is because MATX/mid-tower cases and builds are far more common.

For SFX builds though, the Lian Li SP850 is undoubtedly one of the best power supplies you can buy at the moment. It offers masses of excellent features, and in terms of its performance, punches massively above its weight. – Perhaps best of all, its price tag is exceptionally competitive making this not only one of the best SFX PSUs you can buy at the moment but also, by a pretty big margin, one of the best value-for-money options around!