Deepcool trusted Seasonic's trendy Focus Gold platform for the PQ-M series, which is starting to show its age, especially now that the ATX12V v3.0 is out. There is no 12+4 pin connector, so that the PQ850M won't support the upcoming GPUs, and adapters are not recommended since they don't pass through the sense signals of the 12VHPWR connectors, which will unlock the full potential of the next-generation graphics cards.
The amount of PCIe connectors might trouble some of you. Still, nowadays, there is no need to install more than two graphics cards in gaming systems, so three PCIe connectors on dedicated cables will cover 99% of usage scenarios. There are also two EPS connectors available for power-hungry CPU and mainboard combinations.
The PQ850M's overall performance is not far from most competing offerings, and it is among the quietest Gold PSUs with 850W capacity. This is not enough to dethrone the mighty Corsair RM850x, which sets the performance bar high in this category. It would help if you also kept in mind that we are in a transition phase right now, where every PSU with more than 450W capacity has to be equipped with a 12VHPWR connector to support the upcoming GPUs along with the rest changes that the ATX12V v3.0 spec requires. We expect most manufacturers to update the existing PSU models soon, so you better wait if you are not in a dead hurry for a new power supply.
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Disclaimer: Aris Mpitziopoulos is Tom's Hardware's PSU reviewer. He is also the Chief Testing Engineer of Cybenetics and developed the Cybenetics certification methodologies apart from his role on Tom's Hardware. Neither Tom's Hardware nor its parent company, Future PLC, are financially involved with Cybenetics. Aris does not perform the actual certifications for Cybenetics.